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Westdale Park Public School

Our children, our future.

Message from Our Principal

We’re Serious about Making Reading Fun

Last January, we renewed our commitment to improving our literacy practices at Westdale Park. The changes and hard work paid off, and I’m pleased to begin the new school year by reporting our students have shown improvement in Reading, Writing and Mathematics. I’ll share more details about these results in the coming weeks.

I want to reassure our families that, although we are serious about being effective reading teachers, we want reading to be enjoyable for our students. We hope that they will view reading as a fun, rewarding activity, and most of us would agree that when we are good at something, it is much easier to enjoy it. So this year we will continue to focus on providing quality reading instruction every morning for our primary and junior students. The intermediate students will have their large block of literacy time in the afternoons.

Parents often ask me what they can do to help their children succeed in school and I always say the same three things:

1. Regular attendance is critical. Students who are regularly at school consistently perform better than their peers. At Westdale Park, the vast majority of students had a maximum of 10 days away last year, many with near perfect attendance.

2. Provide proper rest and healthy meals. Students need to come to school ready to learn. Early bedtimes on school nights and a good breakfast in the morning help students concentrate and get the most out of their time at school.

3. Encourage reading. Education experts all agree that strong reading skills are the foundation of success in all subjects. Teachers generally expect that students are reading at home every evening.

I’m optimistic about the start of another school year, and I know that everyone at Westdale Park joins me in wishing our families a warm welcome back from summer vacation.

Yours in Education,

Mr. P. Mouncey, Principal

Westdale Park Public School

12 Richmond Park Drive,

Napanee, Ontario

K7R 2Z5

telephone: (613)354-4596

fax: (613)354-7452

westd@limestone.on.ca

westdalepark.limestone.on.ca