See you next year! 

1st day of classes will be Tuesday, September 6th! 

Don't forget to check our School Council website www.castorvalley.ca regularly for information including upcoming parent information sessions held at our school and other schools throughout the OCDSB.

Fun Night & Play Structure Ground Breaking Ceremony 

On June 14^th, School Council held its annual Fun Night where parents, teachers, students, school staff, project sponsors, school trustee Mark Fisher, City of Ottawa Counsellor Doug Thompson and retired long-time CTV Ottawa anchor Max Keeping showed up for an official groundbreaking event for the play structures.

Fun Night was a HUGE success and we raised over $5000! This money will be put toward next year's initiatives and means we will start next year off on a good financial footing.

We'd like to extend a huge thank you to our community partners, including:

• Metcalfe and Greely Volunteer Firefighters who ran our BBQ and brought their fire trucks for all to see
• O-Ya who provided two of their youth workers to help run the water relay
• Tara Heft, Education Coordinator with the Osgoode Township Historical Society & Museum
• Max Keeping who served as Master of Ceremonies for our groundbreaking ceremony for our 2 play structures
• All our student, teacher and parent volunteers who ran the games, bake table, face painting, canteen and basket draw.

And, of course, we'd also like to once again thank our sponsors without whom we would not have been able to raise the funds needed for both play structures. To see a list of our sponsors, please click here.

WE HOPE YOU HAD FUN!!  

School Supply Kits - Best Tools for Schools 

If you have any questions or concerns about the voluntary school supply list OR Best Tools for Schools, please email Heather Wilson.   

Playground Improvement Project Update 

The company, Playground Planners, was selected as the winning bid for our 2 play structures, and site preparation work will be completed by D & G Landscaping over the summer.

Click to see coloured renderings of both the PRIMARY and JUNIOR play structures!!

Our goal is for both play structures to be ready for students in September!   

FUNDRAISING SURVEY  

Thank you to everyone who filled out our online survey. As you know, we had an ambitious goal this year to raise funds for our 2 play structures, and therefore had quite a few fundraisers. We don't necessarily need to do as much fundraising next year, and the valuable feedback we received regarding what you liked and didn't like was greatly appreciated.

We will be sending out a link to another online survey next September, where we will be looking for volunteers for the various events and fundraisers to be held throughout next year.

THANKS AGAIN!

JOIN SCHOOL COUNCIL!

You could be a parent member of the 2011/12 Castor Valley Elementary School Council (CVESC). As a parent representative of our school community, you have the opportunity to share some of your ideas, experiences, skills and talents at school council as we provide guidance to our principal, staff, trustee, and Board on relevant issues directly related to your child's school and classroom.

You can download a self-nomination form here. Deadline for nominations is Sept. 8, 2011...but you know how busy that first week of school is ....so DON'T DELAY!

Members of the 2011/2012 CVESC Nominating Committee are:  

Sherri Bonneville, Principal (821-1272) sherri.bonneville@ocdsb.ca 

Heather Wilson, CVESC Chair 2010/2011 (821-5350) wilsonheather@rogers.com 

Jen Danby-McDonald, CVESC Parent Class Rep Co-ordinator (821-7967)  

jdanbymcdonald@hotmail.com 

A HUGE thank you to Susanna Penning, our Treasurer, who is stepping down after 3 years of keeping our finances on track.  Many thanks to parents Alka Moorjani, Lesley Chen and Debbie Hill who have offered to step into this role next year.

And an extra special thank you to Heather Wilson, who is stepping down from the Chair position to let someone else take the reigns of Council! Heather's tireless and passionate  commitment to CVES and its staff, students and parents has led to countless school initiatives and improvements, and her positive energy has inspired many a volunteer. It was through her vision and her leadership that Council was able to raise enough funds this year to replace TWO play structures! Her upbeat attitude and her ability to make everyone who works with her feel special, heard and empowered means she will be greatly missed. Thankfully we'll still see her around the school as a parent volunteer and Council member! 

Sooooo... this means Council is still looking for a Chair or Co-Chairs. If you'd like more information on this position, becoming a council member-at-large, are interested in just attending meetings, or would like to be on the School Council email list, please contact our current Chair, Heather Wilson. For more information on what Council DOES, please see the ABOUT CVESC section of our website. 

(613) 821-7967.  Parent Class Reps are responsible for sending emails to their class contact list throughout the year to ensure that parents are informed and up-to-date about class-related events and activities

Many thanks to parents who contributed food and helped with the set-up/clean up etc. on June 24th.

Thanks to Ginny Steele who hand-picked our centerpieces from the CVES garden and arranged them!

Thanks also to Michele Pirronen who has run this event for the last several years but is stepping down as her daughter is moving onto high school. Julie McDonald taking over this role - thank you Michele and Julie!

The packing up of our library is just about complete. Thanks to the assistance and very hard work by several parent volunteers, the main Library and Librarian Office are packed.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH to all the parent volunteers who helped out, putting in over 35 hours worth of work. Also, thank you to all those people who provided boxes. 

Planned renovations include cleaning of rafters, ductwork, repair to lighting, washing ofthe flags and replacement of carpeting. The existing bookcases will be slightly rearranged to allow for better usage and lighting. There will also be a new circulation desk, more centrally located to allow for better visibility, traffic circulation and safety of students (no more standing behind doors or in entrance way while signing out books!).

Renovations are scheduled to be completed by mid-August and replacing books back on the shelves will take place at the end of Augsut, hopefully being completed well before the end of September.

Letters have gone home (or are in Teachers' mailboxes) for those students who still have outstanding Library Books.

MEET THE TEACHER EVENING

Mark your calendars and come and meet your teacher(s) on Wednesday, September 14th.  Due to scheduling conflicts with other schools in the area and the firefighters having training on Wednesday nights, we will not be holding our usual BBQ for this event, but instead are inviting families to bring their own picnic supper.

There will also be a bilingual Scholastic Book fair held on this evening - come and meet your child's teacher and socialize with other families!

More information will be sent out the first week of school.  

Thank you to former CVES custodian Easton Flemmings who delivered thank you notes on Fun Night from students at Wheelersfield Basic School, Jamaica for the school supplies Castor Valley sent in March.  Thank you notes are displayed on bulletin board in foyer.

FIRST SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING  

Our first School Council meeting next year will be held on Thursday September 8th from 7-9pm in the library

The school will be participating in the Terry Fox National School Run Day on Wednesday September 28th. We welcome parents to participate alongside our students, and will be encouraging all participants who wish to, to bring in a "Toonie for Terry". 

This environmental fundraising program supports a local grandmother's group, "Grandmas Aiding Grandmas for Africa". We will be continuing our collection of used cell phones, digital cameras, ink cartridges next year, so please save them over the summer! Once school starts, we will have our *Think Recycle* collection box near the milk fridge in the front foyer of the school. These items are completely recycled and will not end up in a landfill.

This project helps our environment and raises funds for the remarkably resilient African grandmothers who are raising their orphaned grandchildren as a result of the AIDS epidemic. Our grandmothers' group earns funds for each item collected which will then go directly to support grassroots projects in sub Saharan Africa such as food, medical care, adequate housing, school fees and uniforms, HIV awareness and bereavement counseling. Please support this program and enjoy the wonderful feeling of being able to help Grandmas and their grandchildren in Africa and our environment. For more information visit www.thinkrecycle.com. 

We will continue to update our website/blog over the summer with items of interest for the upcoming 2011-2012 year. You can subscribe to our blog and receive an automatic email every time we post by visiting www.castorvalley.ca, and under CVES Blog Subscription enter your email address!  

GOODBYES & THANK YOUS!!