Fern Ave. Public School Blog

And so here we are, the last day of the school year. The classroom parties are over and a few tearful goodbyes have been exchanged.  Leftover snacks and treats are in the fridge, report cards and various school projects are scattered across the kitchen table and a few extra bodies are sprawled on the living room floor watching soccer— let summer begin ! It has been an action packed year and I want to take a moment and thank the School Advisory Council, teachers and parent volunteers who have dedicated their time and talents to enrich our school community at Fern.    A personal thank you to the incredible SAC Executive and team leads : Lori Lyn Adams—Treasurer,  Jacqueline MacDonald—Secretary,  Jamie Cuthbert—Fundraising, Taya Kozak-Goebel—Arts, Kathryn Maxfield and Joanne Somers—Eco Team, Roy Schulze—Communications,  Michelle Braakman—Food Committee, Liz Leason—Spring Fling and Fun Fair Lead, Katrina Herrndorf—Graphics, and Alysa Hawkins—Robotics Club. Together, we learned a lot and ma

Inspired from the values of friendly competition and personal best achievements in athletics, our students participated enthusiastically in our track and field program at school. From our practices and track and field days at Fern Avenue PS, to the West Conference for track and field, our students participated energetically, had a lot of fun, and achieved many personal and interschool records. We were also very successful as a school in the track and field competitions. Out of the 65 junior and senior students that participated at the West Conference track and field meet, 45 made it to the finals. At the West Conference Finals, the level of competition was very high as our students were up against the top athletes of their age group for their event. Again at this stage many of our students did well placing top eight in their event, and five of our students took top 3 medals and made it to the Toronto City Finals that was held on June 12th at Birchmount Stadium. Our student-athlete

For the past few years, Toronto Parks and Rec has been running GIRLS' ACTIVITY DAY CAMPS THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER at the Sorauren Park Fieldhouse. They are great and inexpensive, because they are subsidized. This year, they do not have enough girls enrolled in the programs and they are in danger of getting cancelled . Are you interested? Camps include a day trip to the BLUE JAYS home games. You can't beat the price, and having the girls outdoors running around and playing sports, then indoors doing art, is perfect. Age group: 9-13 (or with a sibling age 7) July dates, activities and weekly prices are below: July 03 Volleyball Camp $44 July 09 Baseball Camp $56 July 16 Soccer Camp $56 July 23 Basketball Camp There are also camps scheduled in August. Please see page 54 of the City of Toronto SUMMER CAMP - FUN GUIDE or contact Deborah Sullivan from Parks and Recreation at 416-392-5144.

Dearest Parents, Guardians, Colleagues and Friends, It’s been said that “A friend in need, is a friend indeed.” No words could better describe what my Fern community has done for me in these last few months.   I would like to convey my sincere thanks to each and every one of you for your thoughtfulness, your emails, your overwhelming support, love and appreciation of my work and of me as a person. Your generosity overwhelmed me each and every day; I choked back tears as I read your letters of support. It was so kind of you to speak so favourably of me, it was just what I needed at a time like this but never expected!   Words could never convey my gratitude for your vocal support, Fern in my heart is not only my place of employment it is a place I love to come to each and every day, a place where I have watched kids grow, where some of those kids now have children of their own, a place where I formed   not only secretary/parent/colleague   relationships but forever lasting friendships.

If you haven't already signed up for Maggie’s yummy and nutritious lunches in September, you can still do so.       Click here NOW to download the order form Just follow the simple instructions on the order form, and you can forget about finding your child’s lunchbox in the back-to-school chaos of the Labour Day weekend.       Drop off your order by Monday, June 25 The Food Committee would like to thank the Fern community for supporting the lunch program and wishes everyone a happy, fun, and safe summer.

A big thank you to all who responded to the Communications Committee survey sent out earlier this year. We had great feedback with over 200 replies! For a summary of the Parent | Guardian Survey, please click here . Click here for a summary of the Staff Survey. A summary outlining the main areas of concern | interest from respondents can be found here . There were a fair number of questions asked by respondents. A list of Q+A's are outlined below.

The Fern pool will be closed as of Friday June 22 nd for maintenance. The pool will be drained and inspections will be done, therefore the aquatics program will stop for the remainder of this school year.

The School Advisory Committee will be meeting tomorrow evening at 6:30 pm in Room 216 to finalize funding requests for next year.  Please join us as we celebrate a fabulous year at Fern!

Hello Fern Bakers & Volunteers: The Fun Fair Bake Sale was a tremendous success!   The Fern community certainly knows how to get their Sweet On!   The Bake Sale raised $1,400.00.   All proceeds from the sale will benefit Fern Parent Council future initiatives. We were delighted to meet many new Fern families and to be reacquainted with our faithful bakers and volunteers.   The incredibly vast array of baking and the enormous wealth of talent among our Fern community is astounding and was definitely appreciated by all who visited the sale.   Thank you to all who baked and also to those who joined us behind the Bake Sale table as volunteers.   Unclaimed serving dishes and utensils are located in the Nurse's Station; beside the school office for your pick-up.   Please pick them up as soon as possible . Our sincere thanks again and have a great summer! Karen Mondok, Pamela Wilson, Mimi Shea & Mimi Chiu Your Fern Fun Fair Bake Sale Team

Don’t miss out on a hot and yummy lunch the first day of school in September! Since October, approximately 19,000 delicious and nutritious lunches were served to Fern students with rave reviews. Thanks to strong support from the Fern community the hot-lunch program will continue in the next school year. There will be some small changes made to the current ordering system; click here  for all the details. If you’d like to sign up now for 2012-2013 lunches, click here  for the order form. The deadline is Monday, June 25 for lunches starting September 4. If you have any questions about the lunch program, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions under the Lunch Program page or contact Tracy Kett at tracykett@rogers.com or (416) 535-0205. The Food Committee extends many thanks to the Fern community for their support and participation in the lunch program. If you would like to volunteer and get involved with the lunch program, please contact carole.angus@rogers.com . Thank

The Fern Family Tree is finally up on the east fence of the school and it looks amazing! There are so many people that worked hard to make this the spectacular piece that it is. Thank you to everyone who put in time and creativity to make this project happen. This project started with an idea of bringing the Fern school community together. We wanted to show the students that our school is an extension of their families - a place they belong to where they can feel safe and supported, and that this idea also extends to the greater community we live in. We also wanted to continue our efforts in bringing visual art to Fern. We couldn't think of a better way than a 14-foot tall tree with 80 leaves, surrounded by 110 bugs! We hope that the Fern Family Tree will inspire people to be creative, to volunteer their time to our school, to bring more art to Fern and most importantly, we hope it will show people that, together, we can make amazing things happen!

"Thank you to all the parents and volunteers that made the Staff Appreciation luncheon so successful.  The food was wonderful and everyone had a lovely time.”  -   Evangeline (event organizer)         *    *    *    * I would like to send a note of thanks on behalf of the staff at Fern Avenue Jr/Sr PS, for the wonderful and generous Staff Appreciation Luncheon that was organized for us yesterday. The food was delicious and the sentiment of appreciation was felt very deeply by all of the school staff.  The atmosphere was one of mutual admiration, between the school and community.  I would like to first acknowledge the parents who contributed to the buffet who could not remain with us.  I know that a great deal of time and care was taken in cooking the food.  All the contributors’ names were listed at the event. Further, there were five parents who were able to stay and attend, making sure the event was lovely and memorable.  Special thanks to Ms. Adams, Ms. Mondok, Ms. Som

FERN AVENUE PUBLIC SCHOOL STAFF APPRECIATION LUNCHEON THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2012 IF YOU ARE ABLE TO CONTRIBUTE YOUR FAVOURITE DISH AND/OR HELP WITH SET-UP OR CLEAN-UP PLEASE CONTACT EVANGELINE ADAMS (416) 532-2000 OR Evangeline.adams@hotmail.com

Inspired from the values of friendly competition and personal best achievements in athletics, our students participated enthusiastically in our track and field program at school. From our practices and track and field days at Fern Avenue PS, to the West Conference for track and field, our students participated energetically, had a lot of fun, and achieved many personal and inter-school records. We were also very successful as a school in the track and field competitions. Out of the 65 junior and senior Fern students that participated at the West Conference Track and Field Meet, 45 made it to the finals. At the West Conference Finals the level of competition was very high as our students were up against the top athletes of their age group for their event. Again at this stage, many of our students did well placing top eight in their event, and five of our students took top 3 medals and made it to the TDSB City Finals that will be held on Tuesday, June 12 at Birchmount Stadium. Our

Dear Parents/Guardians: Please bear with us as our telephones are temporarily out of order. I have dispatched a technician who will be working on them very shortly. We apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you. Vera

The Reading Hall of Fame has closed for another year. Between September and May, 233 students from Grade 1 to 8 brought in reading logs and became members (a new record) and read 18,000 picture storybooks and 3770 novels, for a grand total of 21,770 books read - another record! Cathy, in Grade 7, has read 230 novels since September. Thirteen staff members, parents, former students and Fern community members sent in reading logs and joined the Get Caught Reading Honour Roll. Four Primary classes all became members of the Reading Hall of Fame, and celebrated their achievement with pizza, cupcakes and apple juice. Students, parents, staff, community members, be sure to keep a reading log over the summer and hand it into Ms. Douglas by September 7th!