Thunder News Flash – December 7, 2019

Our Christmas Giving Tree is up and we are following a similar routine as last year:

1. Students are not allowed to take a tag from the tree unless they have permission from their parents.  If you would like to give your child permission to take a tag from the tree, please email the school by clicking here and let Mrs. Dlugan know that this is all right.  Please provide a price range for the gift that you would like to bring in, and Mrs. Dlugan will help your child pick an appropriate gift tag.
2. Parents are welcome to stop by before or after school, at your convenience, and take a tag from the tree.  We will happily “buzz” you in the front door.
3. Tags vary in price range and in the items that have been requested – families may take more than one tag if they wish.
4. A tag may say “canned corn”.  We do not specify how many cans you need to provide – whether it is one can or a case, we will gratefully accept your donation.
5. All items provided must be new – we cannot accept any used items.
6. All items must be brought, unwrapped, to the office with the gift tag so that an ornament can then be placed on the tree.

Donated items will go to support the following charities:  St. Vincent de Paul and NightShift.

We thank you for any and all donations which we will gratefully accept until December 20th.

You may have already heard your child singing the song that their class is learning for our Christmas Musical, but just in case you haven’t been blessed with this treat yet, we will once again be showcasing the talents of all the students in the school as we present to you “The Boy Child”.  Join us for a creative retelling of Jesus’ birth, which will be presented on Wednesday, December 18th at 1:00pm for the seniors and grandparents, and again at 1:00pm and 7:00pm on December 19th for our school families, friends and relatives.  Students need to be in their classroom, dressed in their musical costume, at 6:30pm, and the doors to the gym will open at 6:30pm as well.  We hope that all of our school families will have the opportunity to attend at least one of our performances!

Since we are not in school for the fourth Thursday of the month, we have decided that our December Thunderwear Thursday will take place on Thursday, December 12th.  Students will be allowed to replace their uniform pieces with Thunderwear that they have, so for example if they have a Thunderwear t-shirt they can wear this instead of their school shirt.  As always, this is not a full dress down day, but a day to wear Thunderwear to show our Thunder Spirit!

Just a reminder that there is only one Thunderwear Thursday a month – please check the school calendar on our website to find the date for each month.

Our next Community Coffee will take place on Monday, December 9th in the school gym at 10:00am, following our monthly school Mass.  We hope to see you there!  

Childcare BC is conducting a survey of parents regarding child care in the province.  The survey is anonymous and will be open until January 17, 2020.  If you would like to participate in the survey, please click here.  You can also find the answers to many of your questions regarding child care in BC by clicking here.

We have noticed a number of concerns regarding the school uniform lately, including:

• a variety of brightly coloured socks – socks should be navy or black
• students who are not wearing indoor shoes, and say that they don’t have any – indoor shoes are mandatory to protect the floors, and should be solid black
• girls wearing nail polish – students may not wear nail polish to school
• hoodies or sweatshirts worn because students are cold – students in grades K – 6 should have a school sweater to put on if they are cold, and the school sweater is mandatory to wear to Mass

For further clarification about what students may wear to school, please click here to see the Uniform Policy.

We will once again be hosting a special luncheon for the seniors of the various parishes that support St. James & St. Ann’s School, as well as the grandparents of school students.  This will take place on Wednesday, December 18th – doors will open at 12:00pm, lunch will be served at 12:15pm and they will be treated to a special 1:00pm performance of our Christmas Musical.  Please invite your child’s grandparents and the seniors of the parishes to attend this lunch and show, but please have them call the school at 604-852-1788 to R.S.V.P. by Monday, December 16th so that we know how many people to set up for.  Admission is by donation.

We look forward to seeing many people attend and serving the senior members of our community.  The Grade 6 class will be taking care of serving the seniors, and the Baking/Cooking Group will be providing the desserts, along with some donations from the Grade 6 class.

The Application Package for siblings of students currently registered in the school is now available for pick up at the school office.  If you have children in the school, and have a younger child who will be entering Kindergarten in September 2020, please come to the school office to pick up an Application Package.  If you have children in the school, and have other children who will be entering Grades 1 – 7 in September 2020, and you are hoping that they can attend the school, please come to the school office to pick up an Application Package.  These applications must be filled out and returned to the school with all supporting documents no later than December 19th as we will begin to take applications for new families to the school on January 27th.  We need to know how many spaces we have available, especially in Kindergarten, as the spaces fill up each year very quickly.  

As Christmas approaches and wish lists are created, electronic devices are definitely on the list of many of the students at the school.  Please be reminded that you and your children signed a contract which states that students may not have Personal Electronic Devices (PEDs) on them while they are at school.  If you allow your child to bring a PED to school, it must be turned off and stored in their backpack while they are on school property.  As technology is developing so quickly it is difficult to list every PED that a child may want to bring to school, but anything that has the ability to access the internet, take pictures or communicate with others would be considered a PED.  Things like hand-held gaming devices, cell phones or smart phones, Apple watches, tablets or iPads, etc., may not be used while on school property.  If you need further clarification regarding this, please contact the school by clicking here. 

The Grade 1 and 6 classes have put together a beautiful Christmas book and this will be added to a basket of treats which will be raffled at the Christmas Musical on December 19th at the 7:00pm show.  Tickets will be on sale starting on Monday, December 9th at lunchtime, and will be sold for 25 cents each.  The money will go to help cover the cost of the Christmas Musical, and a donation will be made to Chalice.  We appreciate your support.

The next Work Bee will take place at the school on Saturday, December 14th from 9:00am – 2:00pm.  While we don’t know what the weather will be like, we would appreciate it if you could bring rakes and cordless blowers as there are still many leaves to clean up.  We appreciate all of your hard work!

On behalf of Mrs. Di Palma (and Mr. Di Palma too!) we would like to share the exciting news that they are expecting their first child in May.  We wish them all of God’s blessings, and our prayers are with them as they wait for their little one to arrive.