Dear Parents,
Progress Reports
Progress reports were sent home on Tuesday with all senior kindergarten to grade six students. These reports are intended to provide you with an early indication of how your child is progressing at this point in the school year. The progress report does not contain grades. A large focus for the Progress Report is the Learning Skills: Responsibility, Organization, Collaboration, Initiative, Independent Work and Self-Regulation. At Allenby, we feel that the development of these learning skills is an integral part of a student’s learning. The subject comments describe the strengths and next steps for learning relative to the student’s progress towards the achievement of the curriculum expectations.
A Parent-Teacher interview evening will take place this evening and many interviews will take place tomorrow during the PA Day. I always encourage regular, ongoing, home and school communication. I hope that parents have confirmed an interview with their child’s teacher. I am confident that by working together our school will continue to be rich learning environment for all our students.
Safety
The safety of Allenby students is integral to all of the decisions I make as principal at Allenby. I am not only concerned with the safety of students when they are in our care or on school property but also on their way to and from school. Last year I worked with the city to ensure the installation of new traffic signs at Castlefield and Avenue in an attempt to increase the safety at this busy intersection which is an essential path for many of our students. This year, it has become increasingly apparent that the signage is not working to minimize accidents with four accidents having taken place at this intersection (that I am aware of) this school year. I also having ongoing concerns with people in the community, including Allenby parents, not obeying traffic signs, with regards to parking and attempting three-point turns in and around the school making Castlefield and St. Clements dangerous for our students.
I want the Allenby community to know that I am working tirelessly to address these concerns, but I need your help. Some of the measures we are investigating or undertaking are:
- Me being present during Kiss n Ride to address parking concerns
- Expanding Kiss n Ride
- Trying to get the St. Clements side of the building gates to prevent TDSB vehicles from parking
- Our community police officer will be joining me in recent weeks during Kiss and Ride to ticket vehicles
- Grade six students will join police officers in ticketing speeders on Avenue Road (information to come)
With regards to the Castlefield and Avenue Road intersection, there will be an onsite meeting with the City Councillor, both Daycare Directors, members of the APA and the parent safety task force at the end of the month. Traffic safety will be an agenda item at the November 30th APA meeting and we will share next steps. I hope that parents can join us for this talk. In the meantime, leave your house early, walk, walk, walk (even if it means you park two blocks from school outside of the congestion and walk), be patient, drive slow and model following rules…after all your kids are watching.
Tracey O’Toole