We are now immersed into the final term of the school year.  Please help your son/daughter set academic goals for the second half of the third term.  Educational success is a cooperative process between the family and the school.  If you should have any concerns regarding your son’s/daughter’s progress please contact the teacher.  You should be receiving a report card that will have marks and work habits for second term.  The intention of this report is to supplement the informal progress reports which were previously sent home.  If you have any questions about the information on the report card or concerns regarding your child’s progress, please contact the teacher directly.  Honour Roll and Effort Roll will be determined at year end.

If you have a student at McNicoll Park, you are a member of the Parent Advisory Council.  That means you are welcome to attend any PAC meeting.  These meetings are informal sessions with the exchange of information.  We’ll let you know what’s happening in our school environment, and keep you informed of changes at the district and provincial level.  Do you have a question or concern that you think might be shared by other parents?  Would you like us to add it to the agenda?  We try to keep our meetings one-hour in length, so if need to arrive late or leave early, that is no problem.  We hope to see you there.

Our annual track and field fun day will be Friday, May 11^th in the morning followed by a BBQ hot dog sale for lunch.  This is a day of traditional track events mixed in with non-traditional activities.  If it is expected to be hot on Friday, please send your child with sunscreen, a water bottle and some money for the hotdog sale.  For $2.50 they can enjoy a hotdog, chips and a juice box (each item is $1 if bought separately).

There is a group of students who have been practicing for the Gauss Math Contest which will be held on May 16^th.  To find more math problems go online at http://www.cemc.uwaterloo.ca/contests/gauss.html

We will be hosting an information session for parents of grade 5 students who will be attending McNicoll Park next year on Thursday, May 24^th at 6:00 p.m.  The grade 5 students will be attending MPMS that morning for their orientation.

Congratulations to the 91% of McNicoll students who made their Accelerated Reader goals for term 2. We know that independent reading is an important part of vocabulary development, key to the becoming a better writer and a pathway to stronger reading skills. Everybody should be reading at least 20 minutes a day at home. Make it a family affair where everyone has a book to read at the same time.  Parents may enjoy getting a chance to read the same books their children read and you are welcome to borrow books from the school as well.

As the weather gets nicer we want to remind parents and students that they must still dress appropriately for school.  This is from our school planner and is a good guideline:

            The Clothing should be appropriate to a learning / work environment, and should not be distracting to others (e.g. beachwear, tank tops, and clothing which is too revealing are not appropriate for school; underwear should not be seen.)

The District Middle School track and field meet has been cancelled for this year. Several of the middle schools were unable to field teams.

MPMS has partnered with Game Action Photo of Penticton to offer for sale team and individual pictures to our student/athletes this year. GAME took our team pictures for the yearbook. Order forms have gone home already and many families have taken advantage of this great offer.  The due date for returning orders to the school was April 30^th; however, you are still able to go online at the following website and order www.yougottalovethisgame.photoreflect.com and the password is DRAGONS.

A big thank you to our parent volunteers who have stepped up to support our breakfast club.  Our peer counselors have been busy running the program since it has re-opened!  The MPMS community thanks you!

There will be many notices coming home over the next few weeks as we send information home about upcoming events.  Each one of our grade teams are busy organizing year end activities for our students.  Please ask your child each day if a notice has been sent home.

We ask that parents do not bring their vehicles on school grounds when dropping off or picking up children before and after school.  We have additional buses arriving on our grounds this year and the drivers are complaining about the congestion.  Please make arrangements to meet your child on McPherson Court or Debeck Street.  The volume of non-staff vehicles represents a safety risk to our students.

Parents/guardians are requested to call the school (770-7683) before 8:30 a.m. to report that their son/daughter will be absent for the day.  Students should bring a note from a parent/guardian requesting permission to leave the school for an appointment.  The note should be brought to the office before 8:30 a.m.

Tuesday

Spaghetti – $3.00.

Caesar Salad - $1.25

Large Sandwich - $3.00

Small Sandwich - $2.00

Fruit Salad - $1.25

Wednesday

 Pizza - $2.00 per slice

Friday

Perogies – 3@$3.00, 4 @$3.50, 5@$4.00

*On Wednesday, there is a limited amount of  pizza