Welcome to the 2011-12 school year at ISD, and I hope you had a relaxing and stimulating vacation. This is a time to reconnect with old friends and make new friends, and teachers have been busy for the last week preparing classrooms and supplies to be ready for a new beginning.

 

Throughout the year, we will make a special effort to keep in touch with you, and keep you informed of your child’s progress. I truly I hope you will also take part in your child’s education, as your involvement and interest in their schooling is paramount to building the solid learning foundations for future life in and out of school. An area that is especially important to children Pre-K 3 to Grade 5 is reading. Research shows that reading aloud to young children is the single most effective thing parents can do to help prepare their children to succeed in school, so if I have one request for you it is that you find some time to read to your child; as Emilie Buchwald says: “Children are made readers on the laps of their parents”.

 

At school, we will continue to be busy in all areas of our studies in the homerooms or specials classes, and we never forget our CORE values of Creativity, Open-mindedness, Responsibility and Excellence. We have so many new things to learn and experience together and I know the children will have a challenging and fulfilling time in the Elementary School. I also would like to remind you that our students line up on the field at 8:25am before school and must be picked up by a parent or known adult carer at 3:20 in the afternoon; ES children cannot be on campus after 3:20 unsupervised by an adult.

 

We also welcome some new faculty to the Elementary School. We are joined by teachers Christy Kinkhabwala in Grade 2 and Tracy Hill in Grade 5. We also have new Teaching Assistants with Primrose Thompson joining Kindergarten and Julia Hoyle in Grade 4. Our new specials teachers are Tony Watters and Megan Carpenter who will be with Gr 4 & 5 Music and Art respectively with Christine Boccacini and Emilie Hingrez joining the French department.

 

The teachers are excited to introduce you to your new classes, and hearing your summer stories and memories, so on behalf of the entire staff we wish you a happy, healthy and productive new school year.

 

Regards,

 

Ian Clark

Elementary Principal