Fern Avenue Public School

Hello Fern Families,

We know that this school year will be different, so to help ease your worry and anxiety we have prepared the following guidelines to help you visualize what a typical school day will look like. We look forward to welcoming back our students whether they are attending in person or participating in online learning.

Staggered Entry:
Staggered entry means that different cohorts enter the school in a pre-planned order. This does not mean that our school start and end times (bell times) change. Bell times will remain the same: 9:15-3:45 pm for Grades 1-5, 9:15-3:35 for grades 6,7,8, and 9:15- 3:30 pm for all Kindergartens (JK/SK). This will give staff additional time to prepare the school and classrooms for your child's return and give students time to learn and practice new Health and Safety measures in smaller groups.

Staggered entry pre-planned order for September 15, 16 and 17 only:

Sept. 15th - all SK, Grade 4 and Grade 8 students come to school (this includes …

Hello Fern Families,

As you may be aware, this school year we will not be able to have a hot lunch program in our wonderful cafeteria. I have been in contact with the TDSB Nutrition Services and they have offered FERN a bagged lunch option for all grade 1 to 8 students.

The Kindergarten students will continue to receive their hot lunch and snack program in their classes as in previous years.

Ferncliff Daycare will continue to receive their hot lunch program for their pre-school children. A reminder that Ferncliff Daycare school aged children will receive their bagged lunch option as part of their program fees.

Please see attached bagged lunch options for our school aged students at a cost of $5.00. Each bagged lunch will be in a paper bag, labelled with the student name, room number and will be delivered to the classrooms.

Please note that the lunch and snack program will be via cash on line only, more details will follow.

Bagged lunch options can be found by clicking here.

Yours i…

Hello Fern Families,

We know that returning to school is challenging for everyone. Feeling anxious is normal, and we show it in many different ways. Please see below resources from the TDSB website for your convenience.

Resources for Preparing for Back to School:
Returning to school after so many months away may be a challenging and scary experience. To help get all students and families ready for September, we have put together some resources to help with the transition.

Mental Health and Well-Being Videos

Learning opportunities for Parents and Caregivers developed by the TDSB Professional Support Services Team:


Ways to Help your Children Cope with Worry (4 videos)
Tips and Tricks for Parents & Caregivers to Help Children Return to School (5 videos)
Help for Families of Children with Special Needs (7 videos)
Helping your child develop language to understand and express their feelings and emotions (3 videos)
Using Visuals to Help your Child Communicate More Effectively (5 videos)
Be W…

This coming week students and parents will enter Fern PS at their specific times to pick up student items. Thank you Ms. McGovern for all your hard work in scheduling this event.

So many memories as we packed it all up! We miss seeing your smiling faces in person. We miss the June special events and celebrations of learning. Without the celebratory tone of finishing the year it was very somber. It's been a challenging year with all the different challenges, strikes, a pandemic and online remote learning, but our students, families and staff rose to the occasion and I am very proud of you all!

Who would have guessed that the 2019-2020 school year would experience such things as school closure, being taught remotely and the main way we would be interacting is through virtual platforms and messaging apps?

With the end of school being "virtually" around the corner, we have been thinking about how to celebrate the accomplishments and hard work of our Gr.8 Graduates. We will be hosting a virtual graduation ceremony on June 24th at 9am. This is a pre-recorded ceremony that will be shared with the Grade 8 students by their teachers and we will also share this with all the parents/families. We will be highlighting our Valedictorian, Principal Award, Citizenship Award, Athletic Award, Music Award, Visual Arts Award and Drama Award. We will be also highlighting our students achievements in academics and learning skills. We will be mailing out student graduation certificates and any awards. Unfortunately, we will not be able to have a parade as we had hoped, due to the…

Fern’s parent-run Equity and Inclusion Committee stands in solidarity with Black and Indigenous community members and those fighting for Black and Indigenous lives across Turtle Island and in our communities.

We mourn for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and for Regis Korchinski-Pacquet, the 29-year old Black woman who died in police presence in our own riding of Parkdale-High Park. We commit to moving our sadness and anger into action.

We stand in solidarity with those rising up against anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism and the legacies of slavery and colonialism. We support the Movement for Black Lives week of action happening now.

As we enter Indigenous History Month, we stand with Indigenous students and the Indigenous community and support efforts to end anti-indigenous and anti-Black racism and strengthen equity and justice for Indigenous and Black communities.

When school resumes, the work of our parent-run Equity and Inclusion Committee will continue, includi…

Thank you to the many people that have completed this form. I neglected to put a date to be completed by, so I am re-sending.

I would like to compose a schedule by this Wednesday afternoon. So, if you plan on collecting items from Fern Ave. P.S., please complete this form by Wednesday, June 3rd at noon, so I may develop a schedule.

I will send a detailed email on Thursday morning with the schedule starting Monday, June 8th. Due to TDSB protocol, we are not allowed to start the process prior to June 8th.

If you are planning to come to the school, please double click the link and provide the information. (If you have already done this, you do not need to do again)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYg_z8jDY2FNaTjeS3Zr6BG_6aAJy4oWo349vwepjSXqNtyQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thanks kindly,
Tricia McGovern
Vice-Principal

To the parents and caregivers of the Fern community,

Please take a moment to read through the 2nd version of the attached newsletter, Hearts & Minds, which is being shared by the TDSB’s Psychological Services department.

If you missed Issue One, they can be found on the TDSB Psychological Services website, along with some information about the Psychology department. https://www.tdsb.on.ca/About-Us/Professional-Support-Services/Psychological-Services

Hearts Minds June 1 2020-2.pdf

Tricia McGovern
Vice-Principal

Regarding the information from last week, please complete the embedded Google Form so we can develop a schedule for access to the school.

Ideally, a parent/guardian comes in for Kindergarten to Grade 6; the grade 7 or 8 student comes in to gain access to their locker.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYg_z8jDY2FNaTjeS3Zr6BG_6aAJy4oWo349vwepjSXqNtyQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Please also review the Guidelines for Students and Parents for Belonging Retrieval.

Thank you,

Tricia McGovern
Vice-Principal

PA Days: As you are aware, the Ministry of Education made amendments to the school year calendars for 2019-2020. Specifically, all remaining school days including those days that were previously approved as PA Days (June 5th and June 26th ) are to be used for instruction.

Report Cards: The distribution of final report cards will look a little different this year. Since it is not possible to distribute hard copies in school, report cards will be electronically distributed via email. JK to Grade 8 will be emailed the week of June 22 to June 26th.

Yours in partnership,
R. Sardella
Principal / Directrice

Dear Parents/Families,

With the news that schools will remain closed for the rest of the 2019-2020 school year, we are now focusing on how students can retrieve their belongings from schools and return any outstanding items that belong to the school (e.g. text books, library books, sports uniforms, instruments etc.).

We have established a process, using TDSB guidelines approved by Toronto Public Health, for students and parents/families to come into the school, should you wish to do so, to collect anything left behind and as well as to return any outstanding items. Technology devices that belong to the TDSB should not be returned at this time.

Our process will follow all physical distancing requirements, which means that it will take some time for everyone to have the opportunity to come in. I want to stress that we are being as responsible as possible in how move through this process and that the number of people who can be in our school at a given time is well below what is recomme…

Fern families, please be advised that access protocol to retrieve your child's items from the school will be happening soon. Stay tuned!

Virtual graduation is being planned, as well as year book being finalized. Details to follow.

Library refresh project starting at the school this week.

Yours in partnership,
R. Sardella
Principal/Directrice

Please join us for our first ever virtual School Council Meeting this Wednesday!

As this meeting is through the TDSB, we need to know in advance who is attending. So, please RSVP to fernaveschoolcouncil@gmail.com by 3pm Wednesday May 27 so we can send you the sign-in details.

If you have any questions or specific items you'd like addressed, please let us know by 3pm May 27th as well so we can add them to the agenda.

Best,
School Council Exec

We are pleased to announce that we will be moving forward with summer programming for students. Karen Kain School of the Arts is hosting their FREE Leadership Arts Academy during the month of July. The program is funded through our Continuing Education Department and is free of charge. Spaces are available for students completing Grade 3 – 8 in June 2020.

This year Karen Kain School of the Arts will host our Leadership Summer Academy as an online program. If it is deemed safe for students and staff we may have a hybrid option available at John English Jr Middle School.

For the first time we will offer either an English or French Immersion option. You will be asked to specify which program when registering your child.

For complete details please see the KKSA Summer Leadership Arts Academy Flyer

and KKSA Summer Program Q & A. You can register online at the following link:

KKSA SUMMER LEADERSHIP ARTS ACADEMY REGISTRATION

Applications are now open. Register early to ensure your c…