Fern Ave. Public School Blog

Please click here for more information on the upcoming KKSA Open House on November 5th .

It has been a great year so far for sports and athletic competitions for our students at Fern P.S! A large number of our students from primary to seniors (over 180) participated in cross country, meeting individual challenges, and competing with peers. Our students did really well in the first cross country meet, as 46 of our junior and senior students made it to the next round. Our students represented us at the south finals, and both our grade seven boys and girls teams’ finished first overall. Furthermore, fourteen of our students competed in the city finals, with most completing their races in the top third. Finally, our grade seven boys team came second at the city cross country finals. Way to go Team! Congratulations to everyone participating on the Fern cross country team, and a special thanks to all the coaches involved in preparing our teams. Our sports teams also did well in soccer this fall, as both junior and senior boys’ and girls’ teams won most of their games at ...

The 1st annual Fern Gear Swap is coming up on November 30 in the gym and we need volunteers, and your stuff! All volunteers will receive lunch and first dibs on the gear! Please let us know if you can help out during any of the following times: - Friday, Nov 29th (8:00am to 8:00pm): Gear drop-off and tagging - Saturday, Nov 30th (8:00 to whenever we finish cleaning up): Help with sale of gear We will create a more detailed list of volunteer jobs closer to the date, but meanwhile, particularly if you have expertise in a particular winter sport and are knowledgable about gear, please let us know if you can help. This is our first time getting this off the ground, so if you have background in the area would really like to hear from you! Please contact Bliss at FernparentCouncil@gmail.com if you can help out in any way.

Big thanks to all the parent volunteers who came out to run the event and stay for cleanup. Also, a great big thanks to all the grade 7 and 8’s who participated: they did the lion’s share of the set-up including the tech stuff (yay Tech Club), the chairs, the decorations, the bake sale organization, and were extremely enthusiastic 50/50 sellers. We raised $1025 for Grade 8 Grad, and another approximately $1k for School Council programs! The Bake Sale raised $750, so thank you bakers, and thank you grade eights for moving the product! If you brought a container for your baked goods, they are in a box in front of the Office in the school foyer. The 50/50 draw brought in $250 for Grad (the winner donated his half back to Grad!), we made $25 from popcorn, and pretty much broke even on pizza. Speaking of popcorn and pizza, thank you everybody for your patience. We haven’t cracked the code on pizza yet: we either end up with too much and give it away, or have people lining up and w...

Pumpkins at Fern: We are pleased once again this year to receive free pumpkins for each classroom to decorate. Special thanks go out to our School Council. October 31st: Kindergarten classes will have their Halloween Parade on the morning of October 31st . All grade 1-6 students will parade outside around the school (weather permitting), and the Senior students will have an afternoon dance and other activities planned in the auditorium.

Our students have been competing around the city this fall in cross-country, soccer and football. If you had were at a game or a meet and took photos, the Senior Yearbook team would really appreciate any photos sent their way. Please email them to olga.moraleslizcano@tdsb.on.ca Thank you!

The Fern Winter Artisan Market will take place on Saturday November 30th from 10am-3pm . We will have over 20 vendors selling handmade crafts. We will also be reserving a few spots for student vendors to sell their handmade items at the market. There will be no cost to student vendors to have a table at the event but we ask that students donate some of their profits back to the school as part of this fundraising event. Each student vendor will share half of a 6 foot table. An announcement was made to the students earlier this week to let them know that they can pick up an application form from the office if they would like to reserve a spot in the market to sell their handmade items. Completed forms must be submitted to the office by Thursday November 7th. We will have 6 spots available for student vendors. If you have any questions you can email Kim Morrison at kimmymorrison39@yahoo.com

Those with younger children at Fern may not know that the grade seven and eights do what is called a "Passion Project" each year. They create a project with something they love, and it is totally self-directed. This year, one of our terrific grade eights would like to paint the stalls in the girls bathroom on the third floor! We were wondering if there are any parents out there who have paint they can donate to her? She’d like to get started painting the base on the stalls right away, so if you could let us know as soon as possible that would be great. If you can help, please email Fernaveschoolcouncil@gmail.com and we will connect you to the student. Thanks! School Council Exec

Friday night is coming fast! Come join us for The Nightmare Before Christmas, Friday,October 25 at 6:30 p.m . Plus pizza and a bake sale to support our Grade 8 Graduation! Tickets are $5, available from friendly Fern parents in the yard at morning drop-off/ afternoon pick-up, or at the door, starting at 6p.m. Please remember to bring reusable plates and cups if you have them so we can reduce our waste. We’re still looking for volunteers, so if you have some time to help us make popcorn, serve food, or help with takedown at the end of the night, please sign up below. https://signup.com/mobileweb/2.0/vspot.html?activitykey=966984765489482071#anonymous_invite_page Please email us at fernaveschoolcouncil@gmail.com if you would like to bring baked goods. You can drop them off at the office during the school day. Look forward to seeing you Friday night! School Council Exec, Arts Collective, Grad Committee

Please refer to the website for information on the upcoming Ursula Franklin Open House :https://www.ufacademy.org/overview/

It’s not too late to buy New Moon Kitchen’s Spookies for Halloween! Delicious, individually wrapped cookies, perfect to hand out for trick-or-treat. If they last that long.... Vegan, egg free, kosher, available in spelt flour, or gluten-free. Spookies are $20 for a 1kg bag (around 50 cookies). New Moon Kitchen will donate $4 dollars to Fern School Council for every bag purchased. Order by Monday, October 21 , and the cookies will be delivered to Fern Ave P.S. and distributed to classes on Friday, October 25. Order here: http://newmoonkitchen.com/product/spookies/ Please select delivery Option 4 to have your order delivered to Fern Avenue. Please, please, please include your child’s name and the class number (or teacher name) so we know where to direct your cookies. Thank you Fern, and thank you New Moon Kitchen! School Council Exec

Dear Families, As you may know, Fern Avenue Public School is a certified TDSB Gold Status Eco School. Our mission is to help our school environment and our community to be as environmentally friendly as possible. At Fern, teachers and students recycle, we reuse paper and materials when possible, we compost, and we are very aware of our environment and how it impacts how we live. A few years ago, the Eco Team worked hard to implement "Boomerang lunches" for the entire school population. We have seen the benefits in our school and we are proud of our efforts. We would like to remind and encourage families to continue with this program. A waste-free lunch/snack contains no throwaway packaging and produces no food waste. Food and drinks are placed in reusable containers and a reusable lunch bag. A boomerang lunch is a lunch that has every piece of it return to its source. In other words, everything in the lunch bag goes back home at the end of the day. No matter if it is ...

Click here for information on the upcoming Town Hall at South Parkdale Public Library, 1303 Queen St. West.

In the event your child(ren) miss the original photo day on Tuesday, October 22nd, there will be an opportunity for them to have their picture retaken on: Thursday, November 14, 2019.

Parents/Guardians of Children in Junior Kindergarten, You have a choice to make about French programming for your child. Senior Kindergarten is the ONLY time your child can begin the Early Immersion Program. Applications to the Early French Immersion program are made the year your child is in Junior Kindergarten for entry in September of Senior Kindergarten. It is an entirely online process. All communication will be sent via the email address you provide. Please check this email regularly. Please visit the application site www.tdsb.on.ca/pars during the application period: You will need your child's date of birth and OEN. The OEN is a 9-digit number found on any report card from the TDSB or please refer to the application form sent home with your child. (The OEN # is listed on the first page of the information package with your child's name) For non-TDSB students, please select the "Non-TDSB Student" option and follow the steps to generate an ident...

Eight lucky grade 8 students attended We Day on September 19, 2019 and had the opportunity to hear inspirational messages from David Suzuki, Emilio Estevez and Nav Bhatia (Super fan) among many others. Here is what the grade 8’s thought of the day: “At We Day we got to see some environmentalists, poets, DJs, dancers, actors, singers and many more people.   We Day was a very inspiring, moving and fun experience.”   Riley “With all of the people cheering and being upbeat, it was hard not to stay positive” Liam “We Day was an inspiring and fun experience.    I hope to go again.”   Brinley “I really connected to David Suzuki’s speech.   It was inspiring.   He is an amazing person.” Tara “We Day was phenomenal.” Oscar “One of the most memorable people was Nav Bhatia because the way he could handle criticism was very inspiring to youth.” Desta “We Day is a day I’ll never forget!” Ana

Save the Date for the first Fern Fun Flick of the year, our Halloween movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Friday October 25, 2019. It's a Halloween movie! It's a Christmas movie! It's a great time! Brought to you by the Fern Ave. P.S. Arts Collective. Also, we'll have pizza, a bake sale, and popcorn. Proceeds from the bake sale will go to support this year's Grade 8 Graduation!  We'll put out a call for baked goods and volunteers closer to the date.  Special shout out to the parents of our Senior students: We're hoping to see lots of Grade 7's and 8's helping out, so if you have one of those in your house, please get them to mark this in their calendar. See you October 25! School Council Exec, Arts Collective, Grad Committee

Fern's Ave School Council's Spookies fundraiser is on! Get great cookies from locally owned New Moon Kitchen, support your child's school, and hand out something delicious for trick or treat (provided they last that long.....). Order now at https://newmoonkitchen.com/product/spookies/ for delivery to school on Friday, October 25! School Council Exec

Congratulations Fern community! Together, you have contributed close to $25k to our Playground Fund in the last two weeks. We now have close to $185k to put towards our Playground! We are waiting to finalize the details of another large contribution, and will advise our final total as soon as we can. On behalf of all of us on School Council, thank you so much ! Whether you donated funds, or donated time into one of our fundraisers, we are incredibly grateful for your contribution. To be truthful, we have poured our blood, sweat and tears into the Playground Revitalization. It has been many hours of work. Sometimes it seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel was dim, but it is gratifying to see the generous response from our school community. If this note reminds you that you wanted to donate to the Playground Revitalization but haven't yet, don’t worry, we are still accepting your donations! We have given the TDSB our estimated number, but we can still accept do...

Dear Fern Ave PS Parents and Caregivers, Join your school community this Thursday October 10 from 8:15-8:45 AM as part of a province wide Walk-In to show your support for an accessible, equitable, properly funded public education system in Ontario. What's a Walk-In? Instead of walking out to show support for public education, a Walk-In is a gathering of the school community to show support for public education. Fern Ave PS will be one of hundreds of schools across Ontario participating in this action. We participated in our first Walk-In last June, and hundreds of parents and kids participated. When and Where? The Fern Ave PS community will gather in front of the school (Fern Ave side) at 8:15 a.m ., then walk to Roncesvalles and back along Wright Ave to the schoolyard to gather until 8:45 a.m. Why? Your involvement is more important than ever to support the education sector workers who are trying to get funding for schools reinstated and reverse cha...

Fortnite. TikTok. lnstagram. Selfies. Screentime. The internet is such a big part of our kids' lives. How do we help them use it in safe and positive ways? Join us for an important Family Tech Talk Date: Wednesday, October 16 Time: 7:00 - 8:00pm Place: Fern Auditorium Cost: Free Flyer can be found here .

Hello Parents, Community Members and Friends, I am sharing the attached Ward 7 Parent Concern Protocol with you. When reaching out to your School, Principal and Superintendent, this is the process we follow (Steps 1 to 4). To see active links please download PDF version As always, I want to hear from you and I can be reached by sending an email to Robin.Pilkey@tdsb.on.ca or tweet @RobinPilkey For more updates, please join the TDSB Ward 7 Council Facebook or sign up for my Newsletter . Thank you, Robin Pilkey

Dear Parents/Guardians, The cafeteria will be serving a TURKEY LUNCH this Thursday, October 9th . If your child is not part of the hot lunch program but wishes to buy a lunch that day, please have them bring along $6.00. Thank you.

Fern Avenue Public School is proud to be participating in the Terry Fox School Run on Thursday, October 10 at 1:00PM . Please join our school community and continue Terry’s legacy. Donate at: https://secure.terryfox.ca/registrant/TeamFundraisingPage.aspx?Referrer=%26Referrer%3dhttps%253a%252f%252fwww.terryfox.org%252f&TeamID=855864#&panel1-1 The Terry Fox Foundation has a great reputation with 79 cents of every dollar going directly to cancer research. Thank you for joining us in the fight against cancer!

We’re partnering with our good friend and fellow Fern Parent, Eden at New Moon Kitchen, for our annual Spookies cookies Halloween fundraiser! Raise funds for your school, buy from a locally owned business, and feel good about giving away great treats at Halloween! Spookies chocolate chip cookies are nut-free, vegan, dairy free, and egg free. Spookies are available in either spelt flour, or gluten-free. New Moon will be taking orders from Fern parents from Monday, October 7 to Monday, October 21 . New Moon will deliver to the school on Friday October 25, and we will distribute the order to your child’s class. New Moon will donate $4 from every bag sold to Fern Ave. School Council. To order your Spookies click here http://newmoonkitchen.com/product/spookies/ Let’s get Spooky. Thanks! School Council Exec

Parents of Grade 8 Students, We are excited to go to Montreal again in June for our Grade 8 grad trip. Explorica Travel, who organize the tour, is offering an information evening for families. Please join us in the auditorium on Wednesday, November 6th from 7-8 pm .

On Friday, Fern had approximately 175 students from grades one to eight participate in the TDSB Conference Cross Country meet at Ashbridges Bay. Congratulations to all of our students for their efforts and more importantly for participating in an inclusive, spirit-building extracurricular school activity. We would like to extend our special thanks to our amazing teacher coaches!

To help make an informed decision when choosing a high school, TDSB schools host information nights for parents and grade 8 students each year between October and January. Learn everything you need to know about incredible variety of school programs and courses. The dates and times for all High School Information Nights are available online at http://www.tdsb.on.ca/High-School/Going-to-High-School/Open-Houses-and-Information-Nights .

A reminder that if you are interested in temporary or permanent lunchroom supervisor positions at Fern, please contact Mme Sardella directly. You need to be available to work Monday to Friday from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm and you must have a vulnerable sector approved police check (form can be picked up in the office). Thank you!

Click here for information on the upcoming High School Transition Information Night on October 23, 2019.

Bowls and cutlery have been going missing from the Fern cafeteria. If your children brings home cutlery by accident or if bowls or cutlery are left in the classroom or daycare spaces, please returned them to the kitchen. Thanks for helping to make Fern an eco school!

On October 10, 2019 at 8:15am, parents, students and the staff of Fern PS are invited to gather in front of the school to demonstrate our support of an accessible, equitable, and top quality public education system in Ontario. At 8:30 we will walk to Roncesvalles and join the Garden Ave PS team. This event will take place regardless of what happens with the CUPE job action. We will continue around the block and end in the north school yard before the bell. Over 300 public schools across Ontario will be participating in the Walk-In demonstration. Stand up and be counted. Grand-parents, neighbours, friends, and family pets are welcome. Wear red for Ed(ucation), and bring your signs and noisemakers. We are hoping to have coffee too! Keep an eye on the blog for further information. School Council Exec

Tomorrow we are going to the Cross Country Running race at Ashbridges Bay. If you are driving your student to the race, please check in at the school first and we will let you know where we are meeting at the park. Grade one families please check in at 8:15. Grade 2 and 3s should be at school by 8:30. Please meet in the auditorium. We are asking all runners to wear a Fern t-shirt. If you do not have one, we will try to loan you one, but at the least please try to wear a green t-shirt. All runners need snacks and a lunch if they are staying at the park after their race. All runners need a water bottle. We recommend bringing a book or small games to keep occupied. The temperature tomorrow is in the low teens so please dress in layers. We are proud of all our runners and the hard work they have put in training for tomorrow. A special thank you to Ms Centeno and Mme Laura for helping at the practices. A VERY special thank you to Mme Miya for dealing with the endless pa...

Hello, parents and guardians of Grade 8 students. Welcome to Mr Reid’s Guidance Corner! https://sites.google.com/tdsb.on.ca/mr-reids-guidance-corner/home This site will be used to communicate information regarding transitions from Grade 8 to Grade 9. It will be updated regularly. If you have any questions after looking through the information, please feel free to email me. Jerome Reid jerome.reid@tdsb.on.ca

Picture Day is Coming to Fern Avenue PS on Tuesday, October 22, 2019 . Sibling Picture Day is the following day Wednesday, October 23, 2019 . What to Expect: 1. Students are photographed on Picture Day 2. Images sent home with your child 3. Review pictures and purchase Bring your smiles!

Football tryouts will be held in the school gym this morning due to inclement weather. Thank you, Madame Kertesz

Feeling a little disconnected from your child's school? Now that you don't do drop-off or pick-up, are you out of the loop? Whether your child grew up at Fern or just arrived in grade 7, chances are you’re not hanging around the playground chatting. Some of you have already put in years of school council involvement at Fern or elsewhere, and maybe you have children in more than one school now so you’re less likely to be involved. We get it. However, we still want you know what’s going on, and there are particular ways that we need the help of the parents/caregivers of those on the third floor. The first step is to help us communicate with you more easily . One of the ways we communicate with you is through School Council Class Lists (not the same as the teacher's class list). School Council creates an email distribution list of parents in each class, and a parent/caregiver from each class volunteers to be the School Council Class Rep. This Rep will manage the clas...

Dear Parents/Guardians, The grade 7 students are expected to return from Camp Olympia today between 3:30 and 4:00pm. Please meet your child on Wright Avenue. If time changes please refer to blog for further updates. Thank you, Vera

Click here for an updated list organized by Learning Centre for the 2019-20 Secondary School Information Nights. The majority of Grade 8 students will be interested in LC4 found on page 4.

Hello, parents and guardians of Grade 8 students. The 2019-2020 Secondary School information evenings have been posted to the TDSB public site. As well, Information Evenings for Elementary Alternative and Specialized Schools have been posted. https://www.tdsb.on.ca/OpenHouse There is an updated list organized by Learning Centre for you to reference in a separate post. The majority of Grade 8 students will be interested in LC4 found on page 4. Please let me know if you have any questions. Mr. Reid

Hello, parents and guardians of Grade 8 students! My name is Mr Reid, I am the acting Guidance Counsellor for 8 TDSB schools and will be supporting Ms Biggs-Martin while she is on leave. I am an active father of two girls aged 9 and 11. It is because of my children that I decided to change my profession in 2015 and become a Second Career Teacher. In my previous career, I was a CRA Tax Auditor for 24 years and spent 1 year as a Toronto Police Constable Candidate. https://news.westernu.ca/2017/06/grad-perseveres-toward-hard-won-second-career/ My main career is with the TDSB as a Guidance and Co-operative Education Teacher. My other employment is with Humber College as a part-time Professor where I teach 1st-year college courses that help students define their educational and career goals and determine the steps needed to reach those goals. I am a lifelong learner and have earned multiple degrees. I am currently in the final year of completing a Master of Education degree and...

On Thursday, October 10th , the entire school will gather in the yard at 1 pm to kick off our Terry Fox Run. After a brief assembly, Grades 4-8 will head to Sorauren Park for their run, while the younger grades will use the school's track. We need at least 10 volunteers for Sorauren Park, and 5 for the school yard. Please contact katrina.hall@tdsb.on.ca if you can help from 1-2 pm. Of course, we also need to raise funds. We are asking for online donations again, to support vital cancer research and to honour Terry Fox's courage and perseverance. Please go to the link below to donate. https://secure.terryfox.ca/registrant/TeamFundraisingPage.aspx?Referrer=%26Referrer%3dhttps%253a%252f%252fwww.terryfox.org%252f&TeamID=855864#&panel1-2 then check the large poster in the front hall to see how we're doing! Many thanks for your support!