Welcome to Beyond the Bell Podcast where you get an inside look into school life!

We cover school related topics that support your child's education and well-being. As you listen along we hope you’ll gain insights for navigating school with your child and leave with a deeper sense of connection between school and home. Here’s your host, Chantelle Quesnelle.

Hi, Simcoe Muskoka Catholic families.  Nothing feels as good as a fresh start. I’m Chantelle Quesnelle, and I’m the Mental Health Lead at Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board. I'm also the host of this new podcast, Beyond the Bell. 

The idea for this new podcast came in response to the great successs of our OnPoint Parenting podcast. We wanted to keep our content fresh for you, our audience, and so we decided to change tracks.  Changing things up really allowed us to explore new opportunities that might otherwise have been missed. It’s my hope that this new podcast will be a valuable resource that you can turn to when navigating your child's educational journey.

Have you ever wished that you were a fly on the wall in your child's school? Have you ever wondered why something is done the way it's done and not another way?  Or do you just wish that you had an insider's perspective into the sometimes complicated world of education? If so, get ready and tune into Simcoe Muskoka Catholic’s latest podcast offering, Beyond the Bell.  

Beyond the Bell is all about providing parents and caregivers with an inside look into the school system. The topics may be familiar, but our goal is to provide you with information and  perspective that you might not have thought about. It's those things that you didn't know you needed to know! 

Each episode, I’ll be joined by a special guest who will offer their unique insights into things that matter to you. From Kindergarten all the way through High School there are countless learning moments not only for our kids but for us as parents and guardians too.

I'm a mom of two boys and I know first hand that there are some things that come up in our kids’ schools that we don't always fully understand - and that’s perfectly ok! We’ve all been there. Now that I work in a school board I've had people that I can turn to when I have questions. Having these education experts at my fingertips has been invaluable when navigating school life for my family. But what about the average parent? How do they get the inside track? Well with Beyond the Bell podcast, we are hoping to provide parents with a new window into our education system. We will "lift the fog" so to speak, and provide you with information about important topics that will give you a clear, insider view of school life. We are looking forward to launching our first episode soon - don't forget to subscribe!

Beyond the Bell is a free podcast available on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search Beyond the Bell and hit the Subscribe button. I'm really looking forward to connecting with you through this podcast.

Thanks for listening to Beyond the Bell podcast. We hope you found today’s episode helpful.

Beyond the Bell is brought to you by the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, and our Catholic Parent Involvement Committee.  It’s hosted by Chantelle Quesnelle. Pauline Stevenson is our executive producer. 

Episodes are produced and edited by Portage Creative. You can find our show notes and previous episodes on our podcast website, beyondthebell.ca.  

If you like today’s episode, leave us a review.  If you have any suggestions for future episodes or any questions about Beyond the Bell podcast, you can send an email to info@smcdsb.on.ca. Thanks again for joining us! We’ll see you next time.