Student and class photos will take place for all Prep students throughout the day on Friday, Sept. 26, in Weston Hall. 1M will have their photo taken before they leave for Norval.

Students in SK to Year 4 are expected to be in Primary regular dress, while students in Year 5 to 7 should be in First Dress, including black dress shoes. Please refer to page 21 of our Family Handbook for details regarding the uniform.

We're excited to invite you to our Hopes and Dreams Conferences, which will be running virtually or in person, on Friday, Oct. 3.  This is an opportunity for families to meet with their child’s form adviser to discuss how the year has started and begin to build the family-teacher partnership. Please note, there is no school on Oct. 3, and students do not attend the conferences.  

SchoolCloud, the application parents will use to book their appointments, opened on Monday Sept. 15 at 9 a.m. and will close at 4 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29. If you don't sign up for a conference during this window, you will need to reach out to your child’s form adviser personally to choose a remaining time slot. 

Across the primary grades, we’ve spent a lot of time building and practicing routines, establishing classroom expectations, and even singing and playing instruments. We started the year by exploring Canadian “changemakers,” including Terry Fox and Canadian veterans, and singing songs connected to their stories. We have also discussed how songs are created and performed to remember specific individuals, groups or events.

SK to Year 3: Students are focusing on understanding various note names on the treble clef and rhythmic symbols. They are applying this knowledge while singing the Terry Fox song and the Remembrance Day song, as well as playing their Orff instruments.

Year 4: Students have learned many musical terms related to the parts of the recorder. They are singing the Terry Fox song and playing their recorders while learning proper rest and playing postures, along with effective breathing techniques.

Year 5: Students have learned many musical terms related to the parts of the ukulele. They are singing the Terry Fox song and making progress on their ukuleles, exploring the four open strings - G, C, E, A - and practicing proper posture and technique.

Musically,

Caroline Heo
SK–Year 5 Music Teacher

We have had a wonderful start in Year 1! They are asking thoughtful questions, practicing new routines and are incredibly curious and enthusiastic to learn. 

In our first unit of inquiry, The Brain, students are exploring how understanding ourselves influences success and development. This unit helps to establish beginning-of-the-year routines while focusing on developing social-emotional skills too. Throughout this unit, students will continue to explore mindfulness, healthy habits and how we learn best.

We are off to a great start in Year 6 and 7 Language and Literature. In Year 6, students are engaging in a novel study of Jerry Craft’s middle grade graphic novel, New Kid — a fitting theme for the beginning of the year. In Year 7, students began their study of dystopian literature, debating the timeless quality of classics like Lois Lowry’s The Giver, and new titles like Marie Lu’s Legend and The Hunger Games series. Units of study such as these, with high interest level and real-world connections to our students, are only part of our program in Middle Language and Literature. In keeping with current best practice around the science of reading and writing, as well as Ontario’s Language curriculum, we have developed our program based on three core components: 

Independent reading

• Overall goal of developing confident, life-long readers with strong reading stamina, who love great books.

• Students build reading wish lists, set goals, reflect upon progress and celebrate reading growth and success.

• Students who read for 20 minutes per evening at home are exposed to 1.8 million words per year compared to 8,000 words per year for those who read one minute or less. With this in mind, students are expected to read for at least 20 minutes per evening.

Advanced word study

• Systematic and explicit instruction of word and sentence-level reading and spelling, in accordance with the Ontario Curriculum, Language (2023).

• Morpheme Magic program teaches students morphological awareness: The understanding that words are composed of meaningful units.

• This awareness will strengthen students’ word recognition and spelling. It will help students develop richer and deeper vocabularies and improve comprehension and writing.

• Language Power program develops students’ reading comprehension at the sentence level.

• Skills taught include grammar, punctuation and parts of speech.

Inquiry-based units of study

• We use the workshop model of instruction, meaning students engage in a 15-minute mini-lesson, then dedicate the rest of this time to daily reading and writing practice.

• Small-group guided reading.

• Building handwriting and printing skills, plus visual-spatial organization, through the use of writer’s notebooks.

• Texts are engaging and current middle grade novels chosen for their connection to our students’ interests and daily lives.

• Mentor texts help students learn great writing from great authors, with reading comprehension and writing skills explicitly taught.

As always, please feel free to reach out should you have any questions about our program.

Michaela Trelford
MYP Language and Literature Learning Leader

We have had a wonderful month of Tinkering Tuesdays at the Prep! A big thank you to all the students and families who joined in and brought their creativity to life. It was inspiring to see such imagination, problem-solving, and collaboration in action each week. We look forward to even more tinkering, making, and fun in October! 

A few important reminders:

• Year levels: Some Tuesdays are specific to certain year levels, while others are open to everyone from SK–Year 5. Please check carefully when signing up.

• Registration: Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If the Google Form indicates that the form is closed, it means the session has reached capacity.
  
  

Time and place: All sessions run from 3:45–4:45 p.m. in the Chen Innovation Lab.

The ISA Assessment was originally scheduled for Monday, Sept. 22 and Thursday, Sept. 25. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to administer the assessment on Monday. We continued with the assessment today with Reading and Writing Task B, and will schedule our second test date for Thursday, Oct. 2 (Math Literacy and Writing Task A).  

The ISA is based on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) frameworks for reading, writing and mathematical literacy. The aim is to gather baseline information for students as a cohort to assist faculty as they consider instructional strategies that can be used to support learning. Regular ISA administration allows us to observe cohort growth and progress over time, inform ongoing improvements to teaching and learning, and compare UCC’s performance internationally. 

The ISA will be administered through the ISA online portal in your student’s classroom by their teacher and in collaboration with the Wernham West Centre for Learning. Please refrain from scheduling appointments or other absences during the period of ISA administration. No make-up testing is available due to the test’s confidential nature. Testing can only be administered at the school. 

It’s important to note that no preparation is required ahead of writing the test. It is meant to capture a snapshot of student skills and does not form any part of report card grades. The information gathered is for internal use only by faculty and administrators to inform teaching and learning at the College. ISA’s privacy statement is available here. We will work with the boys to ensure this is a positive experience. Families can assist by reinforcing that message and ensuring students are well-rested on testing mornings.  

Should you have any questions, please contact Liz Kennedy, Director of the Wernham West Centre for Learning and Student Services.

Yours sincerely,

Liz Kennedy

Director, Wernham West Centre for Learning and Student Services

Thanks to the generosity of parent donations for the Staff Appreciation Lunch last May, the PPO is also able to provide a special breakfast for the Prep teachers. This breakfast will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 6. We hope our teaching staff feels our parent community’s appreciation for their work with our boys. 

Save the date for the annual Prep Parent Social in Weston Hall! Join Prep parents and the Prep leadership for a night of connection and community-building over a glass of wine, hors d’oeuvres and fun festivities. 

Please mark your calendar for Thursday, Oct. 23, from 7–9 p.m. More details and registration will be available soon. 

The PPO is excited to introduce a new engagement opportunity designed to build community between the Prep and Upper School around the big varsity football game on Saturday, Sept. 27. Prep boys of all ages are invited to take the field at halftime (approx. 3:40 p.m.) to participate in a fun-filled series of football skills activities! Once the game resumes, Prep boys are welcome to relocate to the Prep Fields and continue the fun. 

We hope you'll join us on the Oval!