August, 2024
Welcome to General Vanier Public School!
I am honoured and privileged to have this opportunity to introduce myself and share my enthusiasm about being your school’s Principal for the sixth year. Before coming to General Vanier in September 2019, I was the Vice Principal and Acting Principal at Blossom Park Public School. The first 12 years of my 30 year education career was in Toronto (Scarborough) before moving to beautiful Ottawa in 2005. I have taught in all three divisions (primary, junior and intermediate) as well as in Special Education (LST/LRT) and as an Instructional Coach for both school boards. Being a learner and supporting the learning of others is an ongoing passion!
We are a small but mighty school with Kindergarten to grade 3 classes. We are an English only site with a bilingual Kindergarten and a daily Core French program for our grade one, two and three learners. Many of our students and their families are multi-language users bringing a rich diversity of language and culture to our school. At General Vanier, our students are known as ‘Soldiers of Kindness’ as we all believe it is our responsibility to spread kindness and compassion so that every person in our school feels welcomed, valued and respected.
“Empathy and kindness need to be taught, practiced, modeled, and reinforced just like learning math and reading.” Lori L. Desautels, Ph. D.
Each new school year often brings with it new staff. This school year we welcome back Pratheepa Anandkumar who joined our team last October as the grade 2/3 teacher and this year will be one of our grade 2 teachers. Natasha Ljutic joins our team this year as a Learning Resource Teacher, Kindergarten coverage teacher as well as the primary Arts teacher for our primary classes. Mr. Edward Shammas will continue as one of our Kindergarten teachers and will also be our English as a Second Language teacher. Avra Kates and Manal Salah join our amazing Early Childhood Educator team (replacing Ariel Waite-Moffat and Christina Malloy during their maternity leaves this year) and Shannon Kirton and Claudia Bascar join our Educational Assistant team.
Our building is maintained and cared for by our Chief Custodian, Mark Jefferies who came back to our school in May and we could not be more pleased to have him back! He is supported by our hardworking Night Custodian, Izzy Omar.
This year’s School Council executive members are Catherine Burke (Chairperson) and Joan Evans (Treasurer). Our School Council is always looking for new members and volunteers. Elections for the executive members will take place in late September. School and home partnerships are essential to our students’ success.
When students feel safe, included and valued, learning can happen. This year, our staff will continue learning about and using the resource, The Third Path: A Relationship-Based Approach to Student Well-Being and Achievement by Dr. David Tranter. Social-Emotional Learning skills are essential for our young learners. Following the OCDSB’s Strategic Plan and ongoing work with the Language and Math curriculums will continue to be the focus of our professional learning and commitment to well-being and academic success this school year.
I continue to be so grateful for your support and look forward to either welcoming back or meeting you and your children as we work together to foster the development of respectful, caring, responsible, anti-racist and self-directed learners.
Sincerely,
Christina Rathier
Principal