Welcome Back, Royal Oak!

Dear Royal Oak Families,

September always brings with it a special kind of magic. The classrooms and hallways are filled with fresh energy—new ideas, new friendships, and the promise of growth. There is something uniquely inspiring about the first weeks of school, as students settle into routines while still carrying that spark of curiosity and excitement that comes with beginnings. It is a time when our entire community feels energized by possibility- and by the fast pace and wonderful opportunities September has already provided us!  In just four short weeks, we have celebrated our Curriculum Night, our annual Terry Fox run, Principal for the day, Truth and Reconciliation Day, our Golf Tournament and begun our Fall Clubs Season. 

October is lined up to be just as eventful!

This month, we also recognize and celebrate the rich diversity within our community. For those marking Rosh Hashanah, we send warm wishes for a happy and joyful new year. Moments like these remind us how important it is to pause, reflect, and gather with loved ones to set intentions for the year ahead. As a school, we are fortunate to be enriched by the traditions and celebrations of the families who make up Royal Oak.

 We also celebrate National Day for Truth and Reconciliation this week. This day offers us the opportunity not only to learn about the histories and experiences of Indigenous Peoples in Canada but also to reaffirm our commitment to listening, understanding, and walking the path of reconciliation together. Our students will engage in age-appropriate discussions and activities that deepen their awareness of these important truths while fostering empathy and respect. Personally, I have the opportunity to attend a by invitation only educators conference in Winnipeg next week, October 6-9, to attend the Rideau Hall Foundation’s Indigenous Education Teachers Summit. This is a true privilege, and I look forward to sharing my learning with both the students and staff when I return! For those families who were able to join us last night for the Golf Tournament, thank you! It is a really special event, and a wonderful time to socialize and enjoy dinner and some time together and most importantly- to fundraise for our bursary program. This annual day is our primary fundraiser for the school year, and we hope you can plan to join next year so that our fundraising impact is even larger. A sincere thank you to our fundraising committee for this event: Kim Elltoft, Robin Ridesic, Brianne Hawley, Sarah Schoepfer, Syreeta Larkan, Shannon Fletcher, Ana Gomez and Jillian Campagnola.

As we move through September, I invite you to carry forward this spirit of renewal, reflection, and community. Together, we are building a school environment where every child feels valued, celebrated, and inspired to grow. Thank you for your ongoing support in helping us make Royal Oak a place of belonging and possibility for all. 

Warmest Regards,

Julia Murray, Head of School 

Principal for the Day

Our Annual Golf Tournament is an opportunity to come together at the beautiful Niagara on the Lake Golf Course to play, socialize and importantly- fundraise! Our biggest of the year, we aim to bring in as much money as possible to support our bursary program which ensures financial diversity at Royal Oak. One of the many awesome prizes for our silent auction is our “Principal of the Day” item- and this year, Merritt and Malcolm Hawley took charge!

Dress down, Pizza lunch and dance parties, Sundae Bars and Free Play were all part of the Principal for the Day schedule. Some photos of the fun below!

Lab school Visit for Staff Professional Development

We take Professional Development seriously as a staff, and have carved out two travel days in our calendar this year to visit Canada’s only Laboratory school focused on research and best-practice, the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study. As Ms. Julia’s former home, we were warmly welcomed into lecture and professional conversations, before spending the afternoon observing in teacher classrooms. From learning more about research in Inquiry based teaching, to specific practices supporting student achievement, it was a long, full day of teacher learning for ROCS staff!

The Terry Fox Run

ROCS students participated with great enthusiasm in this year’s annual Terry Fox Fundraiser. Our Junior Middle students designed and led engaging stations along the run route, featuring trivia, fitness challenges, and fun facts that celebrated Terry Fox’s life and accomplishments. The event was proudly launched by Upper Middle student Amelia W., who delivered a thoughtful presentation at Veterans Memorial Park on Terry Fox’s enduring legacy. The afternoon continued with a spirited run through the Commons, followed by time to relax and connect over play and popsicles in the park. Our school set a fundraising goal of $500, and thanks to the generosity of our ROCS community, we surpassed that target—raising $580. Contributions can still be made through the Terry Fox Foundation Pledge page HERE if you would like to contribute. 

Community Fridays

Starting on Friday, October 24, students in Primary to Upper Middle will be spending one Friday each month out in the community to engage with our partners and explore learning opportunities in Niagara on the Lake. 

For our first two “Community Friday’s”, we will participate in programming at the NOTL Library for the afternoon, including using the Maker Space and exploring literature and stories with the NOTL librarians. Students will walk to the NOTL Community Centre and spend the afternoon enjoying the various activities offered by the library. Pickup will be at the NOTL Community Centre that day at 3:40pm. Past Community Friday’s have included STEM time in the Makerspace, and learning with Oceans Canada in their immersive “underwater” dome!

Landscape of Nations TRC Field Trip

September 30th marks an important day in Canada as Truth and Reconciliation Day. ROCS students and staff observe this day by visiting the Landscape of Nations at Brock’s Monument in Queenston Heights. Students began the day with a lesson from Ms. Julia about the historical importance of the site and the people featured. The staff and students moved through the monument and learned the significance of our Indigenous partnership and the connection between the past and present. Teachers conducted different activities from designing a tile for one our school walls, to learning and making wampum belts. 

Parent Rep-Class Breakfasts

We can think of no better way to celebrate the start of a new year than to come together in our class communities for some coffee, breakfast and social time in our beautiful courtyard. Class Breakfasts take place twice yearly, in the fall and spring, and are organized by our amazing Parent Representatives. Parent reps are also our contact point for class social events like birthday parties, volunteering and answering any questions about school events in general. 

Thank you to the following parents for your engagement and leadership: 

Early Years- Jelena Fagerlund

Primary 1-  Rebecca Rodriguez

Primary 2- Andrea New

Junior Middle- Kendra Finlay

Upper Middle- Kelli Rain

3rd Annual Alumni Pizza Party

ROCS will be hosting another round of past and recent graduates on Thursday, October 9th from 4:30 to 5:30pm for our 3rd annual Alumni Pizza Party. This event is a great way for our Upper Middle students to get to see their friends that have gone on to High School and to ask questions and discuss the ins and outs of what will be coming up next in their academic careers. If any Upper Middle students want to join, please RSVP to Ms. Dennis to save your spot.

September Character Awards

Our first assembly of the year focussed on the character trait, Empathy. Our P1 students presented a beautiful skit of what they believe builds people up and tears them down and how we

can prevent that. Ms. Robin read a book called “Hey, Little Ant”, about a bully that is debating with an ant on whether he should squish it.

Each teacher nominated one of their students to win this month's character award. This month’s winners are:

Early Years- Harry S.

P1- Emily R.

P2- Isabel U.

JM- Elise W.

UM- Charlie M.

COFFEE CAFE

Again this year, we will be continuing with our ROCS Coffee Cafe Fridays. Every Friday morning from 8:15am to about 8:45am, we will be selling coffee and baked goods at the main entrance in the front garden. All money raised will go towards the cost of the bus to Camp Wenonah in June. The Middle School students will be in charge of this event and it will begin on Friday, October 17th. Come out and enjoy a morning treat while helping us fundraise for our year end activities.

CLASSROOM UPDATES

Early Years

September in Early Years has been very busy with a lot of learning, exploring, and playing happening! The kids have all quickly picked up on routines and expectations and are doing extremely well! We started the year off with important topics like getting to know each other, building a classroom community, and reminding ourselves of the importance of sharing and working together. In Literacy, we’ve been learning about our special names and have started focusing on Letters of the Week with the UFLI program, as well as utilizing our Heggerty Phonemic Awareness program. In Math, we’ve been learning all about different numbers from 0-20, including number recognition and learning how to write them. In Inquiry, we’ve already learned about Community Helpers, and now we’re focusing on Indigenous culture, including celebrating and honouring your heritage. The kids are all loving their different specialty subjects and teachers. It is so lovely seeing them come in everyday excited to hear what they are going to learn about and what fun things we will be doing as a class! I cannot wait to see what this school year will bring us!

PRIMARY 1/2

It is hard to believe that we have been in school for a month already! September is always a great month in Primary. Returning to school students are excited to reunite with old friends and meet new friends. This month our morning meetings have focused on activities that have encouraged team work, collaboration and community building. Students are busy learning new classroom rules, routines and expectations. Picture books are an important part of instruction and learning in our classroom. One of the first books shared this year was Butterflies on the first day of school written by Annie Silverstro and illustrated by Dream Chen. After reading this story, the Primary students made colourful butterfly suncatchers that we displayed on our beautiful bay window. September is a month of review, assessments and introductions of learning styles of each student. Primary is an important year as this is the year when the Daily 5 Literacy Program is introduced. Students are learning how to be ‘independent learners’, problem solving and critical thinking about tasks. September Math consists of Number Talks, Brain Benders and Which One Doesn’t Belong and learning how to positively critique classmates’ thinking and problem solving. Hands-On manipulatives and partner activities have been used to explore numbers to 200 and sorting rules. A large part of the Primary program is Inquiry, a combination of Social Studies and Science. Students are encouraged to informally ask questions and share ideas during our Wonder Wednesdays community circle. As well, students have been learning about their changing roles and responsibilities and played a game of charades to act out their responsibilities at a future job. The month has ended with our study about Indigenous history, culture and traditions, culminating with our yearly trip to Queenston Park and the Landscape of Nations to observe Truth and Reconciliation Day. Finally, the Primary class was responsible for presenting at our monthly assembly in September. Our students presented their ideas about empathy to the rest of the Royal Oak students. Well done, Primary!    

PRIMARY 2/3

We’ve had a great start to the school year! September has flown by with many memorable and educational moments. We have been working really hard on learning our routines and expectations, with much practice we are excited to carry on with them in October! During our morning meetings, we’ve been talking about kindness, respect, and having a growth mindset. Our class has been doing a great job of demonstrating these characteristics. In language we wrote letters to those in the community we wanted to send our appreciation, reviewing phonemes, sharing many read alouds, and continuing to implement our Daily 5 practice. In math, we learnt about skipping counting forwards and backwards by various numbers from 1 - 100. We are now working on patterning, understanding number and picture patterns in different formats. In Inquiry, we started the year learning about properties of solids and liquids. Completing various experiments to see how states of matter can change and what happens to the properties throughout that change. September was an amazing month, I am so excited to see what the remainder of the fall season has in store for Primary 2! 

JUNIOR & UPPER MIDDLE

A Combined Summary from Ms. Nyenhuis and Ms. Smith

The first month of school- officially completed! It has been great getting back in the swing of things as we kick off the 2025/2026 school year. Middle school has been a hum of learning as we dive back into content and get to know one another better. It has been great building our Middle School community with all the wonderful new faces joining us. This month has been filled with special events such as the Terry Fox run, Orange Shirt Day, and Truth and Reconciliation Day.  The Junior Middle class did an exceptional job leading the Terry Fox run with interactive stations from Terry Fox Jeopardy to 45 challenges in honour of the 45th anniversary of the Terry Fox run. We could not be prouder as they demonstrated the exceptional character traits of Terry Fox, such as resiliency, leadership, and enthusiasm. We are looking forward to our next big event in October, the Trick or Eat food drive! It is almost unbelievable that we are in the position to look back and reflect on the first month of school.  Most of us had a pretty terrific summer and it took a real change of gears to get back into the swing of school routines and expectations.  And, this is not to say that we aren’t still in the process of sorting things out because for as much as we have changed, we remain pretty green.

Learning skill development has been given a lot of emphasis in these first few weeks of math and science.  Building the habit of arriving in class on time and with the necessary notebooks and binders, writing the date on notes and hand-outs, and keeping these learning materials organized have been a focus.  Students have been developing their ability to maintain attention throughout double-blocks of math (50 min x 2!), which takes real effort.  As a class community, everyone is figuring out how best to participate and be respectful in whole group discussions, contribute to group work, and optimize time given for independent work. We will continue refining these skills throughout the year.

In Language Arts, the Middle school classes have been strengthening their literacy skills as we learn and explore a variety of stories. Each class begins with a story of the day that guides our lesson as we look at reading strategies, writing styles, and elements of grammar. The Upper Middle Class explored different parts of Terry Fox's life through creating a soundtrack that emphasizes key moments. They also created a poster display of different parts of the Marathon of Hope. Each poster highlighted the distance he ran, the major cities he went through, and key moments during that time of the run. In Junior Middle, we have been working on our reading strategies, such as reading comprehension, through discussion about big topics such as why Orange Shirt Day started and what Truth and Reconciliation Day is. 

In Social Studies, both groups have been exploring how place impacts who they are. Each group created a personal geography poster that highlighted places that meant something to them and helped shape who they are. We then took this as a starting point for each class to guide our Social Studies Units. In Junior Middle, we used this project to discuss what the Canadian Identity means to them and what it means to be Canadian. We explored different parts of Canada, such as the provinces and territories. In Upper Middle, this launched the conversation about why it is important to learn Geography and how geography is important. We will be using this knowledge to create a map of Niagara on the Lake with places that hold meaning and contribute to the identity of living in Niagara on the Lake.

In Math we have been reviewing and refining Number Sense, thus laying the foundation for our transition into algorithms.  Some have found the Open Questions to be a bit tricky but I am confident that this creative approach will reap great results in the long run. Others are finding this phase of review/pre-assessment to be “easy’ and I think that’s a terrific way to start our mathematical journey - confident and looking for a challenge.  Alrighty, then…!!!

Through Science and Art, students have been exploring the big idea of “Who I Am”.  In Science, they have engaged in very personal explorations of personality and multiple intelligence and then the larger concept of what it means to be living (or non-living).  The notion of science as a theory or, our best guess at this moment in time, has been shared as it has particular relevance to the rapid changes being brought on by Artificial Intelligence and other new technologies.  Students are now beginning research on an organism of interest; they will do a brief study and share their findings with the class in a gallery style.  From there, they will move on to an independent Creature Creator project to solidify their understanding of the essential life processes and the diversity of life.  

Students have been building their art practice through observational sketching every class.  Their self-reflective study has included a Symmetrical Name (creature) creation and is moving on to self-portraiture. 

Parent Volunteers needed for ROCS Santa Claus  Parade Float Committee

For the Second year in a row, ROCS will have a float in the NOTL Santa Claus Parade and we are looking for parent volunteers to help!.  Last year’s float set a high bar for Royal Oak, and followed the theme of our February drama presentation, Seussical, the Musical.  This year’s theme will be in honour of this year’s production of Frozen Jr. 

Any interested volunteers can email Ms. Dennis at laureendennis@royaloakschool.ca . The committee  will meet in mid-October to start planning.

Royal Oak PD Camps, November Break and Winter Break Day Camp

Royal Oak will again be offering PD camps, as well as November Break, Winter Break and  March Break camps this year. This is dependent on enrollment for the day and will only run if there are 6 or more children. If you are interested in having your child in our Royal Oak Camps, please see our website PD Camps or email camps@royaloakschool.ca . The camps will be $50 per day and include fun academic, creative and sports related activities based on our inquiry and outdoor education philosophy. 

Again this year we will provide PD camps for the public and catholic board PD days. Please see the flyer below and let your friends and family know that we are open for camp on those days for children ages 4 to 12.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday, October 1st - ROCS Golf Tournament Fundraiser 

Thursday, October 9th- Alumni/Upper Middle School Pizza Night, 4:30 pm 

Friday, October 10th - PD day for students, PD Camp available, all staff at school in                                             Professional Dev.

Monday, October 13th - Thanksgiving Holiday - No School

Thursday, October 16th-  EY, Primary 1 and Primary 2 field trip to the the Great Pumpkin Patch

Friday, October 24th- NOTL library visit- Pick-up at the NOTL Community Centre

Friday, October 31st- Halloween Dress up and Community Trick or Eat 

A LOOK AHEAD AT OCTOBER