October 3, 2025

Hello to our Vimy Ridge Families,  

Fall is here, and we are having the typical cool in the morning and warm in the afternoon weather. Which means our students are dressing in layers. This is the time of year we find our lost and found growing. We will remind our students to check the lost and found, please help your children remember to bring home all that they bring to school. 

Great news - we raised over $1500.00 for Terry Fox this year. Thank you so much!!

Our Meet the Educator evening will be held Thursday, October 9 from 5:00-6:30PM. This will be a time for you to visit the classroom and meet the teachers and educators. It is not designed for interview style questions, it is an opportunity for families to visit their child’s class. We have also organized a community resource event like last year. There will be a number of community groups in the gym, hoping to share their information with families. Please feel free to drop by the gym to gather information.

Over the past few years at Vimy we have encouraged families to support a “boomerang lunch”. This means that all garbage and recyclable items are to return home with the child at the end of the day. The OCDSB does not have a blue bin (plastics, etc.) or a green bin recycle program. The goal of the boomerang lunch is to have anything that can be recycled at home taken home at the end of the day, there should be nothing left behind. This will help remove recyclables from our garbage and landfills. Please speak to your child about bringing these items home and not just throwing them out in the garbage.

I’d like to thank families for dropping their grades 1-6 children off at the gates at the beginning of the day. If you are still walking your child to their line please let them walk independently from the gate. Supervision on the yard starts at 9AM. Allowing your student to enter the yard, and find their friends independently is part of them building relationships, resilience and independence.

Cross country for grades 5 and 6 will be starting next week, practices will be everyday from 2:00 pm- 2:45pm. Our meet will be October 16th at the Terry Fox Complex at Mooney’s Bay -2960 Riverside Dr. 

East Ottawa Girls Hockey Association (EOGH), based in Orléans. This fall, we’re offering two low-cost, subsidized programs, First Shift and Learn to Play, to introduce girls ages 6–18 to the sport of hockey. Here is a flyer with more information.

Our goal is to make hockey more accessible and inclusive within our community, and we have financial assistance and equipment support available.

School cash online is now open for pizza and popcorn orders for the months of October, November, and December. Please place your order on school cash online https://www.schoolcashonline.com/ . The last day to order pizza and popcorn will be Thursday, October 9th. Be sure to check your email for more information. Thank you for supporting our school fundraiser.

On October 9, Vimy Ridge Public School will be holding a Walk to School Day event to

celebrate International Walk to School (iWalk) Month.  iWalk Month celebrates walking

and wheeling to and from school throughout the month of October. Join the fun by

walking and wheeling to school as many days as you can in October!

We’ve all experienced congestion and unsafe driving behaviours in the school zone

around drop off and pick up times. One way to reduce that is by walking or wheeling to

school. There are so  many other benefits, including improving physical and

mental health, increasing attention span and academic performance, and building

lifelong habits. Please see this poster.

If you live too far away, or the school is on your driving route to your next destination,

consider parking or dropping off your child 5-10 minutes away from the school and

walking the rest of the way. This helps keep our school zone safer while you enjoy the

fresh air as you walk with your child. You can also coordinate walking to school with

other friends and families using the meetup times and locations on this Walk and Roll

Meetup Map.

We hope you will join us in celebrating fun, healthy ways to get to school on October 9 th !

Art Classes at Vimy Ridge - From October 20 to November 17 ArtShine will be providing art programming for students who are interested. Programming will be from 3:45 to 4:45 after school. Here is the flyer with more information.  You can register through this direct link: https://app.amilia.com/store/en/artshine/shop/activities/6331360

School pictures will be Friday, October 17, 2025.  

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From your Parent Council

Dear Vimy Families,

Get ready for a fun-filled evening with the whole family! VRPS Parent Council is excited to invite you to our Movie Night on Wednesday, October 22nd, featuring the Disney favorite Lilo and Stitch! To help everyone enjoy the movie, we kindly ask families to keep an eye on their children throughout the evening. While we’ll be in the gym, running around is not allowed during the movie.

Date: Wednesday, October 22nd 2025
Doors Open: 5:30 PM
Movie Starts: 6:00 PM
Location: Vimy Ridge P.S. School Gym

Please note there will be a 15 minute intermission at 7:00pm where the movie will be paused to allow for bathroom breaks and purchase of snacks. 

Snacks & Drinks:
Water and snacks will be available for purchase. No outside food or drinks are permitted, except for water. 

Tickets:
$2.50 per adult
$2.50 per child
(Students must be accompanied by an adult (18+) for the entire evening.)

Tickets can be purchased through school cash online. Please click on the following link to purchase your tickets today! 

https://ocdsb.schoolcashonline.com/

Bring your favorite blankets and chairs to create a cozy movie-watching experience! We can’t wait to see you there for a magical evening with Lilo, Stitch, and our amazing school community!

Warm regards,
VRPS Parent Council

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One thing that parents need to consider is the Student Accident Insurance. 

Student Accident Insurance

Creating a caring and safe environment for our students is our top priority. Unfortunately, despite all reasonable precautions being taken, accidents can still happen. Some injuries may result in medical, dental or other expenses that are not covered by provincial health care or employer group plans and caregivers become responsible for these expenses.

The OCDSB does not provide student accident insurance and encourages all caregivers to consider purchasing accident insurance or student accident insurance for incidents that may not be covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) or any additional medical plans they have. 

Student accident insurance is available for purchase, on a voluntary basis. Caregivers may apply online at insuremykids.com or call 1-800-463-5437. The accident insurance coverage options range from $17.00/year to $33.00/year. All plans provide 24/7 coverage and a variety of important accident benefits (benefit limits differ based on plan selected). If you have any questions, please call Jones DesLauriers Ottawa (formerly Binks Insurance Brokers) directly at 613-226-1350.

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Many students have expressed an interest in getting involved in athletics this year at Vimy. Basketball, borden ball, and soccer are already getting started this year, with other sports or clubs to come. 

Please complete the following forms regarding concussions and athletics. Students are not able to participate unless they have these permission forms completed. If a form was completed for one sport already, another form is not needed again this year.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Sandra Walker and Jannah Campbell

Please take a few minutes to complete the forms below if you haven’t already. Thank you.

Use of Technology 

https://forms.ocdsb.ca/Forms/Use-of-Technology

https://forms.ocdsb.ca/Forms/Media-School-Website-Consent-Form

If your child has a life threatening allergies please complete this form

https://forms.ocdsb.ca/Forms/Plan-Of-Care-For-Students-With-Life-Threatening-Medical-Conditions

If you child takes medication during school operational hours please complete this form

https://forms.ocdsb.ca/Forms/OCDSB-988-Prescribed-Medication

We are getting a number of requests for busing. Unfortunately this is not our decision. OSTA, the transportation authority, has set walking distances of 0 - 1.6 km for grades 1-8. Part of building independence can include walking to school. Parents are encouraged to talk with their neighbours, notice who else is walking along your route, and encourage your students to walk together. 

Idling - When you are dropping off or picking up your child(ren), we ask that you follow the City of Ottawa's bylaws to help keep the air around our school clean. The Idling Control By-law limits the time that a vehicle can idle when someone is in the vehicle:

• Maximum of three minutes per hour when it is between 0 °C and 27 °C outside
• Maximum of 10 minutes per hour when it is colder than 0 °C or hotter than 27 °C outside

The beginning of school is also a wonderful time to build healthy habits. Consider walking to school, check with neighbours about walking together.

Outdoor play includes playing safely. This includes being careful in the mud, puddles and on the pavement. When playing soccer at school slide tackling should not be part of our soccer games. Students are also reminded that they need to wear shoes while playing soccer.

Breakfast Program. Our Breakfast program will be a little different this year. We will have bins going to each class to support our students. We will be starting the breakfast program later in September.

 No Food Sharing. A reminder that Vimy Ridge has a “no food sharing” policy in our classes. We have too many allergies at Vimy Ridge for this to be done safely. Sharing candy, treats and other snacks also presents an equity issue between students. Please remind your students to eat the food provided by their family and not to share with other students in class.