December 15th, 2024

Dear families and caregivers:

It’s hard to believe we are heading towards our last week of school before the winter break! We are all very excited about the winter concert and we look forward to welcoming you at our school. There are lots of other amazing initiatives going on at our school – so please take a look at this week’s newsletter below for a peek into all the things that myself, school council and our team are eager to share with you.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Thursday, December 19th, and to those who are not able to be here with us in person, I wish you a wonderful, restful, and replenishing winter break.

Warmly, Ms. Carolina Miranda

Spirit Wear!

Blair Road School Council is excited to announce that Spirit Wear is back with the new design that staff and students voted on! You can order directly from the supplier’s website at:https://www.schooltee.com/landing-page/blair-road-landing-page/ Our access code is BLAR.CAM. Check out the flyer here. We will be keeping orders open until January 10th, 2025 so there is lots of time to get your order in. Delivery will be approximately 3-4 weeks after the store closes. If you have old Spirit Wear that your student has outgrown, please consider donating it to the school for us to re-distribute to other students. Just send it in with your student and the School Council will collect, wash, and make it available for others. Thank you for your support! If you have any questions please email blairroadschoolcouncil@gmail.com.

E-Waste Collection by the Eco-Team

The e-Bandits squad of the Blair Rd Eco Team are doing an electronic waste recycling drop off. For all of this week, and all of the first week back in January, you can bring in your e-waste and our eco team will make sure it gets recycled, as a part of our Eco Schools certification process. Smaller items can be sent in with the students; medium items can be left in a bin in the front hall, or email Mr. Mallon (christopher_mallon@wrdsb.ca) to arrange a drop off time for any larger items. Thank you!

Blair Road Winter Concert – December 19th

We are so excited to welcome our parents and caregivers into our school for our 2024 Winter Concert: A Celebration of Light! Due to our limited gym capacity however and our growing population, we will have two show times for families of students from Grades 1-6 and one showtime for families of students in Kindergarten. Please see the details for our concert below:

  • The Grades 1-6 concert will take place on Thursday, December 19 in our school gym. The entire winter concert will be 1 hour long.
  • We will have two show times so that we can accommodate our audience. One show will happen at 10:00 AM, and the second one will happen at 12:30 PM.
  • There will be no parking in our school lot, so please remember that if you choose to come to our winter concert, you must park in the neighborhood and walk to our main doors.
  • Doors will open 15 minutes before the concert and parents will be directed straight to the gym. To accommodate everyone we ask that each family has a maximum of two people attending the concert.
  • As we can only accommodate 200 seats in the gym, I would also like to encourage parents who have children from grades 4 to 6 to attend the 10 AM concert, and then parents with children from grades 1 to 3 should try to attend the 12:30 PM concert.
  • The Kindergarten concert will take place in the gym as well, and on the same day, however, it will start at 2:45 PM (doors will open at 2:30 PM).
  • If you are attending any of the earlier concerts, you will be asked to leave the building between concerts, as we can not ensure student safety with adults in the building in from 1:30 to 2:30.

Blair Road Cereal Food Drive

Blair Road wants to help families in need this holiday season! We are excited to announce our Cereal Drive from December 9th to 18th. Cereal is a much-needed item for families, and we believe that together, we can make a big difference. Imagine if every student brought in just one box of cereal—we could collect several boxes to help those in need! How can you help? Bring in 1 box of cereal (or more!) between December 9th and 18th. Encourage friends and family to participate too! Let’s show the power of giving this holiday season by supporting our neighbors in need. Every box counts!

Pizza Orders for January

Pizza orders for January are now open on School – Day. This ordering period covers 4 Thursdays in January 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th. Ordering will close Thursday, January 2nd. To order:

  • Click on “Products”
  • Select “Pizza Orders for December”
  • Select EACH date you would like to order pizza and toppings
  • Add to cart
  • Repeat for each student
  • Click on your cart to check out

NOTE: If your child is absent on pizza, they will miss their order that day. The pizza will not be saved or re-distributed to friends or siblings.If you have any questions or concerns about your School – Day account or ordering pizza please contact the main office.

Camino – Groups and Workshops

Camino’s groups and workshops connect people who share similar goals and experiences to learn about a variety of topics to foster their wellbeing and mental health. Groups are weekly meetings over a certain length of time, on average 8-weeks long. Workshops are one-time events on specific topics. To find out more, please go to their website: https://www.caminowellbeing.ca/groups-workshops To register for any group or workshop, please email groups@caminowellbeing.ca or call 519-743-6333.

Carizon’s Community Resource Program (CRP)

Carizon’s Community Resource Program (CRP) is designed to improve access to community mental health services for families with children ages 4 to 17 and is available throughout Waterloo Region. In this service, the Community Resource Workers and other community partners, including school boards, work together to develop and provide appropriate supports for children, youth, and families with mental health needs with goals of early intervention and prevention. To find out more, please go to their website: https://www.carizon.ca/education-school-based-services/community-resource-program/

Art Supply Donations Welcome – Ongoing! 

Do you have extra art supplies at home that are gathering dust? We are excited to announce that our school is now accepting donations of gently used or new art supplies! If you have any paints, brushes, paper, markers, or other materials in excess, we’d love to put them to good use in our classrooms. Our wonderful School Council Co-Chairs have kindly offered to organize and distribute the supplies, ensuring they find their way into the hands of our students and teachers. Your contributions will help support creativity and art education throughout the school.

Donations can be dropped off at the main office, and we sincerely thank you for your generosity!

Community Flyers

The WRDSB offers community organizations and not-for-profits the opportunity to share information on their programs and services with our schools on our Community E-Flyers website. Each week we will share the most recent flyers shared with the Board in this newsletter in hopes that you share this information with your community if you deem it appropriate.

Dates happening this week: 

  • Yule, December 21, 2024
  • First Day of Winter, December 21, 2024
  • Winter Solstice, December 21, 2024
  • Winter Break, December 23 – January 3, 2025
  • Christmas Day, December 25, 2024
  • Chanukkah, December 25 – January 2, 2025
  • Death of Prophet Zarathustra/Zarathosht No-Diso, December 26, 2024
  • Kwanzaa, December 26 – January 1, 2025
  • Tamil Heritage Month, January 1 – 31, 2025
  • World Braille Day, January 4, 2025
  • Twelfth Night, January 5, 2025
  • Birth of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, January 6, 2025
  • Epiphany / Dia de los Reyes, January 6, 2025
  • Theophany, January 6, 2025
  • Orthodox Christmas / Feast of Nativity, January 7, 2025