Happy New Year!

January 2026

Dear Royal Oak Families,

That was quite the January!! 

With the coldest temperatures on record in over a decade, and one report even stating that Ontario last week was the “coldest inhabited place on earth”,  I think we are all happy to welcome in February! 

Despite the wintery weather, it’s been a wonderful month here at school, and the students have welcomed the snow bravely, as well as other changes in our classrooms such as new teachers, new subjects, and new challenges! As always, we are proud of them, and we happily share the updates from each classroom in the newsletter below.

From an administrative perspective, I want to thank all our families for their quick response and for respecting our “kiss and ride” procedures at drop-off. With snowbanks on the sidewalks and reduced roadway space, all parents, caregivers, and family members must park in our parking lot or only in designated spots, to avoid any dangerous situations for families walking or navigating enter the school up the ramp. These procedures help keep everyone safe and ensure a smooth and timely arrival for all students, and I’m grateful for your attention to this.

Other updates from my desk include that FAST, our Financial Aid for School Tuition, is open to Royal Oak returning families from January 1 until March 30. All families requiring bursary assistance need to reapply before the March 30 deadline, so we can determine what funds are available to new families applying to Royal Oak for the 2026/2027 school year. Re-enrollment forms will also be due March 30 this year, and information about fees for the upcoming school year will be shared prior to this. 

Looking ahead, February has a full calendar, and our first school-wide event is this Sunday at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharine's, where we will sing the national anthem and enjoy a game of hockey between our Ice Dogs, and the North Bay Battalion. Tickets are still available and you can check Toddle for the link to purchase your seats.  Later in February, our much-anticipated musical performance of Frozen Jr. on Friday, February 27, at 6:00 pm at the Community Centre. All costumes should now be in to our musical directors, Ms. Hill and Ms. Nyenhuis, and important scheduling of dress rehearsals as well as Community Centre pick-ups are in the news below. 

Please enjoy this news from the school, and the cold, snowy weekend ahead!Warm regards,Julia

Julia

Julia Murray, Head of School

2025/2026 Calendar

Click HERE to download and print the calendar.

Highlights from January

Royal Oak Character Award Winners for January

January’s character trait was Optimism. The Primary 2 class presented to the school during our first monthly assembly for 2026. They spoke about how being optimistic and taking on challenges with a positive attitude is good for personal growth. Here are our Character Award Winners for this month who are awarded a free dress down day.

EY: Jaheim H

P1: Laya M and Isaac J

P2: Gwenyth N

JM: Liam G and Lias B

UM: Amelia W

Winter Clubs began January 19th

We started some fun clubs this term:

Cocoa Club (Primary and Upper)

Chess Book Club

Lego Club

Modelling Club 

Full year clubs, such as Homework Club (Monday (P1/P2) & Wednesday (P1, P2 &MS) can still be joined by emailing with Ms. Dennis, or Ms. Robin.

Upcoming Activities

Ice Dogs Game anthem sing - Sunday, February 1st, 2026-3:00 pm

Every year ROCS students and staff are the stars on centre ice at the St. Catherine's Ice Dogs game, singing loud and proud. This year, our annual anthem sing is February 1st, 2026. To celebrate, we all wore Ice Dogs and hockey-themed clothing for our dress-down day Friday. It was great to see everyone's spirit!

Get ready to let it go! ❄

Our students are thrilled to present Frozen Jr. on Friday, February 27 at 6:00 pm at the NOTL Community Centre. This magical production brings the beloved story of Anna, Elsa, and their friends to life through music, laughter, and plenty of heart. Join us for an evening of incredible talent, teamwork, and Frozen fun that the whole family will enjoy!

Tickets will be $15 each at the door, and concessions will be available for purchase, and students need to be dropped in full costume by 5:30 pm that evening. Please read Toddle announcements carefully the week of February 23-27 for details about dress rehearsals at the Community Centre.

Camp Wenonah and Week Without Walls Update

Our annual overnight camp and Week Without Walls trips are fast approaching again this year! All students have the opportunity to participate in one of these two trips. This year the Grade 2 - 8 students are invited to attend Camp Wenonah from June 1st to June 4th. Our Early Years and Grade 1 students will be staying for Week Without Walls. Any child not participating in the overnight trip has the option to attend Week Without Walls.

We would like to gauge Camp Wenonah interest - please fill out this google form if you are a parent of a student in grade 2 and up, so that we know how many students will be attending. The cost has increased due to high fuel and food costs, and will be about $520 per student for 4 days, 3 nights (all meals and activities included). Please let Ms. Dennis know if you have any questions. The nonrefundable registration fee is $200 and is due by March 20th. Complete the form HERE.

We will be fundraising again this year to bring down the cost of these trips. Last year, with our Coffee Cafe Friday mornings and our Community Bake Sale in May, we raised about $2500 specifically for these trips. We hope to raise this amount again, so please join us on Friday mornings! Information about the BIG Community Bake Sale will be communicated by the end of March.

March Break and ROCS Summer Academy

Registration is now live on our website. Please visit https://www.royaloakschool.ca/camps to learn more or to register for our day camps.

Winter Season Reminders

We wanted to pass along some important updates for the weeks ahead as we navigate winter weather once again, and the respiratory viruses that come along with it. Washing hands, coughing or sneezing into sleeves, and keeping personal space in and out of the classroom are always enforced. We carefully monitor students for symptoms at school, and ask that all families continue to keep children home if they are sick. 

We certainly have experienced cold wintery weather this year! There are still some students arriving without appropriate winter gear and/or extra clothing, so please check that your child has all items.

Finally, a reminder that Royal Oak's policy on potential snow days is to open if we can safely ask our families and staff to navigate the roads. We check Niagara Regional Police reports on road conditions, speak with staff members by 6:00 am who come from areas like Welland and Port Colborne, and watch the weather reports closely.  If Royal Oak needs to close for a snow day due to unsafe road and weather conditions, you will receive an email and Toddle by 6:30 am, alerting you to the closure. On the first day of a closure, we will have a true "Snow Day" with no online school operating. If inclement weather goes beyond one day, we will activate online learning, using Toddle for remote lessons, and your child's classroom teacher will be in touch the evening before to share the plan.

Upcoming Important Dates

Sunday, February 1st - Ice Dogs Anthem Sing

Thursday, February 12 - Valentine's Celebrations at ROCS

Friday, February 13th - PD Day- Camp available

Monday, February 16th - Family Day- SCHOOL CLOSED

Tuesday, February 17 - Lunar New year and Ramadan (begins at sunset)

Wednesday, February 25- Anti-bullying/Pink shirt day

Friday, February 27th - ROCS production: Frozen Jr.

Monday, March 9-Friday, March 20th - March break

Exciting Times in Our Classrooms!

Early years

Happy New Year from Early Years! We came back from the break ready to continue growing and learning at tremendous rates. It was so nice getting to see all of the students again after a restful break. We were also extremely lucky to welcome four new Pre-K friends into our classroom community. 

In Literacy, we’ve started learning about Letter Blends and Digraphs. The students are putting their knowledge of letter sounds to use to help them decode the different blends. The Secret Stories book and posters in our class are also helping to teach some of the trickier letter sounds that we can’t decode. We’ve also continued our daily Heggerty lessons, where we are learning to listen to words and identify if they rhyme, what sound they hear at the beginning, middle, and end of words, breaking words into syllables, and much more. 

In Math, we’ve been working hard to sort objects in various ways, including by size, shape, colour, and more. Now we're working on recording data in various ways. In Inquiry, we started off the New Year with a unit about Dinosaurs! Next, we headed into the universe to learn about Space. 

It truly has been a wonderful start to 2026! We can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for us!

Primary 1

Well, it is hard to believe that we are already at the end of January! It feels like we were just celebrating Christmas and New Year’s Day. Time has a way of flying by, especially when you are doing what you love in a place that you love! 

January is always a busy month in Primary. The students return to school, excited to see their friends, recharged, healthy and eager to jump back into learning. With a new year comes new units to explore. In Math, the students have been busy investigating 2-D and 3-D shapes and solids. Students have been learning new math terminology about shapes and solids. Vertex, angle, parallel, protractor, symmetrical, acute, obtuse and congruent are now a part of their growing math vocabulary. They have been sorting, building, and finding shapes and solids and describing them using their new math terms. 

One of the favourite math concepts is Money. They are fully engaged in learning the names of, values of, and distinguishing features of the Canadian coins. The Primary students are excited to learn how to count their coins and write the amount of money they have. This is a life skill that will be practiced throughout the remainder of the school year. 

Inquiry is also a subject in which we are exploring and building. We are in the process of completing an “Our Water, Our Life” inquiry unit, the unit that began as a result of our exposure to the Biinaagami Giant Map. Students have been acquiring knowledge about how clean water travels to their homes, the fact that not all individuals have access to this basic need, what they can do to conserve water and how this life-sustaining substance becomes polluted. Over the next week, students will be busy building a water filtration system and a water-saving device. 

The month of January is always a time for change and reflection on personal goals. Students learned about resolutions, and have been busy during Writer’s Workshop writing about their New Year’s resolutions for home and school life. They have been learning about the Writing Process and will be producing a final, polished and illustrated good copy. 

The students in Primary visit Madame Chaudoreille four times a week. During January, the students worked on the days of the week with La planète bariolée (the colourful planet) and are now learning phonemes with common words and simple actions. 

Miss Paris braves the outdoor elements twice a week for phys-ed. Primary students completed a unit on Cooperative Games, learning the importance of working together with their peers to achieve a common goal and focusing on the many ways they can demonstrate the characteristics of an effective teammate. Students participated in a variety of large- and small-group games and activities to help them gain a thorough understanding of these topics. 

WOW!!! What a month!! I cannot wait to see what will happen in February…

Primary 2

It feels as if January flew by! We have truly experienced a Canadian winter, which, for Primary 2, has meant hunkering down and being very engaged in our learning. There were many exciting learning experiences and opportunities in January, including STEM activities, educational games, publishing some writing, and lots of research!

In language, Primary 2 worked very hard this month to write their own personal narrative stories using everything we learned about narrative stories and the writing process over the last month. As a celebration, we had a publishing party! Students were given the opportunity to give an official reading of their stories for the Primary classes, and to answer some questions about their writing process. I am so proud of how much effort and creativity Primary 2 put into their stories! 

In math, we wrapped up measurement, and began a unit on 2D and 3D shapes. We created, described, classified, and decomposed various 2D and 3D shapes. Primary 2 was very excited to build 3D shapes using the outlines of the respective nets! They also had a lot of fun building the skeleton of many 3D shapes using play-doh and toothpicks. Aside from multiple hands-on experiences, we reinforced learning through math games. Some of our favourites from our shape unit were “shape bingo” and “3D shape snap”, where students had to identify the attributes of a shape to win the point! 

Inquiry this month was very research-based! As a class, we used various resources to research what life was like for Indigenous and Settler communities during the 1780s to 1850s! Now it is time to put our learning on display. We will be working on creating a museum exhibit featuring some of the history, information or objects we have been learning about. 

Another fun learning experience we had this month was a snowman STEM activity, where students had to figure out how to make a snowman out of paper that stands by itself using their knowledge of 3D shapes. Overall, January was  an amazing month filled with learning of all kinds, and a promising look at the potential for Primary 2’s educational abilities.

Middle School

Happy 2026 from the Middle School!

Although the Middle School has seen some exciting changes this year, it truly feels like we never skipped a beat. We are thrilled to welcome Ms. Dennis to our Middle School team! With her extensive experience and passion for Language Arts and Social Studies, she has already made a wonderful impact on our students and classroom community.

January has been a month of renewal and momentum. Students spent time reestablishing routines, reconnecting with familiar expectations, and building upon prior knowledge. This season of resetting after winter break always brings meaningful growth, fresh energy, and a renewed love of learning.

Upper Middle: Where Math Meets Science

In Upper Middle, Mathematics and Science have come together in powerful ways through a shared focus on Form, Function, and Design of Structures. In Science, students explored different types of structures and examined how a structure’s form directly affects its function. They applied this thinking to a hands-on birdhouse design challenge, brainstorming ways to improve each structure to better meet the needs of birds.

Meanwhile, in Math, students investigated the properties of shapes and learned how to describe and analyze them using geometric and spatial reasoning. This knowledge was extended to studying how shapes move across the Cartesian Plane. Looking ahead to February, students will take on a large-scale design project, using both 2D and 3D shapes to create purposeful structures within assigned design constraints—an exciting opportunity to showcase creativity, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Upper Middle: At the Movies

The students have been busy writing reviews for their favourite movies or tv shows. They will be finishing this, and as a final project, they will create a DVD case that will complement their critiques. Next up- Book reports and reading comprehension with the book “Life as we Knew it”.

The class will continue with their independent studies on Canada and the world, learning in depth about our country and how it compares to other countries.

Junior Middle: Future Doctors in the Making

Junior Middle students have stepped into the role of medical students through an immersive science unit on the Human Body. Each week, students attend “medical lectures” to learn about different body systems and then head to labs where learning comes to life. From building working hand models to creating functioning lung simulations, students are exploring anatomy in meaningful, hands-on ways.

This interdisciplinary unit blends science, technology, and math while emphasizing real-world application. Students diagnose a patient of the week, identifying conditions and proposing treatments and community resources to support recovery. So far, they’ve studied the skeletal 

system through osteoarthritis and explored the respiratory system by learning about asthma—gaining both scientific knowledge and empathy along the way.

Junior Middle: Teaching Through Writing

Students have been learning about report writing and how to put together an informational report about something they know about. The class will finish their final copies and then teach the class all about their favourite things.

In Social Studies, the class is learning about diplomacy within our own global environments and within their imaginary worlds. The class will continue to look at communities and how they work together for the greater good.

It’s been a fantastic start to the year, and we can’t wait to see how our Middle School students continue to grow, create, and thrive in the months ahead! One thing is certain - knowledge is power - so keep doing those mental push-ups!