Safety

A safe and welcoming school environment is essential for students to grow and develop in mind, body and spirit. Establishing and maintaining this positive and safe atmosphere is achieved by staff, students, parents/guardians and the community working together.

Security and Signing In

All visitors (parents, relatives, resource personnel, etc.) must report to the office immediately upon entering the school. To facilitate this, all exterior school doors will remain locked during the day. A camera has been installed and our wonderful office staff can buzz you in.

Please be patient with us as we work to maintain safety within our Catholic School Community!

We thank you in advance for helping us to keep our children safe.

Parents may wait for their child outside between the hours of 3:00 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. If you are simply picking up your child, the office will call the student down to the office and will send your child to you. If you are simply dropping something off, please wait until 3:20 p.m., when the secretary is allowed to let you in. This limits and tracks who has access to our students, minimizing interruptions and increasing the safety of all students.

Visitors must sign in and wear a visitor identification tag. When leaving, visitors should sign out at the office and return the tag.

Other Ways That We Keep Our Students Safe

• • We teach our students about Catholic Virtues and conflict resolution strategies.

  • All members of our community support our Code of Conduct .

  • All parents and visitors state their business at the office upon arrival.

  • Students are supervised at all times.

  • Alcohol, smoking, and illicit drugs are strictly prohibited on school property.

  • Medications are distributed and logged according to Board Policy.

  • When students are not going home in the usual manner, a morning note or phone call is required.

  • A safe arrival procedure is in place to alert staff to unexplained student absence.

  • The school community works cooperatively with bus operators to ensure safe bus transportation.

  • Skateboards, scooters, roller blades, and bicycles must be walked on and off of school property.

  • Emergency Response Plans are in place for at-risk students.

  • A School Emergency Preparedness Plan for Crisis Response including evacuation is up-to-date.

  • Fire drills are conducted each term.

  • The school site is inspected regularly.

  • WHMIS protocols are followed.

  • The Kids Help Line number (1-800-668-6868) is included in the student agenda.

  • We seek assistance from Board Social Work personnel.

  • We seek assistance from Board-approved community agencies.

  • Students must sign an Internet Acceptable Use Agreement form for each division of their education at PVNC Catholic District School Board.

Leaving School Property

Students who will be going home for lunch daily, are required to supply a note to the school at the beginning of the school year.

Other occasions of leaving school property require the following:

Kindergarten to Grade 6

All students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 are to remain on school property until dismissed at the end of the day - exceptions are those who go home for lunch and those picked up by parents at the office for personal appointments.

Students must have notes to leave the school for any reason.

Grade 7 and 8 Students

A note signed by a parent is required each time a Grade 7 and 8 student is going to leave school property at lunch. Grade 8 students are permitted to leave the school for lunch all year. Grade 7 students are only permitted to leave for lunch in the month of June on specified days.

This note should be on a separate piece of paper, not in the child's agenda. This note must be given to the classroom teacher first thing in the morning. The Teacher will then send the note to the office where it will be filed.

When parents give permission for their child to leave school property, the parent is assuming responsibility for their child's actions.

The school will assume responsibility for the child once they have returned to school.

Once the child is back on school property, they will not leave again.

For those parents who do not give their child permission to leave school property at lunch, we expect that children do not bring items or food back to school for them. Should students not adhere to this request, their parents will be notified, and they will lose the privilege to leave school property at lunch for 1 week.

Please review safety issues and your parental expectations with your child.