Parent Handbook YOUR CHILD'S DAY At Our Community School children are engaged in hands-on integrated learning experiences. The school curriculum is based on the state standards and is age appropriate. Children may spend time drawing, painting, writing, reading, solving problems, working with clay, block building, having discussions, going on field trips, wood working, and many other activities. Students use tools such as art, writing, reading, talking, and building to learn and communicate at all ages. School Clothes: As students are involved in hands-on activities such as art and woodworking and they also spend time each day doing physical activities outside, parents must send their children to school in comfortable, washable clothes and practical shoes. Flip-flops, heels and open-toed sandals are not appropriate school attire. Parents are encouraged to label all of their child's clothing. Younger children especially should keep an extra change of labeled clothing in their backpacks in case of accidents. Lost & Found: A lost and found bin is kept in one of the classrooms each year as a community service. Items are also commonly found on the hooks near the front doors of the classroom or in the child's cubbies. Parents should check the lost and found regularly. Four times a year all lost and found items will be donated to goodwill. The week before all items will be displayed on tables and the fence in front of the K/1 yard. Toys: Children may bring in items to share with their class on designated share days, or they may bring in items that pertain to the class curriculum (e.g. a book about the Chumash when their class is studying this) on any day. The school strongly discourages children from bringing in toys and will not take responsibility for lost toys at school. Electronics of any kind are not permitted on campus as well. Items such as, but not limited to, Gameboys, cell phones, and CD players will be removed from the child's possession and be available for parent pick up after school. Children who need to have cell phones for after school must keep them turned off and away from view during school hours. Fieldtrips: OCS views the world as a potential classroom. Fieldtrips are central to the school curriculum and maybe more frequent than at other schools. At the beginning of the school year parents will be asked to sign a walking fieldtrip permission form for the current school year. This means that students with appropriate teacher supervision will be able to take short walking trips in the neighborhood without additional notice to parents. Special notices with permission slips about driving fieldtrips will be sent home regularly and well in advance of the trip date. Please fill them out and return them as soon as possible. There may be fees for buses or entrance fees that families will be asked to donate. Field trips are an important part of your child's education and no child will miss this experience due to financial hardship. Therefore, please donate what you are able to and arrangements will be made for every child to attend. Parents may be asked to volunteer to chaperone and/or drive some students on a trip, please read the parent volunteer section for details. School Food Program: OCS contracts with a private vendor to provide breakfast and lunch for our students. In accordance with the Federal lunch act families must fill out an application for a free or reduced meal program in the office; all eligible families will be provided with free or reduced priced meals. Other families may buy lunch for $2.50 or breakfast for $1.25 or bring their own lunch to school. The school will send home menus each month, but meals may be subject to change without notice. Students may not bring in candy or sugary snacks. Parents are encouraged to pack a healthy variety of foods and a drink in their child's lunch. Students may not warm up their food in school microwaves and teachers may not warm up food for students. Snacks: Students have a snack break around 10:00 am. We find that when children have a snack, they are better able to focus and tend to tasks in class. Please send your child with 1 - 2 healthy snacks each day, i.e. granola bars, fruit, hard boiled eggs, yogurts, bagels, etc. Please note OCS food restriction section below. Donations of healthy snacks to share with the class are welcome. Food Restrictions: OCS strongly discourages food at school, where there is more than 10 grams of sugar per serving, i.e. donuts, twinkies, candy, chocolate or sodas. We also discourage foods with sugar substitutes such as splenda, saccrine, or nutra-sweeet. This includes birthday celebrations at school. Candy and soda are never permitted. Birthday Celebrations: OCS values each child and recognizes the special significance of an individual's birthday. We would like to take the opportunity to recognize your child's birthday in the classroom. Teachers will honor each child through an appreciation circle or some other form of celebration. Please note that OCS will no longer allow a birthday to be celebrated with sugary foods such as cakes, cookies, candies, juices, or store-bought muffins. Fresh fruit, granola bars, finger sandwiches, and bottled water are examples of foods that will be allowed in the classrooms to celebrate a birthday. Conflict Resolution: Children are taught to speak directly to others who are bothering them in a clear and respectful way. Children are also taught to listen to one another's feelings and ideas so that the group can function harmoniously. Teachers provide assistance in mediation or problem solving and will sometimes initiate a whole class discussion about issues happening within the class or school. Children are empowered to speak about their own feelings and offer their own solutions rather than using any system of punishments or rewards. All school personnel are trained in assisting students with this type of problem solving so that children are supported in finding solutions that are beneficial to all concerned. Certain behaviors such as intentionally physically harming another child or adult is grounds for suspension, please see Parent Communication section for more details. Homework: OCS homework is meant to encourage independence, practice new skills, gather information for in class studies, pursue topics of personal interest to the child and to share the learning process with the family. Our homework is not meant to be busywork, produce stress for your child, or be a burden to the parent. Please communicate to your child's teacher about your experiences with their homework assignments. We strongly encourage all families to read together regularly. Additional homework assignments increase incrementally as children grow older, with the youngest having short activities up to twice a week and the oldest children in the school having daily homework of at least 30 minutes. Community Services Each class in the school works on one project throughout the year that helps the whole school community (i.e.: tending the Lost and Found, running the school assemblies, or creating a school newspaper). Community Service brings important benefit to each child and to the class as a whole. When a child focuses on needs outside of him/herself, and puts talents, energy and purpose to meet the needs of others, s/he begins to feel empowered to make a positive difference in the world. When the entire class undertakes community service work, the child sees that the group effort enlarges the benefit to others, and this bonds the group together as well. Student Government Once a week on Fridays at 1:00 representatives from each class in the school meet together to discuss problems, solutions and projects that the student senate would like to act upon. Active citizenship creates active citizens. By creating and becoming the Senate, the children have real decision making power and real responsibility in their world at school. Forging decisions based upon active discourse is leadership in action and produces confident, independent thinking adults. Assemblies Biweekly on Wednesdays at 2:00 the entire school joins together in Frank Bush Hall for school assembly. Children assume leadership in creating assemblies where there is a forum for sharing news and happenings in the school community. Again leadership skills (keeping order in a large group, oral skills in front of groups, articulation of ideas/news/experiences) are practiced and honed in this venue. We also develop a sense of our community as we join together in song and witness each others music preformances. <- PREVIOUS| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | NEXT ->