General

Our location is at 10500 Bathurst St. The entrance to the building is one street south of Teston Road. Preschool entrance is on the west side of the building. There is a ramp at the back, near the playground for the stroller entrance. 

Daycare children can be dropped off in Room 2, starting at 8:15 a.m. Class programs begin at 9:00 a.m. Preschool children can be dropped off at 9:00 a.m. Please do not drop off your child early. When dropping off your child, we encourage parents to leave as soon as possible. We have found that the children settle into their routine faster, once the parents have gone. Children that are taking more time to settle in can be brought for short periods of time and slowly integrated into the program. This can be discussed with the Supervisor or class teachers. As soon as school begins, our teachers must devote their attention to the children. All conversation between parents and teachers must be reserved for after school hours. Our teachers are always glad to talk to you then.

Children will only be sent home with an authorized person. An authorized person is someone that is indicated on your child’s carpool form, which is part of the application forms. If someone else is to pick up your child, please call the office or send a note with your child. The school building is kept locked at all times. Parents will get a code at the beginning of the school year so they can let themselves into the building to pick up their children. Please guard the code number as it affects the safety of all the children in the school. 

Children in our Nursery and Kindergarten programs usually do not have any difficulties integrating into the program. Therefore, after a brief orientation with the teachers before school, they are expected to fully participate in all aspects of our program.

Most children in the Pre-Nursery classes have never been in any formal Preschool setting before and may need some more time to acclimate themselves to new teachers and the environment. Therefore, regardless of what days your child is enrolled for, during the first two weeks, we set up a different routine, of allowing children to come for shorter periods of time but more often. Information regarding your child’s orientation times will be sent to you at the beginning of the school year. 

Please inform the school if your child will be absent for any reason. If the parents will be absent from home, please inform us also, so that we can help ease any anxiety on the part of the child. 

Please inform the school if your child has any communicable disease. Please keep your child home in the event that he/she is unwell. We feel that sending a sick child to school is not only being indifferent to the well being of the other children, but moreover, the parents are placing the child in an uncomfortable situation that can easily be avoided. 

Our sick policy is that a child will be sent home with a fever of 100.4 or higher, if there are 2 or more episodes of vomiting or diarrhea or if the child is unable to participate in the program due to feeling unwell. Please trust the teachers and supervisors to use their judgement. Teachers and the supervisor have a right to decide if the child is unwell enough to remain in the program or the health of the other children is at risk due to continuous coughing, etc. A child can only return after being fever, vomiting or diarrhea free for 24 hours.

We get a professional lice company to come in during the year to do random checks as well as when there is one or more cases of lice in the school. Should a child be found with lice or knits by the company, they will be sent home immediately and is only permitted to return once totally cleared.

Should you be withdrawing your child from one of our programs, please note that we require a full one month’s written notice. This notice is to be given at the end of a month for the following full month to be valid. Should less notice be given, the full month’s tuition will owe, as to allow us fair opportunity to fill the spot. If the teachers, along with the management, feel that a child’s behaviour is compromising the safety of other children or requires special attention beyond our capabilities, a meeting will be called to discuss a plan of action. Should positive changes not result after the implementation of strategies, we have the right to dismiss the child with 2 weeks notice.

Communication between parents and the school is very important to ensure that Preschool is a meaningful and pleasant experience for your child. To that end, the following is arranged:

1. Curriculum information evenings are arranged in September to inform parents of the general curriculum goals and outlines, teacher’s expectations, and review of our daily routine. A question and answer period follows.

2. Parent/Teacher Conferences are held mid-year. Times are set aside for your personal conference with your child’s teachers. Of course, if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child’s progress before or after the conference, please feel free to leave a message at the office for your child’s teachers and they will contact you as soon as they can.

3. To inform parents of our daily happenings, special events, and trips, we email a notice and send home copies of the notice about two weeks before every trip, program, etc.

4. Teachers e-mail a newsletter weekly, briefly updating the parents about what was learned in school that week. Songs, information about the forthcoming week, and other information regarding your child’s class is written in the newsletter. Be sure to read it!

5. Should you have any concerns about your child or anything you feel the need to discuss urgently, please feel free to contact the Director/Supervisor in the office. Should there be anything of great importance on either your end or from our end, we will call a meeting to try and resolve the issue ASAP.  

Gan Shalom Preschool teaches children to be responsible for their actions. Discipline is constructive in nature, fair, consistently applied, and understandable to the child. From our modeling, the children learn acceptable behaviour. There will never be physical punishment. Children are encouraged to express their frustrations and feelings and are taught to resolve conflicts in a non-physical manner. 

When a child acts aggressively to another child, the following steps are taken:

1. The teacher calmly redirects the child to another activity. If the child cannot be engaged in another activity and the aggression reoccurs, the child is removed from the situation and excluded from classroom activities for a few minutes.

2. Our teachers speak calmly and respectfully to children at all times, and do not raise their voices.

3. For children who show extreme aggression, parents will be called in to a conference with the director and teachers. We will discuss strategies and implement them in the classroom. If the teachers become concerned with the safety of the other children, however, (for example, in a case of serious biting) he/she may be asked to leave the program.

Volunteers and students do not have unsupervised access to children. Only employees (18 years of age or older) will have direct unsupervised access to children.

In our Pre-Nursery and Nursery classes, children do not have to be toilet trained. We change dirty or very wet diapers happily. If you are currently toilet training, please inform the teacher as to the child’s progress, and whether the child is in underwear, pull ups or diapers that day. Please respect the teachers’ decision as to whether they will allow your child to come in pull-ups or underwear that day, depending on what stage of training the child is up to. We try our best to help along in the training process, but do not take responsibility to train your child. Diapers, wipes and a change of clothes are to be provided by the parents in a labeled shoebox, basket or Ziploc bag.

We are very concerned about your child’s health. Therefore, children’s hands are washed with soap after they use the washroom, have their diapers changed, paint or do messy crafts, and before food is served. Teachers wear gloves and lay fresh examination paper on the change table when changing diapers. They also wash hands with soap upon completing the diaper change. Daycare children bring their own blanket for naptime, that will be sent home every week for washing. We provide bed sheet which are washed weekly.

Children must have their immunizations up to date before being allowed to start the school year. No child can enter school without a copy of their immunization record on file.

Should you require us to administer any medication to your child, we can only do so with the completed and signed medication form. All medication must display your child’s name and expiry date must be visible. 

No children can be allowed into school unless their full application and immunization form is filled out and handed in to the school office. Please inform the school immediately if any information on the child’s form changes, so that we can contact a parent in case of emergency.

Please send in a complete change of labeled clothing to be left at school. In the winter time, a pair of indoor shoes is necessary as well. Please keep in mind that your child will be engaged in messy play, so play clothes are a must. All boys in the Kindergrten room are required to wear a kippah for circle time and our Shabbat party, so please send your son (if he is in Kindergarten) with two kippot, to be left at school.

In the event of a minor accident, G‑d forbid, the following steps will be taken:

1. Staff member treats child.

2. Staff member calls parent if she is unsure whether further medical treatment is necessary.

3. If parent is unavailable, emergency contact on application form will be called.

4. If contact is unavailable, child will be treated with the best of care at school, or taken to the doctor.

In the event of an emergency, the same procedures will be done, only staff members will call 911 first. 

The Ministry of Social Services, Gan Shalom’s licensing agency, has made efforts to ensure that the child care centers in their care are transparent. To that end, if we ever have a serious occurrence affecting the health and safety of the children, Gan Shalom will notify parents by posting a notification form at the front of the preschool, in the office window near our license. The posting will be up within 24 hours of the occurrence, will remain there for 10 days, and will explain what occurred, and how it was handled. The child’s parents will be notified immediately of any serious   occurrence involving their child Please be advised that no child’s or staff member’s name or identifying details will be posted.