The School Newletter

Welcome back to Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf for the 2005-2006 school year.

We have 87 students enrolled this year – 42 elementary students and 45 secondary students. Our kindergarten has grown to five students this year, four of whom are new enrolments. The grade 5 class has one new student who transferred from E. C. Drury.

Our secondary program has two new grade 12 students, one transfer from E. C. Drury and one from Laurentian High School.

We lost one teacher this year. He has returned to university and hopefully will return to Sir James Whitney School next year. We would like to welcome three new staff members: Amy King our new Grade 9 English and Math Teacher, Wendy Conlin our new Library Technician and Blair Goodfellow our new Educational Assistant.

We have been without a Speech/Language Pathologist for 2 years now. We are continuing to advertise for a Speech Language Pathologist to work with some of our students. At the School Council meeting on Thursday, September 22^nd, I shared this information and asked the parents to help me find someone who is interested in working with our students.

The SJW 2005-2006 Agendas are now available. Some of the students have not yet purchased one this year. Please encourage your son/daughter to buy an agenda. The cost is $9.00 Please send exact cash only.

Barry Eagles is the Chairperson, Dean Hardy, Vice Chairperson, Sharol Caswell, Treasurer, Ellen Eagles, Secretary, and former Chairperson, Neil Burrell. Congratulations to all of them and we extend our best wishes. The second meeting will be held on Thursday, November 24, 2005. Hopefully this year will be a better one.

We have 2 positions open. One for a teacher and one for an ASL teacher. These positions have been advertised and I look forward to hiring them as soon as possible.

Workshops on Literacy and Numeracy and Student Success are continuing this year. David Burke, an ASL performer from Winnipeg will come to our school and provide an ASL performance on October 20^th. He will visit both elementary and secondary classes to discuss how he creates his stories. This may help motivate young students to create their own original ASL stories and poems

Students can pick up their student accident insurance policy form outside the school office (second floor) on the display table.

The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) will be written on March 29^th, 2006 this school year.

In order to help students prepare for the OSSLT, last year the school and residence staff developed an after school program designed to review and reinforce the skills the students will need to perform on the test, such as:

This program was highly successful last year. We saw a 40% overall improvement in test scores from the previous year.

Starting MONDAY OCTOBER 17^th, OSSLT Nights will be held in Greene Hall. Sessions will run every Monday until March. There will be guest speakers, hands-on activities and field trips.

You can contact the school for more information about the OSSLT and what it means for your student, or visit http://www.eqao.com/.

*Please note that this program is only open to those students taking the OSSLT this school year.*

Effective September 6, 2005 the hours of Student Health Services has changed. The new hours as follows:

Monday to Thursday will not be seeing any students past 10:00 pm. Fridays will be closing at 3:00 pm.

Please re-enforce with our students that if they need to be seen by the nurse to please have them down to SHS in sufficient time to be assessed by the nurse.

Did you know teenagers should have 10 hours of sleep a night to have a productive day in the classroom!

Milk is again available for sale at lunch. Each week an order form will go home to Elementary students to order for the following week. Just circle the days your child wants milk and circle whether they want white or chocolate milk. Return the form to school.

Milk is 50 cents a day -$2.50 per week. Please send forms back to school on Friday or Monday morning. High School students can buy milk on a daily basis.

MS. BROWN’S CLASS

One deaf staff member at Sir James Whitney School was born and raised in Louisiana. We feel we have a connection with the School for the Deaf in Baton Rouge

The Louisiana School for the Deaf was not damaged however they are housing families that are left without homes. For information you can visit their visit website at www.lalsd.org.

The LSD Foundation is working with neighbouring churches for the Deaf and other agencies to provide assistance for any Deaf or Hard of Hearing persons who have been displaced by the storm. Just as the American Red Cross says, the strongest show of support to the victims of this disaster is a cash donation. If anyone wishes to make a donation that would go toward helping hurricane victims who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing, it can be sent to:

Cheques/money orders should be payable to LSDF, with the notation “Hurricane Relief”

The students of Room 56 at Sir James Whitney are accepting cash donations which will be converted into U.S. Funds and send to L.S.D. If you would like to make a cheque donation please see instructions above. We will not be able to issue tax receipts.

Doors Open first began in France in 1984 with the idea of sharing hidden heritage treasures and appreciation for heritage sites. The idea soon spread to neighboring countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden, the Republic of Ireland, Belgium and Scotland.

In 2000, the City of Toronto launched the first Doors Open event in North America. In 2002, the Ontario Heritage Foundation launched Doors Open Ontario, the first province-wide event of its kind in Canada. The Doors Open concept continues to spread across North America with events now being held in Newfoundland, Alberta, Massachusetts, Western New York State, New York City and Denver.

Every year, Doors Open Ontario attracts large crowds across Ontario. From April to October, residents and visitors are invited to discover first-hand Ontario’s heritage sites.

Over 1.1 million visits have been made to the multitude of heritage sites opened as part of the program during the past three years. The program, now considered a cultural phenomenon, is even larger in 2005 with hundreds of communities participating in 40 events across the province.

Having Doors Open at SJW was suggested by Sharol Caswell at the parent’s council meeting in June. The administration took up the suggestion and contacted Heritage Belleville which is the municipal heritage committee and began making preparations in June for the DOORS OPEN to take place at SJW during the weekend of Sept.10 and 11th.

Nic Lambooy, an architect, in Belleville met with the SJW Doors Open committee to give information about the architectural style of the school as well as well as the superintendent’s house prior to the Doors Open dates. This was printed out and given to visitors who were interested in the details of architecture on Sept. 10 and 11.

The maintenance staff worked hard to complete the restorations and to prepare the grounds at its best! They did a great job!

Keith Dorschner and his wife prepared a summary of the school’s history as part of the handouts and were on hand to answer any questions. Some displays from the archives were brought down and the visitors were fascinated by the history.

Standing displays were prepared using some of D. Fano’s research material of the school’s history. She is currently writing a history book about SJW from 1870 - 2005. The displays were very informative and contributed more than what could be said by the volunteers.

Over 12 costumes were prepared by D. Fano with some assistance from Patsy Bradley and Virginia Wolff. Five costumes from Glanmore House were borrowed for SJW to use on the two days. Many thanks goes to them for their generosity. There were enough costumes for all the volunteers!

Volunteers, which consisted of parents and their families, and staff were called on to man the walking tours of SJW and the superintendent’s house. They did a great job welcoming the tourists and showing them around. It has been a positive experience for everyone and for the visitors that came. Thanks to all that assisted in the successful event.

Over the two days 204 people visited the school. Some were from Toronto, Bobcagen, Kingston, Brighton and most were from the Belleville area. Many said they were glad to have the opportunity to visit and they found the school interesting and informative. There were people across the road that had never visited the school and were curious.

It has been a positive experience for everyone - volunteers and for the visitors that came. Thanks to all who helped make the event very successful. The event revealed our pride for this beautiful heritage site with 135 years of history.

Write-up by D. Fano

If you are interested in assisting in school sporting events please contact Arleigh Tamlin at Arleigh.tamlin@edu.gov.on.ca