February 2024 Letter to Families
Friday, Feb. 2, 2024
Dear Parents and Guardians,
The monthly Letter to Families, distributed on the first Friday of the month, is intended to keep you apprised of news that affects all students and families of Near North District School Board (NNDSB).
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Today is a PA Day. Here’s a link that outlines what school-based staff will be doing today.
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The Ministry of Education is shining a light on student mental health and has provided this information sheet supporting the new mental health modules being taught in Grades 7 and 8.
The resource is called Exploring Mental Health Together and outlines what students will be learning, signs of mental health problems, stigma related to mental health, how to manage stress, where to go for help and how to continue the conversation at home.
Although the resource is designed specifically to align with the Grade 7 and 8 health and physical education curriculum, the information may be of interest to all families.
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The Director’s Annual Report, which outlines highlights of the 2022-2023 school year, is now published on the NNDSB website.
The report outlines the progress made in meeting NNDSB’s multi-year strategic plan (MYSP) priorities of excellence in teaching and learning, excellence in communication, excellence and relationships and excellence in innovation.
Among the highlights are:
- the implementation of literacy and math diagnostics and literacy screeners to better understand student strengths and needs;
- the launch of tutoring supports to ensure success in literacy and math;
- the launch of the Hockey Skills Canada program in Parry Sound;
- the expansion of the personal support worker program to Mattawa;
- the launch of a custodial services worker program.
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Would you like to recognize an amazing teacher?
Sponsored by the Ontario Teacher Insurance Plan (OTIP) and the Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF), the OTIP Teaching Awards recognize teachers in three categories – elementary school teacher, secondary school teacher and beginning teacher in the first five years of teaching.
The awards recognize excellence of teachers in publicly funded education, and a teacher may be nominated by anyone – a colleague, student, families or the public.
The deadline for receipt of nomination is March 31, 2024. More information can be found at this link.
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There is a new Near North student well-being newsletter that will be created and published monthly.
Families can find the newsletter at this link as well as in the Edsby news feed.
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The next meeting of the Board will be Tuesday, Feb. 13 at 6:30 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and you are welcome to attend in person or join via Zoom. Here is the link to the meeting. The Meeting ID is 899 1167 8742; the Passcode is 859936 and the number for Dial in is 1-855-703-8985.
If attending in person, please confirm attendance by contacting Maureen Egan at 705-472-8170 ext. 5028 or maureen.egan@nearnorthschools.ca.
Information about the Board, committees and their meetings can be found here.
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In addition to staying informed via the board’s website, families can find NNDSB on Facebook and Instagram.
Sincerely,
Near North District School Board
