St. Vincent Catholic School 10530 138 Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta T5N 2J6 Telephone : 780-452-4474 Fax: 780-451-6463 www.stvincent.ecsd.net Principal s Message March 2017 Easter Message With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. ~ Acts 4:33 I hope you have all had a wonderful, fun and relaxing Spring Break. Our staff is rejuvenated and ready for the final stretch of the school year. April will be a busy and exciting month for us all! On April 5, we look forward to Robotics Day. This will be the start of our Spring Fundraiser. This year the students have chosen to do a Soccer-a-thon. Our goal is to raise $3000.00 to purchase resources for coding and robotics. More information will be sent home later this month. As is our tradition, our Grade 5 students will lead the school in learning about The Stations of the Cross. During the last two weeks of Lent, we will continue to accept your generous donations for the St. Vincent de Paul Society. We will celebrate Easter with Father Paul on Tuesday April 18 at 10:30; I hope many of you will be able to join us! Finally, at the end of the month, we welcome our Artist-in Residence Donna Boomer who will work with our Kindergarten to Grade 6 students making papier mâché masks. We will need many parent volunteers to help the students with this special project. Please look for more information that will come your way shortly. Wishing you and your family a blessed and happy Easter. Mme Ghali
Mark you calendars - April April 3 - April 5 - School resumes after Spring Break Robotics Day Grade 5 Pysanky April 6 - Grade 1 makes Easter bread with The Bread Lady Grade 6 Pysanky April 7 - Grade 5 Pysanky Grade 6 Pysanky April 11 - Grade 5 Hep B/HPV immunizations Grade 3 Pysanky April 12 - April 14 - April 16 - April 17 - April 18 - April 19 - Grades 3/4 Pysanky Good Friday - school closed Easter Sunday Easter Monday - school closed Easter Celebration 10:30 am Parents welcome! Terrific Kids assembly at 10:30 am Grade 5 in-school fieldtrip, Treat it Right Wetlands Investigation April 21 - MLA Sarah Hoffman visits Theme Day! April 24 - Artist in Residence Please note on Good Friday (April 14) and Easter Monday (April 17) there will be no classes for all students. Enjoy the Easter week end!
Lunch with the Principal Students can enter a draw to have lunch with the principal! The winning student will choose what to order in for lunch and may invite a friend to join them. Congratulations to March s winner Essey in Grade 4! Essey invited his friend Lecia to join him and Mme Ghali for lunch. The three of them had a very enjoyable lunch visiting and having lunch from Subway. To enter please print off the entry form below and fill it out completely. Entries must be received by the last day of month. The winner will be announced at the end of each month. ********************************************************************* I d like to have lunch with the Principal! My name is: and my teacher is. My parent/guardian gives me permission to enter the draw. Parent/Guardian signature
40 Bags for 40 Days We are well into our Lenten journey. Our Lenten calendar has engaged our staff and students, focusing on the three pillars of Lent; prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We hope you are enjoying participating as a family as well. As a St. Vincent community, we wanted to do more! We will be participating in a Social Justice project that will help our students experience gratitude, the satisfaction of giving and understand their calling to reach out and help those who are less fortunate. Our goal is to fill 40 Bags for the 40 Days of Lent to donate to the St. Vincent de Paul Society. St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic organization whose mission is to live the Gospel message by serving Christ in the poor, with love, respect, justice and joy. We are collecting: toys stuffed animals books games clothing household items This is a perfect opportunity to get started on your Spring Cleaning while helping those in need. We ask you and your child to go through your closets, bookshelves, garages and basements to see if there are any items that have been out grown, are no long in use or can be donated to other children who are not as fortunate. Help us reach our goal of 40 Bags in 40 Days, so St. Vincent School can help St. Vincent de Paul! Thank you very much in advance for your support. St. Vincent Spirit Wear Have you ordered your St. Vincent spirit wear yet? Share your school spirit by having one of these fabulous t-shirts! Shirts are available in youth, unisex and ladies sizes, and are priced at $15.00 for youth sizes and $20.00 for adult sizes. Sales are online only - parents will need to have their PowerSchool account set up to be able to order. Please contact Mrs. Selwood in the office if you need assistance in setting it up. Sales are open until April 3rd, with delivery expected by the end of April.
Artist in Residence - Papier Mâché Mask Making We are getting ready to roll up our sleeves - we're about to make a mask...a big bug...some cool shades...the sky is the limit! Papier mâché offers endless possibilities for students to expand their artistic horizons and develop their spatial relations skills while inducing extensive student interaction. Course study is integrated with the adaptable medium of papier mâché and its associated finishing techniques. This highly tactile experience also includes creative painting and multimedia. The students become totally absorbed in a therapeutic and very rewarding exercise. It is a fun filled, hands on activity which involves the entire school. The young artists have a display of work and celebration for the grand finale. Our artist is Donna Boomer. Donna has been an instructor with the Artist in Residency program throughout Alberta since 1994, and in the Yukon since 1989. She has developed/instructed art classes for Red Deer College, City Arts Centre, City of Edmonton, Olds College and the City of Whitehorse. Attending NAIT, Red Deer and Yukon Colleges, expanded her abilities in art, sculpture, cabinetmaking and carpentry. She is an accredited interprovincial Journeyman Cabinetmaker. Over the past 30 years, Donna has also enjoyed a successful career as a freelance prop designer and builder in window display and theatre. Diversity and creativity are instrumental in her success as a teaching artist. The cost of this two week project is $40 per student, but thanks to our Parent Advisory, who are greatly subsidizing this event, each student will only pay $10.00. Thank you PAC! To make this special experience as successful as possible, we are requesting two things of our amazing parent community: 1. We will need many volunteers during this two week period. Each class will require 4 volunteers. Please contact your child s teacher to find out what times are needed, as well as your availability. 2. We need many flattened light-weight cardboard boxes, such as cereal boxes or Kraft dinner boxes. Please send these flattened boxes to the school throughout the month of April. Thank you for your time and support for this fantastic artistic adventure!
Babysitting We are pleased to offer a babysitting course to our students. This will be an 8 hour course offered by Second Chance CPR & First Aid 4 hours after school on two Thursdays May 11 and May 18. The course is available to students who are at least 11 years old as of August 31, 2016. The cost is $60.00 per student. Electronics Round Up Update! Thank you to every that supported our Electronics Round up! We filled our cage to the very top, and then some! Due to your contributions we were able to keep 7 televisions, 8 laptops, tablets and notebooks, 5 printers and scanners and 17 full computers (monitors, tower, mouse and keyboard), plus countless batteries, remote control toys and cellphones, out of the landfill. It also raised $131.00 for the school! Thank you to our St. Vincent families for helping to make our landfill less full and our Earth safer and more beautiful! Run Club Members of the St. Vincent Run Club participated in the Running Room Indoor Games in February. On February 21 we had two relay teams participate, and on February 28 10 individual runners ran 200 m and 800m races. Way to go St. Vincent runners!! All our athletes were very supportive of their teammates, gave it their absolute all and showed so much spirit! They are all such excellent ambassadors of St. Vincent School!
Mindfulness at St. Vincent St. Vincent staff and students will continue to embark on their mindfulness journey following spring break. Mindful awareness exercises help children develop concentration and self-awareness skills. Every morning, following our announcements, students will be lead through a two minute reflective meditation where they can focus on their breathing and mindfulness in their classrooms and prepare themselves for the day ahead. Important Announcement - Run Club is becoming Sports Club! The last Run Club practices session took place on Wednesday, March 22. Students in Grades 3-6 that would like to continue with morning athletics are invited to join Mrs. Rolph-DeVicque and Miss Taylor on Friday mornings at 8:00 am in the gym to participate in Sports Club. Sports Club will start on Friday, April 7. Pysanky Ukrainian Easter Eggs Students in Grades 3-6 will be doing a series of workshops with Ms. Ciezki to make Pysanky Ukrainian Easter eggs - this Lenten season. This is a cross -curricular activity which includes Religion, Art and Social Studies. The cost of this activity is $2.00 per student. Thank you Ms. Ciezki for your gift of time!! Grade 5 Immunizations The Grade 5 students will be receiving their third round of immunization for both Hepatitis B and HPV on Tuesday, April 11. If you have any questions please call Alberta Health Services (Woodcroft) at 780-342-1600. He is Risen Easter Celebration Our students and staff members will be celebrating the Resurrection of Christ at our Easter Celebration on Tuesday, April 18 at 10:30 am. The St. Vincent school choir will be singing at the joyous celebration. As always, we invite parents and siblings to join us. Father Paul Canavaugh will also be with us.
Theme Day! Our next theme day is on April 21. Ms. Ciezki and our Grade 6 class has chosen Sports Day as our theme! Dress up as your favourite sport, in sports wear or in your favourite team colors! MLA Sarah Hoffman visits St. Vincent MLA Sarah Hoffman, who serves as the Deputy Premier and the Minister of Health, will be visiting the Grade 6 class on Friday, April 21. She will be discussing Government at the provincial level with the class, which is part of the Grade 6 Social curriculum. We are very excited that she is available to come and visit our school! Terrific Kids 10:30 am. This month the Terrific Kids focus is on the virtue of creativity. Once again we celebrate our students who show an outstanding effort in demonstrating this characteristic. Our monthly assembly will be on Wednesday, April 19 at Sacrament Photos We would like to celebrate our students who have received and are preparing to receive, sacraments this year. We have a special place in our chapel with photos to honor students who have had their First Eucharist, Reconciliation and Confirmation and would love to include one of your child on their special day! Please bring in a photo (or colour copy) to Mrs. Rolph-DeVicque so she can include your child on our photo wall Cobs Bread Did you know? Did you know when you make a purchase at Cobs Bread, at the Crestwood location, and tell them that you re from St. Vincent School that they give a portion of the sale to us? It s an easy way to fundraise for the school!
Springtime weather Springtime weather can be very changeable cold and snowy one day, and sunny and melting the next! The playground and field can be snow covered and icy, or wet and muddy! Please send your child with the appropriate outdoor clothing and footwear as they will be outside for recess. Please make sure you label their outdoor clothing especially rubber boots!!! - as there may be more than one child with the same article of clothing. Thank you! Bus Passes Both ETS and Yellow Bus passes are available at the office during the first week of each month. The cost of the pass, subsidized by Edmonton Catholic Schools, is $32.00 per month. Please note that bus pass payments are due on the 1 st of each month. You are welcome to contact Mrs. Selwood in the school office if you need to make other arrangements. Bus passes are not distributed until payment has been received or alternate arrangements made. Students who take the yellow bus will be sent home on the bus unless a change has been previously arranged by parents, and the office informed. For example, if your child is going home with a friend for a playdate and will not be taking the bus, please let the office know by noon (10 am on Thursdays) so that it can be indicated on the Bus Passes School Agenda Payment Reminder We are almost to the end of the school year and we kindly ask those families who have not yet paid for the child s school agenda to do so during the month of April. If you have any questions please feel free to contact the school office at 780-452-4474. The fee for the agenda is $10.00. March for Life - An invitation from Father Dean and Father Julian Foundational to our belief as Catholics is that life is a gift from God. Our District Chaplains, Father Dean Dowle and Father Julian Bilyj would like to invite all of our staff and our parents to join them on Thursday, May 11, 2017 for the Alberta March for Life, which honors that All Lives Matter From Beginning to End. This is a family friendly event which allows participants to bear witness to our belief of the sanctity of life. This pro-life event begins at Churchill Square at noon. There will be a formal program followed by a march to the Alberta Legislature. Visit http://albertamarchforlife.com/ to learn more about the event and to view the detailed brochure on the March for Life events.
Amoris Lae a Chapter 7: TOWARDS A BETTER EDUCATION OF CHILDREN This chapter is par cularly relevant for those who have been called to serve in the field of Catholic educa on. It is clear that the synod par cipants, under the leadership of Pope Francis, believe that the primary educators of children are the child s parents. The importance of this message is reflected in the second paragraph of this chapter which explains how essen al it is for parents to spend quality me with their children: Only if we devote me to our children, speaking of important things with simplicity and concern, and finding healthy ways for them to spend their me, will we be able to shield them from harm. (260) This devoted me is seen as a gi to be shared by both parents and children. The document underlines the importance of helping children to see the parental rela onship as a posi ve experience when it says, Obsession, however, is not educa on (261). The focus is on encouraging children to develop habits of love and trust, not controlling them with fear of punishment. While it is true that inappropriate behavior must be corrected, the key is to do so with love and in a way that the children understand and learn from the situa on. It is interes ng to note the understanding of the real world that comes through in this chapter. There is no illusion that all families are perfect and all adolescents listen to and respect their parents. This is reflected in the quota on: adolescents should be helped to draw analogies: to appreciate that values are best embodied in a few exemplary persons, but also realized imperfectly and to different degrees in others (272). This gives parents permission to turn to others for assistance. His Holiness invites and encourages all parents to seek faithful assistance; this is especially true concerning the gi of Catholic educa on. One of the most influen al partners that parents can count on to assist them in the educa on of their children is the Catholic school systems available in many countries around the world. The educa on of children involves teaching of morality, Scripture study, and theology, as well as educa on on human sexuality. In speaking specifically about this area, the document gives several guiding statements which educators can look to for inspira on: It can only be seen within the broader framework of an educa on for love, for mutual self giving (280). The important thing is to teach them sensi vity to different expressions of love, mutual concern and care, loving respect and deeply meaningful communica on (283). While these statements are not a how to teach human sexuality, they give a clear direc on and focus for the development of human sexuality educa on programs in Catholic schools. In concluding the chapter, Pope Francis returns to the importance of the role of parents in raising their children. Handing on the faith presumes that parents themselves genuinely trust God, seek him and sense their need for him, for only in this way does one genera on laud your works to another, and declare your mighty acts [Ps 144:4] and fathers make known to children your faithfulness [Is 38:19] (287). The educa on of children is a daun ng challenge and a glorious calling for all of us. We, as educators and members of the Church, are a source of support for the parents of the children we serve. Ed Jean, Secondary Religious Educa on Consultant
Catholic Education Services 9807-106 Street Edmonton AB T5K 1C2 T: 780 441-6000 F: 780 425.8759 www.ecsd.net April 2017 We are a people who love messages. Did you get my letter? My email? Text? Indeed, we all like to have something to tell. A message is defined as a verbal, written, or recorded communication sent to or left for a recipient. In turn, a message is intended to be heard, heeded, and likely succeeded on to another. Consequently, the content of the message is very important, both by what it is and how it is conveyed. For us as Catholics and Christians, Easter has a most powerful message: Christ is Risen! The fullness and importance of the message is that Jesus intimately knew our human experience, and through being God, was able to conquer sin and destroy death. When taken together, this is why the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ define our identity as the Catholic Church. This is also why our recognition of our identity in the Mass is to be a communal celebration: together we experience Christ in the social community which gathers to worship as God s people through what was accomplished during the Triduum. Such becomes the value in having all its members present, each and every Sunday, for where the whole Church is joined in unity, Christ is most present. And where all are gathered, all will receive the one same clear communication of good news. The greatest message of the Church began with a few who saw, would believe, and then pursue the gift that was offered to them. The gift of their Faith is what we and those many before us would then receive. In these modern times, the Catholic Church, our District, and the community of Edmonton gathered together for Easter continues our identity of who we are and what we can achieve for Christ. This is the incredible power of good news, the purpose of Truth, and all received through the announcement of great joy. It is the fundamental message I pray and hope all will remember as we go forth: that Christ IS Risen and then to share it by text, email or one-to-one with everyone in an excited Happy Easter! Very sincerely your servant in Christ, Fr. Dean Dowle Edmonton Catholic School District Chaplain EIGHT CHARACTERS OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION... Community Hospitality Justice Tradition Sacramentality Humanness Rationality Spirituality
April 2017 The Lord is faithful in all his words, and gracious in all his deeds. The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down. ~Psalm 145: 13-14~ This passage comes from a beautiful psalm titled The Greatness and the Goodness of God. It truly evokes the image of a loving Father who nurtures and supports his children in their life s journey. As we approach Holy Week and the ensuing season of Easter, we can see this greatness and goodness of our God in the saving gift of his Son, Jesus. Edmonton Catholic Schools has many reasons to celebrate this month. We are very pleased to have been named one of Alberta s Top 70 Employers 2017, our second year in a row! This special designation is organized by the editors of Canada's Top 100 Employers and recognizes Alberta employers that lead their industries in offering exceptional places to work. Organizations that enter the competition are evaluated in 8 categories and then compared to other organizations. Winners are chosen for offering the most progressive and forward-thinking programs. We know that when our staff have exceptional working conditions, they can focus on providing excellent learning experiences for our students. The Council of Catholic School Superintendents of Alberta sponsors the Excellence in Catholic Education Awards each year. We are pleased to announce that Bruno Binassi, principal of Sir John Thompson, Rena Methuen, principal of Ben Calf Robe/St. Clare, and Beth Pecson, a teacher from Monsignor Fee Otterson are recipients of this prestigious award. These three exceptional Catholic educators are being recognized for providing excellent educational experiences for their students that are deeply grounded in our Catholic faith. Congratulations! As we approach the final months of our school year, the opportunity to celebrate student achievements in a variety of forums arises. Each year Edmonton Catholic Schools showcases and celebrates fine arts education and the gifts and talents of its students and staff through its annual Celebration of the Arts Concert. This year, our event takes place on Tuesday, April 25 at 6:30 pm at the Winspear Centre. It is a truly awe-inspiring evening. The final Supporting our Diverse Learners session for parents and guardians takes place on Wednesday, April 19 at 6:30 pm, St. Anthony Meeting Centre, 10425 84 Avenue. This session will focus on mental health awareness, transitions, and Programs of Choice. Topics include the developing brain, common myths about mental illness, childhood and teenage stress, and promoting positive mental health in your child. Visit http://bit.ly/ecsdiverse to learn more and to register.... 2
The provincial budget was proclaimed on March 16. We are pleased to receive dollars to support the reduction in school fees that we have already put in place for next year. We are extremely pleased the government will continue to provide funding for new students. We are projecting an enrolment increase of 3.3% or 1,359 students for September 2017. Our work to analyze all the financial data will continue over the next few weeks. As the end of Lent approaches, I would like to leave you with a final thought from Pope Francis. Lent is the favorable season for renewing our encounter with Christ, living in his word, in the sacraments and in our neighbour. (Twitter, March 12, 2017) Many blessings of the Easter season to all of you! Sincerely, Joan Carr Superintendent