Dear Parents and Guardians,

Viola Desmond now has 4 Team Houses! Move over Hogwarts - Viola Desmond is going to show amazing team spirit by participating in friendly spirit challenges during the course of the year. Last week, the 4 team colours - Red, Green, Yellow and Blue, competed in challenges to gain points for their house colours. Each class created their own sub-team name, such as the Red Dragons and Banana Splits, wore jerseys and our favourite Disney attire. Our intermediate students are the school's Spirit Squad and responsible for creating challenges to encourage teamwork and school spirit! This is exactly what we need at this time of year! We are thankful to our teachers who are finding innovative ways to run extra-curricular activities! It is a wonderful way for our intermediate students to continue develop leadership skills.

Some parents have asked if gifts are permitted for teachers as they would like to express their appreciation. Your child's teacher will let you know their preference for gifts. Ultimately, we can keep them for three days until we touch them. If you do choose to give a gift, please do not give any food prepared from home, just to be safe. Please do not send in treats or gifts for your child's classmates as we are not permitted to send those items home. We thank you for your consideration of these factors.

Last week Durham Region entered the Red Zone. Your child's safety continues to be our top priority. We are following strict safety protocol and procedures to keep our building clean and high touch areas sanitized. We ask that parents and guardians do their part as well, by adhering to the mandatory wearing of masks while on school property and near students. We are in this together!

It is hard to believe we are entering December! Each week, we continue to learn new things from your children. We are looking to an amazing month ahead!

Have a wonderful week!

Yours in Education,

Mrs. Brusselers and Mrs. Thomas - Administrative Team

December is:

World Aids Day- December 1st

Each year, on 1 December, the world commemorates World AIDS Day. People around the world unite to show support for people living with HIV and to remember those who have died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Each World AIDS Day focuses on a specific theme, which this year will be Global solidarity, shared responsibility. This year’s theme joins a growing list of challenges that World AIDS Day has alerted people to globally.

International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (UN) - December 2nd

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) more than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery. Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human trafficking. Essentially, it refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.

In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labour, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world.

The focus of this day is on eradicating contemporary forms of slavery, such as trafficking in persons, sexual exploitation, the worst forms of child labour, forced marriage, and the forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

International Day for Disabled Persons (UN) - December 3rd

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is annually observed on 3 December to promote the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities and to take action for the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society and development.

This year, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities will be commemorated throughout the week of 30 November- 4 December in conjunction with the 13th session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The theme this year is “Building Back Better: toward a disability-inclusive, accessible and sustainable post COVID-19 World”.

Bodhi Day (Buddhism) - December 8

Bodhi, (Sanskrit and Pāli: “awakening,” “enlightenment”), in Buddhism, the final Enlightenment, which puts an end to the cycle of transmigration and leads to Nirvāṇa, or spiritual release; the experience is comparable to the Satori of Zen Buddhism in Japan. The accomplishment of this “awakening” transformed Siddhārtha Gautama into a Buddha (an Awakened One).

Human Rights Day (UN) - December 10

2020 Theme: Recover Better - Stand Up for Human Rights

This year’s Human Rights Day theme relates to the COVID-19 pandemic and focuses on the need to build back better by ensuring Human Rights are central to recovery efforts. We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination.

10 December is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of human rights in re-building the world we want, the need for global solidarity as well as our interconnectedness and shared humanity.

Under UN Human Rights’ generic call to action “Stand Up for Human rights”, we aim to engage the general public, our partners and the UN family to bolster transformative action and showcase practical and inspirational examples that can contribute to recovering better and fostering more resilient and just societies.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Maya Angelou