Thunder News Flash – January 23-27

If you already have children in the school, and would like to have a sibling come into Kindergarten or any other grade for the 2017-2018 school year, you must complete an Application Form. The Sibling Application Form is now available at the school office.  These applications must be filled out and returned to the school office with all the required supporting documents no later than January 27th. We will be having our information session for new families on Wednesday, February 8th and we would like to be able to tell the new families approximately how many spaces are available in each grade.

This is just to remind you about the school’s procedures when students arrive late for school.  Once the bell has gone, we give students about a 5 minute grace period before we begin to mark them as late.  Students who arrive after this grace period must come to the office to collect a late slip, and they must present this to their classroom teacher so that the teacher knows that they have checked in at the office.  For students who arrive at school before 11:30, they will simply be considered late, but if your child comes to school after 11:30 they will then be considered to have missed a half day of school and they will need an Absentee Note.  Parents of children in Grade 4 or below should walk their children into the school if they are late, however they are not required to sign them in, and the children will then walk to their class on their own.  If your child is in Outdoor Kindergarten and they are late for school, please be advised that if they are going to arrive after the class has typically gone outdoors it is best to bring them to school after 10:00am because it is too difficult to try and bring your child to the class outside.

If your child was absent in December, and you did not send in an Absentee Note, your child received a note to bring home on Friday.  Please simply complete this note and return it to the school as soon as possible.

As you know, this winter has been very unusual, and has provided us with some unexpected difficulties with the Parent Parking Lot and our school field.  Hopefully we are past the worst of it now, but you never know.  When the temperature dips below freezing at night, this has left us with a skating rink in the Parent Parking Lot, and for safety reasons we have been only opening the “exit” gate and having people drive directly into the St. James’ fire lane to drop their children off, or park in the lot with extreme caution.  This procedure will be repeated as required, however staff will be outside directing parents as needed.  

Our play field has gone from snow covered, to ice covered, and was quite sloppy last week with all the melting that took place.  During our “ice age” the students were kept inside for safety as it was very slippery, and not much fun to be outside as the students really could not play on the field.  We continue to monitor the play field and take things one day at a time.  Hopefully the sun that is predicted for the next two weeks will actually materialize and keep the field dry – ideal for playing on and giving the students a chance to run around and burn off that excess energy that has been building up.  I know you will appreciate that just as much as we will!

St. John Brebeuf High School’s Open House is Thursday, February 16th from 6-8pm (2747 Townline Road, Abbotsford).  This is a chance for prospective families to tour the school and see what St. John Brebeuf has to offer its students.  Spend your evening exploring the campus, talking with students and staff, and see what quality education within a Catholic setting looks like at the high school level.  For more information visit http://www.stjohnbrebeuf.ca or call 604-855-0571.

There are a number of Parenting Workshops and Events taking place in the Archdiocese in the next while, including the following:

• ALPHA’S – The Parenting Children Course – January 11th – April 5th at Precious Blood Church, Surrey
• Positive Parenting Workshops – January 19th – March 9th at Queen of All Saints School, Coquitlam
• Why your child says NO! … to everything – January 25th – February 15th at St. Nicholas Parish, Langley
• Couples Connect: A Deeper Bond – February 1st – March 8th at St. John Paul II Pastoral Centre
• Worldwide Marriage Encounter – in Deroche on February 24th and West Kelowna on April 21st

For more information visit the RCAV website by clicking here.

We will be hosting a New Parents’ Information Session on Wednesday, February 8th from 6:45pm – 7:30pm in the Library at St. James & St. Ann’s School.  This will be an opportunity for new families who are interested in enrolling their children at St. James & St. Ann’s School for the 2017-2018 school year to come and learn all about the school, the application process and have a guided tour of the school.  If you are aware of any families who are interested in having their children attend our school for 2017-2018, please encourage them to attend this meeting.

It is very exciting to have a class set of both Mac laptops and iPads for the students to use, and their skills continue to improve and develop.  There are a number of exciting Apps that the students are using such as Book Creator, Explain Everything, Scratch Jr., and Tickle which is a coding App.  Have your children explain these Apps to you, or show you how to use them at home.  Robotics builds off of coding, and the Robotics Club will be coming soon, so watch for information to come home as this club fills up very fast!

This week a Hip Hop instructor will be coming to the school to teach the students as part of our dance unit in P.E.  On Friday there will be a Hip Hop presentation for all parents to come watch starting at 1:15pm in the school gym – we hope to see you there!

Just one more week to complete and enter your 10 hours for Parent Participation or your first cheque of $150 will be cashed.  If you do not know how you log in information, please contact Marilyn at the school office.  If you have questions or concerns please contact your group leader or Shannon Maddalozzo Tou.