General Information
|
The mission of Sydney River Elementary School is to provide a quality education in a caring and safe environment, developing the qualities of self-esteem, thinking skills, a love for learning and a respect for self and others. We recognize that quality education is an individual, life-long process involving physical, mental, emotional and social development to produce happy, responsible citizens. The vision of Sydney River Elementary School is to produce students who are educated to their potential, are responsible, caring, self-disciplined, motivated and view themselves as lifelong learners.
Students should not arrive at the school before the arrival of the first bus in the morning. Supervision of students does not begin before 8:00 am. Grade Primary and Grade 1 students may come into the school and put their bookbags and lunches in their classrooms before going outside to play. Students in Grades 2 to 6 are to place their bookbags, etc. in the appropriate area outside. These students should not enter the building without permission unless weather conditions warrant. Recess time for all students is from 10:20 to 10:35 am. All students are expected to go outside during recess except on days that the weather is not suitable. If, for some reason, a parent wishes that their child remain indoors during recess, a note must be sent to the teacher stating the reason(s). There is a faculty of more than 50 teachers, teacher aids, specialists and volunteers. Our school offers students the opportunity to participate in many interesting extra-curricular activities as well as many rare learning experiences. Our school provides the following facilities to our students:
Three ground supervisors are employed by the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board in order to provide supervision for the students of Sydney River Elementary School. These supervisors are responsible for loading and unloading bus students as well as school ground and lunch supervision. These individuals continue to do an excellent job in ensuring the safety of our children. As in previous years, we will once again be participating in the Nova Scotia Milk Program. Cartons of 2% milk can be purchased by $.35 each. Milk tokens are available at the office for $7.00 for a bag of 20 tokens. During the school year, especially during the winter months, school may have to be cancelled for a number of reasons - weather, furnace problems, lack of water, etc. When an individual school is closed for a day, the six-day schedule continues. For example, if Sydney River Elementary was shut down on a Day 3 due to lack of heat the children would return the next day to Day 4. However, if the whole district is closed due to weather or road conditions then that day would be repeated. If a storm caused a cancellation of all schools on Day 3, the students would return the next day to Day 3. Because it is impossible to predict when school will be cancelled, we strongly advise parents to have alternate arrangements in place for the care of their children. If you are not going to be at home, it is essential that your child(ren) are aware of an alternate plan that will ensure their safety. When students are being dropped off or picked up at the school certain traffic regulations must be followed to ensure the safety of our children. Only school buses and other school board vehicles are permitted on the school grounds while students are present. Students must be dropped off or picked up on Philip Street. Sydney River Elementary School is committed in its attempt to provide as safe a learning environment as possible for all of the children who attend this school. We presently have a number of children enrolled in our school who have life-threatening allergies. These children have severe allergies to peanut products and contact with any products containing peanuts or peanut oil could cause the child to go into anaphylactic shock possibly resulting in death. As a result, we are asking your continued cooperation in helping to make Sydney River Elementary School as peanut-free as possible. Children are asked not to bring any items that contain peanuts or peanut products to school. Again this year we will provide a full, 5-day lunch program at the school. The program will consist of cheese pizza, baked chicken nuggets, Subway sandwich, and a chicken wrap. The price will be $2.00 per item. Lunch tokens can be purchased at $20.00 for ten tickets from the office. Sydney River Consolidated Elementary School first opened its doors on Tuesday, December, 7, 1965 as Sydney River Junior High School. It remained as such until the beginning of the 1974 school year, when Malcolm Munroe Memorial Junior High School opened. The building was then transformed into an elementary school.
As time went on through the 1960's and 70's, the population of Sydney River rose at an incredible rate. In 1983, the Cape Breton District School Board made a large addition to the already existing building. The Honorable Terence Donahoe was on hand to open the new section which provided a library, gym, art room, cafeteria, music room and new office space, as well as six new classrooms. At its largest enrollment, there were over 700 children attending Sydney River Elementary, making it one of the biggest elementary schools in the district. Kids came from areas all over, including Sydney River, Howie Centre, Sydney Forks, Sydney and Prime Brook. Since the mid-eighties, the population of the school has slowly been declining each year to its current level at just over 330 students. Our school currently has the following extra-curricular activities:
There are a number of students, staff and parents who are asthmatic and/or allergic to various chemical-based or scented products. In attempting to make the environment at Sydney River Elementary as healthy as possible for everyone, we are asking that staff, students and visitors to our school refrain from wearing scented products. With everyone's cooperation we can help alleviate these health concerns. |
