Woodlands School Council

Hello and seasons greetings to everyone!

The Woodlands Council is excited to announce our new partnership with the Erindale Secondary School Community Council. Over the coming months our councils will be sharing best practices and strategies for enhancing communication and involvement of parents with our schools.

The immediate impact of this partnership is an increase in the number and frequency of evening seminars that we are able to present. There are two upcoming seminars that I wish to draw your attention to:

1. On January 6th, Erindale will host a presentation by Peel Regional Police on Bullying and Cyberbullying. The prevalence of Facebook, MySpace, and instant messaging pose new risks to teens that parents should understand and watch for. All Woodlands parents are welcome at this presentation. Due to the content that will be shown, no-one under age 18 will be admitted.

2. On January 8th, a presentation on Preparing for the Transition to College and University will take place at The Woodlands. We will be reciprocating Erindale's hospitality by inviting their parents to join us at this event. Both students and parents are encouraged to attend.

The links above will take you to our website, where you can see more details of these events and register to attend. There is no charge for these presentations.

Finally, The Woodlands held its annual Orientation Evening for grade 8 students and their parents last week. One of the many positive outcomes was the addition of approximately fifty new parents to this mailing list. Welcome to our school community! Please do contact the School Council if you have questions or items that we can assist with.

Have you ever considered "hiring" a co-operative education student for your business? Would your child consider participating in a co-operative education program? Co-op students are enthusiastic, hard workers and can make a great impact on a workplace, at no cost to the employer. That's right - they don't get paid, but earn high school credits, valuable experience, and make contacts in the workplace that will assist them upon graduation.

The Woodlands co-operative education program is seeking businesses that can offer placements to our high school students. Placements are flexible, and can run part time, full time, during the school year or through the summer. Any workplace is suitable - students are seeking placements in retail, service industries, trades and apprenticeships, office work, nursing and healthcare,  research labs... you name it.

If you're interested in learning more, take a look at  http://www.peelschools.org/student/learning/co-op.htm or contact Janice Farrow at the Woodlands School: 905-279-0575 x310

November 24 Parent Council Meeting agenda

The agenda for this Monday's Parent Council meeting has now been published. The meeting will take place at 7:30 in the school office and all parents are welcome to attend.

Drug and Alcohol Awareness Seminar

Don't forget the upcoming Drugs and Alcohol Awareness Seminar! This free event for both parents and students promises to be an exciting and eye-opening evening with interactive displays and discussions in a relaxed, informal setting. In another first for the council, we will be welcoming parents and students from the Woodlands feeder schools and from our neighbouring high school, Erindale Secondary at this event. If you haven't already, be sure to check out the seminar details on our website, then mark your calendar for Thursday, November 27th.

Theatre Shorts

In other news, the Drama department will be presenting their annual Theatre Shorts review on November 28th and 29th at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are now available in the cafeteria.  Tickets are $5.00 for one night or $8.00 for two nights.  Don't miss out on this opportunity to see the great talent at the Woodlands!

Snow Show

The Music Department's Snow Show concert will be taking place on the evening of December 10. Take a break from the cold with this performance by our award-winning concert bands, stage bands, choirs and ensembles.

Amazing accomplishments

Have you been to the Congratulations section of our website recently? If not, check it out to see the many accomplishments of our Woodlands students, and check back often - there's always something new to boast about!

The second free seminar in our 2008-2009 Speaker Series will take place on November 27 at 7:30pm. Two representatives from Peel Public Health will be talking about drugs, alcohol, and addictions in teens. This presentation is suitable for students in grade 7 and up and their parents. Highlights will include a drug board helping you to recognize different drugs, and pamphlets to take home.

This event will be one of the highlights of this year's speaker series, and families are encouraged to attend. More details and a signup page can be found at http://woodlandscouncil.com/events/2008/drugs_and_alcohol

The School Council newsletter for November, 2008 is attached.

Each year, our Grade 9 students at the Woodlands participate in Take Our Kids to Work Day. This national program provides exposure to "the real world" and helps students learn about careers of interest to them. This year's event is taking place on November 5.

We have several students who would like to spend the day learning about the IT industry but do not have placements. If you work in systems administration, network support, software development, project management, business analyst or related IT fields and are able to host a student in your work environment for the day, please contact Ms. Perugini at your earliest convenience.

More information on the Take Our Kids to Work Day program can be found at http://www.takeourkidstowork.ca/

Thank you for your support!

Council Meeting Updates

The school council will be meeting on Monday, October 27 at 7:30pm at the Woodlands School. All parents are welcome to attend and observe or participate. Click here for the agenda.

Additionally, minutes of the September 29th meeting have been posted on the School Council website.

Emails

Most of you will have received multiple copies of our last few emails. Our website hosting company made a server configuration change in early September that broke our software and caused emails to be sent repeatedly. We have subsequently switched to a new and better hosting company. That change was completed this week and we do not expect any further problems with the emails.

(Of course, I'm still crossing my fingers as I hit send...)

Homework and Study Skills Seminar 

Parents and students are reminded that the Homework and Study Skills seminar will take place this Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm at the school. This presentation is particularly relevant to students in the grade 8 to grade 9 transition years and later. Bring your questions for Ms. Perugini and Mr. Cooper - how much homework should you expect each night? How can you best prepare for tests? What should you do if you are falling behind? How do you make the best use of study time?

Admission is free and refreshments will be provided. Parents and students are all welcome. Please sign up on the website if you will be attending so that sufficient seating is arranged.

Graduate Pathways

Destination pathways information for Woodlands graduates has been posted on the School Council website. This information shows the destination colleges/universities and programs of our 2007 graduating class. See the posting for additional details.

Dear Parents,

We draw your attention to three important postings recently added to the Woodlands School Council website:

• Please update immunization records with the Region of Peel to ensure your student is not blocked from attending school;
• Secondary Parents Night will take place on October 2nd. Details and an interview request form can be downloaded from the website.
• The agenda for the first school council meeting of the year (Monday September 29) has been posted; all parents are welcome to attend.

Sincerely,

Woodlands School Council

Council was informed this afternoon that the Grade 7/8 Meet the Teacher night has been rescheduled from September 25 to September 24.

 As a result, the Homework and Study Skills seminar previously scheduled for September 24th has been moved to October 8.

We apologize for any inconvenience this change may cause.  As always, you can sign up for this seminar or cancel your attendance on the page listed above.

The school council is pleased to confirm that we are now being copied on significant items from the daily announcements, and these items are posted on the front page of the website. Parents are encouraged to check in regularly to see what is new as Council will only send emails for particularly important announcements.