Horseshoe Heights P.S. October 2025 Newsletter
Horseshoe Heights P.S. October 2025 Newsletter
Principal’s Message
As we move into October, I want to take a moment to reflect on what an incredible start we’ve had to our very first school year. It has been inspiring to see our new community come together with so much energy and enthusiasm.
A special thank you goes out to the volunteers who gave their time to help assemble and put away new school items. Your hard work has helped us create a welcoming environment for our students, and we are so grateful for your support.
We also held our first School Council meeting last month, and it was wonderful to see so many parents and guardians come out, eager to get involved. Your voices and ideas will help shape the future of Horseshoe Heights, and we are excited for the journey ahead together.
Our students have already shown incredible school spirit. The Terry Fox Run was a meaningful event where our Trailblazers came together to honour Terry’s legacy of perseverance and hope. In addition, we had the pleasure of welcoming the Barrie Colts for a special assembly—an exciting day that connected our students with role models from our wider community.
We’re also thrilled to celebrate our athletics program! Congratulations to our flag football team on earning the first-ever team win in Horseshoe Heights history—a proud moment for our school! We’re equally excited to cheer on our cross-country runners as they head into their upcoming meet. It’s wonderful to see our Trailblazers already making their mark in sports and demonstrating teamwork, perseverance, and school pride.
Thank you for continuing to support our school as we build traditions, strengthen connections, and create lasting memories. October promises to be a month full of learning, growth, and community spirit at Horseshoe Heights!
Sincerely,
Dianna Wright-Drzazga
Principal, Horseshoe Heights Public School
Important Dates at Horseshoe Heights P.S.:
October 2 Terry Fox School Run (Rain date Oct. 3)
October 3 Sports Day Spirit Day (Wear your favourite jersey or sports colours for our Barrie Colts pep rally!)
October 7 Picture Day! (individual and class photos)
October 9 Regional Cross Country Meet (Grades 4-8)
Barrie Colts Game Night (7pm at the Sadlon Arena)
October 13 Thanksgiving Monday (school closed)
October 22 Regional Cross Country meet at Mt. St. Louis-Moonstone
October 24 PA Day
October 31 Spirit Day: wear black & orange or a costume and Halloween Dance-a-Thon
November 4 French Immersion (FI) information night at WR Best at 6 p.m. (For Senior Kindergarten families who may be interested in their child(ren) attending FI beginning in grade 1)
November 7 Picture Re-takes and
Progress Reports go home
November 14 PA Day
Terry Fox Run
Trailblazers, we did it! Together our school raised over $4000 for cancer research during our very first Terry Fox Run. Thank you to everyone who ran, walked, and donated. You showed amazing school spirit and helped continue Terry’s dream of making a difference. Way to go, Horseshoe Heights!
School Council
Our first school council meeting held on Monday September 29th had over 30 parents in attendance. Congratulations to Jeffrey Lemon, our School Council Chair. We hope to see everyone at our next council meeting on Monday November 3rd at 6:30 in the library. All interested parents are welcome to attend and see what it is all about. We hope to see you there!
Barrie Colts
Thank you to all families who purchased tickets to our first ever Barrie Colts fundraiser. With 288 tickets sold we made an amazing $1728 in fundraising that will support athletics and sports equipment for our school. Thank you to Mrs. Emerton for organizing this fun community event!
Hot Lunch Orders Are Here!
Looking to order hot lunches for your child? Visit Lunch Box on School Cash Online to place an order! Lunches can be ordered for as many weeks at a time as you like so you can see what you like! Hot lunches are a great fundraiser for our school as we receive back funds from all orders placed. Funds raised will support items such as additional technology, busing for field trips, and athletics.
Sending in Food for Birthdays / Class Celebrations, etc.
A reminder to all families that food being brought into the school must come from the grocery store or from an inspected facility (e.g. restaurant). Homemade food and beverages are not permitted to be provided to student during the school day. As well, we would ask that food items that are being brought for the purpose of sharing with the class have ingredient labels. Thanks very much for your help with this.
SCDSB Administrative Procedures Memorandum A7675 section 7.1 states "Food and beverages that originate from an inspected facility (e.g., restaurant, grocery store, or school cafeteria) can be served in a school setting. Homemade food and beverages will not be permitted to be sold or provided during the school day due to the potential of unforeseen allergens impacting students with allergies"
Halloween at Horseshoe Heights
We will be celebrating Halloween at Horseshoe Heights with a Spirit Day on Friday Oct. 31st. Students may wear a costume (please leave masks and accessories i.e. toy weapons at home) or Black and Orange to celebrate the seasont. As we think about Halloween costumes it is important to remember that “Culture is not a costume” #IAmNotACostume.
Although dressing at Halloween is fun and exciting, depending upon the choice of costume we choose to wear, it also runs the risk of being offensive to other cultures. As parents, guardians and teachers, Halloween is the opportunity to discuss costume choices with your child and students. It is important not to inadvertently mimic culture by culturally appropriating racial, religious, or ethnic groups. Some critical equity questions to ask yourself about costumes. Am I reinforcing stereotypes with the image I am portraying? Is my costume a form of exploitation of another culture? Thank you for having these important discussions at home so that we can ensure that Horseshoe Heights is a space where we value and respect diversity every day of the year.
Halloween Dance A Thon
Students will be getting ready to show off their best moves at our Halloween Dance-A-Thon! This fun-filled event will take place on Oct. 31st and is a great way to celebrate the season while raising money for our school. Families can make pledges on School Cash Online to help us raise our fundraising goal of $1000, all while enjoying music, dancing and fun. We can’t wait to see everyone’s creativity on the dance floor. This fundraiser will help support the purchase of equipment for our playground. More information will come out soon about how you can donate!
Parking Lot Reminders
AM Drop Off: Students can be dropped off in the dedicated pick-up / drop off zone along the driveway coming off of Line 4 and then older students can walk along the property into the school. Alternatively, parents may also park in this drop off zone for up to 15 min to walk students to the school yard.
Another option is to park in the parking lot to walk students to the fence for drop off.
PM Pick Up: Similar to AM procedures, parents picking up students at the end of the day can park either in the parking zone along the driveway or in the parking lot. Please ensure that you are parked in one of these two locations so that you are not blocking the flow of traffic or impeding our buses in getting in and out of our parking lot.
Please note that when exiting the property, vehicles may only make right turns onto Horseshoe Valley Road. If you need to turn left onto Horseshoe, you will need to exit the property along the driveway and turn right onto Line 4 to then make a left turn onto Horseshoe Valley Road.
The area right in front of the school yard fence drop off area is reserved for busing. Please do not enter this area with your vehicle for pick up or drop off.
Appointments & Early Pick Up
Your child’s education is very important to us. Whenever possible, please try to schedule appointments outside of school hours to avoid disrupting instructional time.
If an early pick-up is unavoidable, kindly notify your child’s teacher in advance. This allows us to have your child ready at the office at the designated time and helps minimize classroom interruptions.
We truly appreciate your support in maintaining a focused and respectful learning environment.
When Your Child is Late or Absent
To ensure your child’s safety, please report any absences through Safe Arrival by calling 1-888-885-8065 or by emailing [email protected].
If an absence is not reported, you will receive an automated phone call notifying you that your child is absent and prompting you to call the school directly. If we do not hear from you, we will begin contacting the emergency contacts on file to confirm your child’s safety.
Thank you for helping us keep our students safe and accounted for.
ATTENTION: 13- to 17-year-old STUDENTS!
Want to travel? Want to have fun? Want to meet new friends? Want to have 16 days of adventure?
Simcoe County Exchanges is pleased to announce that we are in the planning stages of our next exciting cross-cultural “northern” exchange opportunity between Simcoe County and area students and students in a northern community in Nunavut, Nunavik (Inuit northern Quebec), Yukon or Northwest Territories. In conjunction with Expériences Canada we will be able to offer these sixteen days of activities, accommodations, meals and transportation for a very reasonable price.
Each Simcoe County and area student will be paired with a partner from the northern community. The northern students will stay with their Simcoe County partners to enjoy Central Ontario for eight days. In the other half of the exchange, Simcoe County and area students will travel to the north, to stay in their partners’ community and experience a very different culture and language. This trip will be a wonderful cultural and linguistic experience for ALL students from 13 to 17 years of age. The proposed dates for the exchange, including travel days, will be during the 2026-2027 school year.
Some of the anticipated activities in Ontario include a day in Niagara Falls; TreeTop Trekking at Horseshoe Valley; team-building activities; Wasaga Beach; Blue Mountain; a Blue Jays’ game; Canada’s Wonderland and others. Activities in the north are not yet finalized but will allow the Ontario students to gain a better understanding of, and appreciation for, the language and culture of the Indigenous people of the host community.
This exchange is a follow-up to our exciting and hugely successful exchange of 2018-2019 to Ivujivik, QC---the most northerly community in Quebec; as well as our 2022-2023 exchange with Inuvialuit students from Paulatuk, NT; our 2023-2024 exchange with Inuit students from Aupaluk, QC; our 2024-2025 exchanges with Kinngait, NU and Watson Lake, YT and our 2025-2026 exchange with Ulukhaktok, NT for which we have hosted the northern students and will be heading north in May 2026.
The cost for these 16 days of fun and excitement will be approximately $1850, which includes admission to all activities, all transportation costs, travel insurance, Expériences Canada registration fee, and some meals while touring. Breakfasts and dinners will usually be provided in the host family homes.
Please contact the Group Organizer as soon as possible to express your interest. Note that the number of participants is likely to be limited, based on the number of exchange partners available in small northern communities.
For further information, please contact our Group Organizer, AUBREY HAWTON, at (705) 835-5288 or (705) 826-3000 or [email protected]
Information and updates from the SCDSB:
This month, the SCDSB is sharing information related to the following topics:
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Inclement weather and bus cancellation information reminder
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Safe Arrival program
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School bus transportation information available from the SCSTC
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Halloween reminder - Culture is not a costume
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DELF registration is now open! Join the parent/guardian info session to learn more
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Check out the SCDSB News video series
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Attend a Grade 1 French Immersion information session this November!
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School council members invited to network and engage at orientation event
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Online math resources for families
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Enabling multi-factor authentication on student devices
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SCDSB Anti-racism Statement
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The benefits of walking or wheeling to school
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October PA Day
To read this information, visit the SCDSB website: https://www.scdsb.on.ca/news/current_news/information___updates_from_the_scdsb___oct__2025