Embrace the Charm of Fall at Royal Oak

October 2

Dear Royal Oak Families,

It’s hard to believe we’re already into November! The change in seasons has brought a wonderful sense of momentum and energy across our classrooms. Students are diving deeply into their learning, and our community spirit continues to shine bright. Thank you for the continued support, enthusiasm, and joy you bring to Royal Oak — it shows up in whatever we do as a community, and it’s what makes our school such a vibrant and connected place to learn and grow, even as the days grow shorter and a little cooler.

Next week marks our Mid-Term Break, a well-deserved opportunity for students to rest and recharge before we head into a busy and exciting second half of the month.

This week’s Parent-Teacher Interviews are an important moment for reflection and collaboration. With more than eight weeks of school behind us, these conversations allow us to share meaningful observations about each child’s academic progress and socio-emotional growth, as well as to discuss next steps for continued success. Whether your questions relate to classroom learning, homework, or transitions to high school, these discussions are invaluable in supporting every student’s journey. Please remember that Progress Reports will go live on Toddle on November 21, offering a concise overview of learning before our full report cards are issued in February and June.

When we return from the break, we begin the joyful march toward the holiday season. Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Christmas are all on the horizon, and we look forward to celebrating the diversity and togetherness that define our community. Our Grade 1–8 students will attend the Shaw Festival’s Christmas Carol, join in the Niagara-on-the-Lake Holiday Parade on December 13, and, of course, take the stage for our Holiday Performance on December 11 — sure to be a highlight of the season!

Please take a moment to review the important updates and upcoming events listed below, and enjoy your well-earned family time during the break.

With warmest regards,

Julia Murray, Head of School

Halloween at ROCS

Although rainy and not the warmest, Halloween was still one of the year's highlights at ROCS. Students visited our neighbours at the Niagara Long Term Care Residency, spreading poems, songs, and jokes with our senior friends. They enjoyed Halloween fun and activities in their classrooms, before heading out into the community to visit both local residents at their houses for "Trick or Eat", as well as local businesses who generously support us each year in this outreach for Newark Neighbours.

A huge thank you to:

The Oban Inn

NOTL Realty

Victoria Teas

The Old Tyme Candy Shoppe

Puppy and Dog Fashion

MUST Boutique

The Olde Angel Inn

Nina Gelateria

Irish Design

And our families:

Ana Gomez & Ed Merkely

Tom & Kim Elltoft

Robin & Sam Ridesic

David Clemmer & Stephane Aubin

Mid-Term Break & School Closure - November 10-14

Royal Oak School is closed November 10-14 for regular instruction, while we enjoy a weeklong break and rest. With a school day almost 60 minutes longer than the public system, this pause gives our students and families time to rest, recover, and rejuvenate for the remainder of the term, November 14 - December 19.

As with all occasions when Royal Oak is closed, we will be running a Camp to ensure your childcare needs are met if required. Please email camps@royaloakschool.ca to sign up.

Gateway Proposal, Information Session -

November 18, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

The James A. Burton Family Foundation will be at Royal Oak School on November 18 from 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm to share their incredible work, vision, and prospective plan for the Gateway Project.

This session will be your opportunity to connect with the Foundation, learn in detail about both their in-depth process and plans for 176 Wellington Street. Free aftercare will be provided for all children and families that require it - just email admin@royaloakschool.ca to let us know whether you and your child plan to attend.

Welcome, Brock TC's!

ROCS has a long-standing educational relationship with Brock University's Faculty of Education. The school regularly hosts Teacher Candidates twice a year who would like to learn our unique way of teaching the inquiry/outdoor education philosophy.

Beginning Monday, November 3rd, our Early Years to Upper Middle seasoned teachers will welcome the following Brock Teacher Candidates to our school.

EY - Sean Callaghan

P1 - Nadine Glaskell

JM - Kassandra Jones

UM - Ashley Abraham

School-Wide-French - Sandra Vangas Orellana

These teacher candidates are with us until Winter Break and will be observing, teaching classes, and participating in all aspects of ROCS. Make sure to introduce yourself and say hello when you can!

Scholastic Book Fair Success

The Book Fair has been a hive of activity this week! Students had the opportunity to visit in their classes, make a "Wish Lists", and enjoy purchasing books and related gifts to support our school fundraising and just in time for the holiday season!

The Book Fair will be open for the last day this Friday, November 7 until 2 pm, if you wish to stop by during Parent Teacher Interviews to check it out!

October Character Awards

The Early Years Class shared a wonderful presentation about Thankfulness and Gratitude on Wednesday, October 29th to celebrate our Character Themes throughout the school in October.

This month's winners are:

• Early Years - Charlotte M.

• P1 - Rosie J.

• P2 - Merritt H.

• JM - Margot J.

• UM - Austin P.

Giant Map Activity

From November 17 - 21, Royal Oak will receive a "Giant Map" from Canada National Geographic. This wonderful resource must be booked a year ahead, as it is an incredible teaching tool and experience for children who will physically experience walking on, around, and through our Giant Map, "Biinaagami".

Biinaagami: Our Shared Responsibility to the Great Lakes". (Biinaagami: Our shared responsibility to the Great Lakes | Canadian Geographic Education) will be an opportunity for our teachers to expand our Indigenous and environmental programming and deepen our students' understanding of the importance of our local waterways in Canada, and their effect on every aspect of our lives. We look forward to sharing this experience with you as we dive in after our return from the break!

First Coffee Cafe of the Year

The first Coffee Cafe of the year was a success, and we hope that the momentum keeps going!

As many of you are aware, ROCS Upper Middle students provide leadership each year to our "Coffee Cafe", a fundraiser for Camp Wenonah. This initiative helps lower the cost for our students to attend our end-of-year, four-day outdoor education trip, while providing our eldest students a chance to practice financial literacy skills, "balance the books", and provide leadership for a fun weekly event. Students' "Coffee Cafe" will occur most Fridays at our Main Doors from 8:15 am, and families can purchase coffee, hot chocolate, and baked goods to support this initiative!

"A Christmas Carol" Trip, December 3

Royal Oak will be attending the Shaw Festival's "A Christmas Carol" on December 3 for both a backstage workshop and a performance of this beloved holiday tradition. This show is for all students in Primary 1 - Upper Middle (due to age restrictions for younger children), and we have ordered enough tickets for ten parent chaperones to join us at the reduced Royal Oak Price of just $35 per ticket. Lunch Credits will be used to pay for each participating child's tickets, or you can e-transfer us separately if you prefer.

Parents, please email admin@royaloakschool.ca if you would like to join us on this special occasion!

Royal Oak Open House for New Families - December 5, 2025

On December 5, Royal Oak will open its door to prospective new members of our community for the 2026/2027 school year! Our Open House is an important opportunity for families to come meet our teachers, students, and see & FEEL what makes Royal Oak so special. Our Open House will be advertised around the community and on social media, but there is no better referral than word of mouth! Please share this news and flyer widely with your friends and family or better yet, hit "Share" when you see it on our socials!

CLASSROOM UPDATES

Early Years

October in Early Years was a very exciting month! In Literacy, we’ve continued learning about our Letters of the Week, working through Literacy centres (including using iPads for RazKids reading and Boom Cards for sight word recognition), and starting some writing assignments. In Math, we’ve continued to learn about numbers from 0-20, including adding and subtracting, as well as all the ways we can represent numbers. In Inquiry, the kids learned about Living and Nonliving Things, and have had an interactive unit on Fall Fruits. We currently have a pumpkin and apple experiment going in our hallway - we are waiting to find out what happens to both if they sit in a closed container for a long time. Stay tuned to see what happens! We are all so proud of how hard the students work each day, and are looking forward to the month ahead. I would also like to say how excited we are to welcome Brock Teacher Candidate, Sean Callighan, to our class from November 3 until Winter Break. I hope everyone enjoys a well-deserved November Break, and we will see you back at school soon!

Primary 1

WOW! Another month has come to an end! October is the first official month of autumn and by the end of the month the leaves are vibrant red, yellow and orange. October is the month when students have mastered the new rules and routines and are ready to get down to business. Math has focussed on ordering and comparing two-digit and three-digit numbers. Students were able to make their own greater than, less than signs and use them when comparing numbers with a classmate. Students are currently working on a Patterning Unit. They are able to create, extend and label a pattern using paper and pencil tasks and hands-on manipulatives. Finding the core and creating patterns according to specific attributes is being practiced in our math centres. This month, students began using the classroom tablets to research facts about Thanksgiving. Each student wrote one ‘Turkey Trivia’ fact that they learned and displayed this fact on a leafy Thanksgiving Day piece of art. The main focus in Literacy has been Journal writing. This is the beginning of ‘real’ writing in the Primary grades. Students are expected to recount personal experiences, constructing full sentences, and neatly illustrating the experience. The children have written about their Thanksgiving weekend, their memories of our trip to the Great Pumpkin Patch and their favourite part of Halloween. In Inquiry, students have been busy constructing a Venn diagram with a partner, comparing and contrasting their responsibilities at home. October is a month all about pumpkins. The Primary class, along with the Early Years classroom and Primary 2, visited the Great Pumpkin Patch. During our visit, the children learned all about pumpkins through an interactive play, escaped a straw maze and corn maze, enjoyed a hay ride to the pumpkin patch to choose a pumpkin, and concluded the trip with a delicious fresh apple. Learning about pumpkins does not stop there. Primary students worked in groups to carve pumpkins for Halloween, and are presently engaged in an in-depth study of pumpkins. The children will be comparing the interior of different types of pumpkin, constructing 3-D models of the lifecycle of pumpkins, doing pumpkin research, and comparing the seeds of various fruits. One of the highlights of the pumpkin carving is the “Chucking of the Pumpkins”, which is when the Primary students are allowed to throw their carved pumpkins into the forest, returning nature to nature. If November is like October, we are in for more FUN!!!

Primary 2

It feels as if October has flown by! Primary 2 has had so many amazing adventures and learning experiences this month, including our Pumpkin Patch trip, lunch at Sunset Grill, the Tiny Museum, and Trick or Eat! In Language, we have been working on our journals, practicing sentence structure and grammar. We also had an amazing opportunity to write letters to businesses within the community regarding Trick or Eat, and then hand them out personally which was a very meaningful experience for Primary 2. Students have been expressing a strong interest in writing and we are excited to continue to grow it with narrative writing. In Math we finished our patterning unit and dove deep into our representing whole numbers unit. As a part of our Halloween celebrations, we turned the classroom into a math escape room. Where students had to answer a series of math problems related to what we have worked on in class to escape the haunted house! In Inquiry, we finished our Matter unit by exploring building our own toys using two states of matter. Students were then required to describe the properties of each matter. We have started looking into Treaties and communities in Canada between 1780 and 1850. We have had very meaningful and significant discussions so far and I am excited to see where they will take our learning. October has been a very reflective and community-engaged month, I am very excited to take our experiences and learnings from this month and apply them to the remainder of the school year!

JUNIOR & UPPER MIDDLE :

A Month of Leadership, Learning, and Community in Middle School

What an incredible month it’s been in the world of Middle School at Royal Oak! As the year continues, our students have truly been rising to the challenges and responsibilities that come with being leaders in our school community. October was filled with hands-on learning, meaningful connections, and opportunities to grow both inside and outside the classroom.

Honoring Remembrance and Community

We began the month with a touching experience alongside members of the Royal Canadian Legion, as both Middle School classes took part in a flag ceremony to replace the flags on the graves of local soldiers. Each student took time to pause, read, and honor the memory of a soldier — a moment of reflection that will guide our learning and understanding throughout Remembrance Month in November.

The Junior Middle class also showed incredible leadership by partnering with Primary 2 to deliver letters to our community, inviting families to donate to our annual Trick or Eat food drive. Despite a little extra rain on Halloween, our students’ enthusiasm never wavered! Together, the Junior & Upper Middle students collected an impressive number of donations for Newark Neighbours, helping to feed those in need this season.

Adventures in Language Arts

In Language Arts, creativity has been in full swing!

• The Junior Middle students have been exploring stories through prediction and main idea — diving into The Roll Away Pumpkin just in time for Halloween. Inspired by the story, they designed their own imaginative pumpkins, connecting literacy with art and seasonal fun.

• The Upper Middle class has been mastering procedural writing, learning how to give (and follow!) clear instructions. After watching Nailed It!, they quickly discovered that even small mistakes in following directions can lead to some “interesting” results! Using what they learned, they created their own spooky menus and recipes based on the story Skeleton for Dinner. When we return from the break, students will put their writing skills — and taste buds — to the test as they follow simple recipes to make some delicious treats in class!

Exploring the World Through Social Studies

Both classes have been broadening their global perspectives in Social Studies.

• Junior Middle has been discussing the Rights of the Child — exploring who makes decisions, why these rights matter, and what happens when they are not upheld. These discussions will deepen as we begin reading The Breadwinner, a powerful novel that brings these ideas to life.

• Meanwhile, Upper Middle students wrapped up their continent exploration unit, diving into research projects on the seven continents of the world. Their presentations were full of fascinating facts and insights about geography, culture, and global diversity. Next, they’ll be comparing and contrasting different countries with Canada, further expanding their understanding of the world we live in.

November promises even more engaging learning experiences as we:

• Explore the theme of courage and what it means to be a hero

• Launch our exciting novel studies

• Continue making meaningful connections between classroom learning and the world around us

It’s inspiring to see our Middle School students taking initiative, showing leadership, and learning with such enthusiasm. We can’t wait to see how they continue to grow throughout this next month!

Math

Our Number Sense units drew to a close this month, with students having laid a solid foundation upon which to build.

• Our study of Place Value took more time in Junior Middle as these math enthusiasts really relish our day “brain blenders”.  What is meant to turn their minds on in preparation for a lesson have, on a few occasions, been enjoyed so much that they have consumed the majority of a math period.  The creative problem solving and practice of fundamental math skills that occurs during these times has been outstanding - and fun!  How can that not be indulged?!  Still, we moved our way through Rounding and Estimating using Benchmarks, took a lesson outdoors, and later the students displayed impressive skill and conceptual understanding on their assessments. Now, we’re on to Decimals.

• Much of this month in Upper Middle was spent on Multiples and Factors. This necessitated calling upon multiplication skills and building up mental math capabilities.  We worked with recipes to provide a practical application of multiples and this led us into a quick refresh of fractions (If one batch of cookies requires ⅔ cup of sugar, how much sugar do you need to make 3 batches?).  The math route seems to branch a lot, and so factoring took us into Prime Numbers and some work with Exponents.  We’re really delving into Exponents and Squares, now, but we’ll circle back to Multiples and Factors and Lowest Common Multiples & Greatest Common Factors after the break. 

*In the spirit of multidisciplinarity, we combined art, math, and culture and Upper Middle students were given the opportunity to work on their Halloween costumes.  Some chose to use the needles, thread, and material to do just that, while others wanted to work on a custom hand-sewing project.  The sewing kit and some fledgling projects remain in the room to fill future free time.

Science

To add meaning and interest to our study of living things, Middle School students chose an organism for their independent inquiry into seven unifying Life Processes.  Different species of furry animals, fish, insects, trees, fungi, and bacteria were selected and researched.  Slideshows, hand-drawn and Canva posters, and documents were created and the vast majority were then presented to the class.  What resulted was exposure to the wide diversity of life.  

From there, we more formally moved into study of the Tree of Life and the ancestral relationships, similarities, and differences between the six Kingdoms of Life.  Oh, and I should add that we’ve started a “mold wall” with students contributing various elements from their lunch for a student-driven inquiry into the food rot.  (It sounds not so nice but, they are into it!)

Upcoming November Dates to Note:

• November 3rd to Friday, November 7th: Scholastic Book Fair, 8:30 am - 4:30 pm

• Wednesday, November 5th: NOTL Tiny Museum visit: - Treaty Awareness Week!

• Thursday, November 6th & Friday, November 7: Parent/Teacher Interviews

• Friday, November 7th (Camp Available): Professional Development Day

• Monday, November 10th to Friday, November 14th (Camp Available): Mid-Term Break

• Friday, November 21st: Progress Reports go live on Toddle

• Friday, November 28th: Dress Down/Pizza Day

• Friday, December 5th: ROCS Open House 9am to 11:30am

• Thursday, December 11th - 6 pm to 7:30 pm: (Pick-up at the NOTL Community Center at 3:40 pm. There will be NO AFTER CARE.) Holiday Performance!

• Friday, December 19th: Dress down/Pizza Day/Last Day before Winter Break

Calling all business owners! Royal Oak is offering advertising space in the program for our Winter Concert on Thursday, December 11th! Advertising slots are being sold for the following prices: 

• 1/4 page (2.5"x3.75" portrait) for $20

• 1/2 page (5"x3.75" landscape) for $30

• full page (5"x7.75" portrait) for $50

• double-page spread (10"x7.75" landscape) for $80 

If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in advertising a local business, please reach out to Mrs.Hill (kristahill@royaloakschool.ca) to arrange this. All money goes directly back into supporting our school community.

A Look Ahead at ROCS: 

November 2025