Dear Parent/Guardian,
Welcome back to the 2025/2026 school year! We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our students. I wanted to share some information regarding the first days of school which is August 28th for most students. If your child is a Kindergarten student there will be separate instructions for you, labelled “Kindergarten”. Please have a look at our website as there is a lot of useful information available.
Contact by Teachers prior to the First Day
Your child’s teacher will contact you (likely through email) the day before school starts. Teachers will indicate where they will be located in the yard on the first day of school. They will also have class lists enlarged and there will be staff to help you find the right teacher on the morning of August 28th. Please note that class changes are not possible.
Transportation
You will be able to retrieve your child’s bussing information from August 22 late afternoon until August 29 at 9:00am on the Mosaik Parent Portal. If your child is a busser but you drop your child off on the first day of school, please mention your child’s home time routine to the teacher to make dismissal run more smoothly on the first day. Please remember children cannot access the yard prior to 7:45am when supervision begins. For any transportation questions, please email our office agent, Ashley Kelly.
Between Friday, Aug. 29th and Friday, Sept. 12th, the process time for new registrations, change of addresses or changes to daycare services will be 10 days. As of Monday, Sept. 15th, the process time will return to 3 school days.
School Schedule
7:45-8:00 Supervision in the yard
8:00 Start of day bell- class time begins
10:05-10:25 Recess
11:25-12:20 Lunch
1:20-1:40 Recess
2:40 Dismissal Bell
Kindergarten
Students in Kindergarten will have received an email this week from Ashley Kelly, our Office Agent. Ashley will provide you with a meeting time with the teacher and indicate your child’s first day, either August 29th (stay home the 2nd) or September 2nd (stay home the 29th). Kindergarten students have a staggered start to the school year. Ashley will also provide you with your child’s identification number to gain access to Mosaik the Parent Portal. This is where you will find your child’s transportation information, report cards, and invoices for daycare and school fees.
Thursday, August 28th– you will have a 15-minute time slot to come visit the classroom and meet the teacher. Please bring your child and school supplies on that day.
Friday, August 29th– ½ the class will come for a full day of school and remain home on the 2nd of September.
Tuesday, September 2nd The other ½ of the class will come for a full day of school but would remain home August 29th.
Wednesday, September 3rd and on– All students will attend school.
What if my child is struggling on the first day?
If you or your child is upset on the first day, we understand. From our experience, quick goodbyes are much better for your child. Once inside, children adjust very quickly and learn to rely on their adults at school. Tears rarely last long. If your child is having an exceptionally difficult time, please touch base with a staff member or give us a call and we will come up with an alternate plan for drop off. Parents/Guardians will not be permitted in the building to escort their child to class.
School Supplies
School supply lists are available on the website.
Back-to-School BBQ and Meet-the-Teacher Night
The Home and School Back-to-School BBQ will be on September 18th. Stay tuned for more information. You will also have an opportunity to visit your child’s classroom and meet the teacher on that date. More info to come.
Parking Lot
The parking lot does not have a lot of extra space. Safety is a priority for us. Please make sure to use the designated crosswalks and stay with your child until they are safely on the sidewalk. Please only use the spaces marked for visitors to ensure staff are able to park to receive your children. There is no parking along the entrance and exit lanes. Consider parking legally on the street and walking your child to the yard. Finally, because space is so limited, please do not congregate with other parents in the parking lot. This will limit the bottleneck of cars during drop off. We want to focus our supervision on the students in the yard as opposed to monitoring the adults in the parking lot. Once students are settled, we will have a “Kiss and Go” set up so parents/guardians can pull up to the location and children get out of the car with no parking necessary.
Communication
We are continuing to use Mosaik the Parent Portal, which arrives as email for our communication tool this year. If you are speaking with someone who is not receiving the emails, please suggest they check their junk mail.
Cell Phones
There have been a few changes to the cell phone policy that I mentioned at the end of the year last year and you may have heard about in the news. This changes very little for us since phones should not be on school premises. We have had several incidents of a child calling a parent during the school day. If a student is texting or calling you during the day, that is going against the ministry directive and
breaking the school code of conduct. If your child needs to contact you please ask them to go to their teacher or Zen Den.
School Fees
You will be notified once school fees are confirmed and available to be paid. These payments can be made through your internet banking. Cash payments can be made, if necessary, by contacting Kim Teske, our secretary. Exact change is required for cash payments. If you would like to set up a payment plan for fees, please also contact Kim to make arrangements. Finally, all outstanding balances will be sent to collections.
I wish you all a relaxing last few days before the school year begins. See you all soon!
Julia Horner
Principal
Eardley Elementary School