Parents Page

AI

The Halton District School Board is clear on its use of generative artificial intelligence. Please consult their Generative AI - Staff and Student Use Guidelines to understand more about it and expectations surrounding it.

Bullying

Bullying (physical, verbal, emotional, digital) is a serious issue with potentially long-lasting severe impacts.  The Halton District School Board has a Confidential Reporting form that is encouraged by anyone experiencing or witnessing bullying.

Code of Conduct

The Halton District School Board has a Code of Conduct, which outlines behaviour expectations, responsibilities for staff, students, and parents, and also outlines progressive discipline steps.  Please also refer to the Discriminatory and Harmful Language Protocol, which is posted in each of our classrooms for staff and students.

Contacting the Teacher - see Teacher page

Ms. Benson checks her e-mail twice a day, but rarely checks her voicemail.  She does not necessarily have your up-to-date phone number or e-mail address - a quick contact to her can remedy that, so she can contact you if needs be.  :)

Electronics and Distractions to Learning

In this fast-paced, high-technology era, students constantly want to have their hands on the latest personal electronic devices.  Many of these devices, however, distract the carrier and other students from learning.  At other times, they can serve as an educational aid.  In Ms. Benson's classes, laptops/netbooks/tablets ARE permitted in order to assist in a student's learning, and devices for music are permitted ONLY during student work time and MUST be at a listening level that only the listener can hear.  Cell phones are permitted ONLY at specific times for assignment-related purposes.  Texting, social media, gaming, calling and receiving calls are NOT acceptable during class.  Parents are kindly asked contact the office if they need to reach their child.  If any personal electronic device/information and communication technology is found to distract the student from getting work done, then it will have to be turned off and put away, or handed over to Ms. Benson until the end of class.  For more information on the guidelines for acceptable use of ICT (information and communication technology), please contact the Halton District School Board.

Encouragement

Your teen should be encouraged to get involved in student life at the school, whether it be through clubs or sports, as studies have shown that this enriches the student experience, gets them more interested in school, helps them manage their time, and it never hurts as inclusion on a resume/CV.  Encourage your child to seek help from the teachers.  When do you do this?  Perhaps when they start struggling with or neglecting their homework - clues that they're not grasping a concept in class.  Lastly, remember to celebrate even the little things - your support is appreciated even if your teen doesn't tell you so.  

There are a number of strategies/actions which can help foster healthy development in adolescents.  The Search Institute's "Developmental Assets Framework" provides researched-based information on 40 Developmental Assets (of both external and internal assets) that they have identified as positive supports and strengths needed for healthy overall development.  Their research also identifies 20 Developmental Relationships and the actions that can be employed to support those.  The hope is that teachers and parents can work together and contribute to supporting our teens and help them become confident young adults and contributing members of society.

Enrichment

Looking for ways to enrich your child's learning?  Looking for something beyond what they can get at school?  At IRHS various enrichment opportunities are posted that students could take part in or apply for.  Check out the Enrichment link from the school's website.

Helpful Links for Parents

The school has its own page dedicated to parents of IRHS students.  Please visit the Parent Survival Guide page of the school website. This contains a wealth of information and resources, especially for parents of teenagers.  Also, visit our school's Parent Engagement page to see how you can become involved. The Halton District School Board also has a section of its website for parents.  Please visit their Parents page.  In addition, the Ask DrM website is a useful tool for both parents and teens to glean some good advice.

Homework

How much homework should students have each night?  On average, students should expect about a half an hour of homework per course each night, though this can vary from course to course.

Visual arts homework generally consists of sketchbook assignments to help students practice their skills and are often coordinated with larger projects as a way to prepare for them.  Visual Arts students may also choose to work on their art projects at home or in the art room at lunch, if they need more time than what is provided in class, and in order to meet the deadlines.  Assignments are posted on Brightspace for each class.  Due dates are posted in the Calendar on the course page of Brightspace.  The whole semester schedule for a course can also be found on each course's webpage on this website.

Marks

Marks are posted online and updated at least four times per semester.  Each student is asked to select a code name that will be used to represent them (instead of using their names) in order to protect their identity for the online posting of their grades.  Parents may contact Ms. Benson to request the code name if desired (unless the student is 18 years of age or older).

Mental Health

Mental health is a very important consideration for teens, and may present in a variety of ways.  Iroquois Ridge High School actively encourages and promotes wellness.  It has become increasingly evident that regular mindfulness activities can improve one's mental health wellness.  There are a number of apps available.  Here a couple of online resources for you and/or your teen to check out: School Mental Health Ontario (which is a helpful website covering many topics and strategies for Students as well as Families), the Anxiety Canada website (which includes information and access to free therapy resources for all ages and roles, from groups, courses, podcasts, and the very helpful CBT-based app, MindShift, for mobile devices), and a Coping in Hard Times Fact Sheet for Youth, High School and College Age from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Nutrition

Proper nutrition can really make a difference to a person's capacity to learn.  You can control the nutrition of your teen by making (or helping them make) their breakfast and lunch.  While there are excellent nutritional choices in the school cafeteria, many students go for the sweet and/or fatty choices.  Due to this, Ms. Benson witnesses many of them struggling to focus, particularly in their afternoon classes.  Food is not allowed in Ms. Benson's art room during class time (in accordance with the health and safety regulations set by the Ministry of Labour and the Halton District School Board), but all students are encouraged to have a sealable water bottle, since keeping hydrated helps the brain and body.  

Organization

It is surprising how many students lack organizational skills and come to class unprepared.  Parents can help by ensuring students have proper school supplies.  These do not have to be expensive - many dollar stores even have good supplies.  The basics: students should have pens, pencils, erasers, a ruler, glue sticks, lined paper, and binder(s).  To safeguard against students losing/misplacing a binder, or showing up to class with the wrong binder, just get one good-sized binder (2"), with dividers to separate each subject and plenty of lined paper.  Where applicable, students may wish to subdivide a subject section with tabs for each unit.  

Parents should also consider purchasing an agenda for their teen, as they are an excellent tool for helping students develop and maintain organizational skills.  Whether or not your teen uses their agenda, it might also be a good idea to pick up an erasable wall or desk calendar, where students can track their school, job, and extra-curricular information.  There are, of course, agenda/calendar apps available for personal electronic devices, such as cell phones and laptops, but may teens find larger visual aids more helpful.

Extras: students may wish to have different coloured pens and highlighters to use and they should consider having a USB key/memory stick to save or back up computer-based work done at school (if not using their Google Drive).  While not mandatory, many students have started to prefer the use of a laptop or tablet for school use.  These are permitted in classrooms (see above in Electronics).  The school also has some chromebooks that can be loaned out for school use.

ALL students must be familiar with the use of Brightspace, as well as the Halton Cloud / Google Drive for sharing/uploading work.  Many assignments will be expected to be electronically submitted on Brightspace or shared via Google Drive to their teacher.

Part time Jobs

They are a nice way for students to start earning their own money and stop asking you for it.  Be aware, though, that some employers seem to have a habit of neglecting the fact that their young employees are still in high school, and soon teens are overworked/given too many hours per week, which impacts their studying and sleep.  Students have special coverage under the Ontario Employment Standards Act and you or your teen are within your rights to request reasonable hours (i.e., less than 28 hours per week when school is in session) to accommodate study needs.  Many parents and students have questions about their rights as young workers - check out what the Ontario Ministry of Labour has to say about Student Minimum Wage (scroll down to this topic).  For further information about all kinds of topics relating to employment, you can consult the Employment Standards Act.