For the past two years, St. Andrew’s has been unable to offer a grade 9 gifted program. The simple reason, there wasn’t enough students to qualify for a staff member. In 2012-2013, the required number of gifted students in order to qualify for a teacher and run a program has increased substantially. We have been told by the special education department that we will not be runnning a grade 9 gifted program at St. Andrew’s in 2012-2013. We know that there has been some interest demonstrated by parents for next year, but unfortunately, it will not be offered at St. Andrew’s. If you have any further questions, plese feel free to contact Mr. Howard or Ms. Drape.
MINUTES – PARENT COUNCIL MEETING
January 29, 2012 — parentcPlease see the attached documents which outline the minutes, updated finances and approved teacher wish list from the Parent Council Meeting on January 16th 2012.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW (GIFTED PROGRAM)
January 23, 2012 — ahoward29Each year special education placements are reviewed for all exceptional students. This review includes a discussion of the student’s exceptionality and placement.
For Grade 7 Students: In most cases no changes in exceptionality or placement will be recommended for the following school year for our grade 7 Gifted Program students. In these situations, the school and parents may choose to waive the annual review. The School Support Team (SST) at St. Andrew’s Junior High School has recommended that the annual review for all grade 7 students currently in the Gifted Program be waived at this time. This would mean that your son/daughter’s exceptionality and placement, as stated above, are maintained for the upcoming, 2012-2013, school year. A form requesting your signature was sent home with the Interim Report Card in November. An additional copy was sent home last week for students who had not yet returned a signed form. Please note that the receipt of this signed ‘Parent Option to Waive’ form is what is used by the TDSB to generate the class placement into our grade 8 Gifted Program for the 2012-2013 school year.
For Grade 8 Students: Since grade eight is the end of the elementary years and your son/daughter is transitioning into his/her secondary education, an IPRC Annual Review is required. (i.e., the Annual Review Meeting can not be waived) The Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) conducting this review will consider the current placement and identification as well as the progress. A letter was sent home in November asking if you would be able to attend the scheduled meeting on December 13, 2011. Every grade 8 student currently in the Gifted Program has to have a parent sign the Decision Sheet from this meeting. If you were able to attend on December 13th, you signed the Decision Sheet at the meeting and it is already being processed. Thank you to those parents who dropped into the school this week to sign the form. Please note that the receipt of this signed ‘IPRC Annual Review Decision Sheet’ is what is used by the TDSB to generate the class placement for the next school year. No offer will be made for a placement in a grade 9 Gifted Program without receipt of this signed sheet (original signatures only accepted) by the deadline. (N.B. Once the Co-Ordinator in charge of the Gifted placements has received the Decision Sheet, an “Offer of Placement” at a specific school will be sent to the school and given to your child. This will occur in the first half of February. It is at this point that you are asked to make the final choice as to whether you wish to accept the placement in the Gifted Program in grade 9, or you wish to go to an Optional Attendance school you applied to (if you receive a letter of acceptance), or you wish to go to your home school.)
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the homeroom teacher or me at 416-395-3090.
Sincerely,
Mrs. D. Drape, Vice-Principal
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR IPRC’D STUDENTS (REGULAR & HSP PROGRAM)
January 23, 2012 — ahoward29Each year special education placements are reviewed for all exceptional students. (e.g., LD, Gifted (regular class), MID, DD, etc.)This review includes a discussion of the student’s exceptionality and placement.
For Grade 7 Students: In most cases no changes in exceptionality or placement will be recommended for the following school year for our grade 7 students. In these situations, the school and parents may choose to waive the annual review. The School Support Team (SST) at St. Andrew’s Junior High School has recommended that the annual review for all grade 7 students currently in the Home School Program (HSP) or in regular class be waived at this time. This would mean that your son/daughter’s exceptionality and placement, as stated above, are maintained for the upcoming, 2012-2013, school year. A form requesting your signature was sent home in November. An additional copy was sent home recently for students who had not yet returned a signed form. Please note that it is very important that every IPRC’d child have either a signed ‘Parent Option to Waive’ form or the parent chooses to attend the IPRC meeting to show that this mandated review was done for the 2011-2012 school year. In the case of students in HSP, this signed ‘Parent Option to Waive’ form is what is used by the TDSB to generate the class placement into our HSP Program for the 2012-2013 school year.
For Grade 8& 9 Students: For grade eight students this marks the end of the elementary years and your son/daughter is transitioning into his/her secondary education, an IPRC Annual Review is required. (i.e., the Annual Review Meeting can not be waived) For grade nine students, your are transitioning out of one school and into another and therefore an IPRC Annual Review is required. The Identification, Placement and Review Committee (IPRC) conducting this review will consider the current placement and identification as well as the progress. A letter was sent home in December asking if you would be able to attend the scheduled meeting. Unfortunately, we rushed to get this information out to you only to be told shortly thereafter that the turnaround time was too short considering the placement of the break. (I apologize to those who received inaccurate data on the form that was sent home for your child at that time.) Every grade 8 & 9 student should have received a brown IPRC envelope to take home this week, inviting parents to the IPRC Annual Review meeting scheduled for January 26th. Once this school letter has been returned to me in the office, if you wish to and are able to attend the meeting, an IPRC invitation will be sent home with the specific time for your child. (Meetings will be no more than 10-15 minutes in length.) If you did not receive this very important envelope or you wish to contact me directly to make sure that the information is received in a timely fashion, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at deborah.drape@tdsb.on.ca or by phone at 416-395-3090.
Sincerely,
Mrs. D. Drape, Vice-Principal
GRADE 9 QUEBEC TRIP UPDATE
January 20, 2012 — ahoward29Can you believe that our grade nine year-end trip to Quebec is just a short 3 months away? It’s so exciting! It’s not too late to hand in forms and join the fun! We would like every student in grade nine who is interested to take part in this fabulous experience with their classmates. If your child would like to be involved and there is some reason why you have not put in their forms yet, please feel free to contact the school and speak with Mr Howard or Mrs. Drape, confidentially. If there is something that we can do to assist you, we would be more than willing to do so.
Please note that the third payment of $75.00 is now due(January 25th). Thank you to the many parents who have provided post-dated cheques. This is your reminder that it will be cashed in the near future.
For those who may wish to pay online using a credit card, please find the information below. Each student who has turned in forms to-date has been registered online as a participant and I’ve been told that parents should be able to go online, find their child, and pay the remainder by credit card (if they choose to). (Note that the initial deposit of $100.00 is key to ensure a spot on the trip. However, the remaining $450.00 can be paid as outlined in the information package or in any other break down that works for you as long as all monies are paid by the March 28th deadline.)
Below are the website and the code for St. Andrew’s JHS Quebec Trip.
Thank you,
D. Drape
YORK MILLS AFTER 9 INFO NIGHT
January 19, 2012 — ahoward29York Mills Collegiate, the main feeder school for our grade 9 graduates will be hosting an “After 9 Night” on February 9th. They will be having a special session for parents of ESL students prior to the plenary session. The evening begins at 6:00 p.m. with the plenary session for all at 7:00 p.m. A flyer will be distributed early next week that will provide more information. We will attempt to also receive an electronic copy from York Mills that we can put on the school blog.
myBlueprint
January 18, 2012 — ahoward29During the after 8/9 information evening back in December, students and families were introduced, briefly, to an outstanding resource entitled, myBlueprint. In the next few weeks, staff and students at St. Andrew’s will continue to be educated on this terrific document.
My Blueprint can be used to:
Set short and long term goals and plan for the future
Plan courses for secondary school
Discover what post-secondary programs are available to you based on your secondary school choices
Explore what secondary school choices and programs are out there
Explore various careers and job opportunities and find out what kind of training is required for each and what kind of money you can make
On January 26, 2012, a session will be held at York Mills Collegiate from 1:00 – 3:00 for teachers, administrators, a few parent representatives from each school in our family. So, we are looking to have anywhere from 3-5 parents join us for the afternoon. If you are interested, please contact our parent council chair, Lisa Slan. Unfortunately, we will only be able to take the first 3-5 parents that express an interest to Lisa. She can be reached at lkslan@rogers.com.
SAVE THE POOLS
January 16, 2012 — ahoward29Hi everyone,
Please take a few minutes to consider signing an online petition to support the Let’s Make Waves campaign called MAKE A SPLASH to encourage our Councillors and Mayor to KEEP THE POOLS OPEN in Toronto (www.letsmakewaves.ca). Don’t forget to watch the Videos and LIKE them!
You can also visit our FACEBOOK page and LIKE us there too; as well as TWITTER @LMWavesTO; then SHARE with others 
Finally and maybe the most impressive show of commitment would be to attend the City-Wide Rally at City Hall on Tues Jan 17th @9am and demonstrate to the Councillors and the Mayor that keeping our pools open is a commitment to the health and well-being of Toronto residents.
PARENT COUNCIL MEETING – MONDAY JANUARY 16TH
January 12, 2012 — parentc
Please join us in the library on Monday January 16th at 7:00pm for the first Parent Council Meeting of 2012. Please see the attachment for the evening’s agenda.
