Thunder News Flash – June 19-23

All of our amazing school volunteers are invited to join us on Tuesday, June 27th at 1:15pm to watch our Talent Show.  You will be wowed by the talents of our students, and this is our opportunity to thank you for all the support you give to our school.  We look forward to seeing many of you there!

Abbotsford will be hosting Aboriginal Day in Abbotsford on Wednesday, June 21st from 4:00 – 7:00pm.  This will take place at the Thunderbird Memorial Square.  For more information about this celebration, please click here.

Once again we will not be including letter grades on the student Progress Reports for the third term.  However, parents of students in Grades 5 – 7 will have the opportunity to request letter grades for their children.  Please click here to access the Request for Letter Grades form.  Please print this form, fill it out and submit it to your child’s teacher no later than Friday, June 23rd.  The form will then be completed by your child’s teacher and included in their Progress Report folder that comes home on the last day of school.

At St. James & St. Ann’s, we are blessed with many, many parents who give of their time, talent or treasure willingly because you all know we have the ability to help make our school community better.  Thank you to all those families who have completed and recorded their parent participation hours for this year.  With the number of families at our school, as a community we give well over 4,000 hours of our time and talent to the school each year, which is amazing!

Almost all families should now have completed and entered their 20 parent participation hours plus 2 fundraiser hours for the year (there are a few groups who perform duties until the last week of school).  You will be contacted this week, if your hours have not been entered or if you are short of task group hours and/or did not assist with a fundraiser.  Parent Participation Assignments for 2017/18 came home with your oldest/only child this past Friday.  Please look over this information as some task groups, like Work Bee start July 1st.  If you have any questions, please contact the Parent Participation Administrator by email at participation@stjameselementary.ca or by clicking here.

All students and their families are welcome to join us at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital for the Hospital Outreach Mass on Sunday, June 25th at 4:00pm.  The Mass takes place in the Chapel on the main floor.  Students in Grades 6 and 7 are invited to be the readers.  If you would like to be a reader, please arrive at 3:45pm. Mrs. Wakely and Mrs. Dos Santos will be there to help supervise and prepare the volunteers.  We also appreciate lots of young voices to help with the singing!  We hope to see many of you there.

There are a number of important dates coming up very soon as we get close to the end of our school year:

• Retirement Tea – Wednesday, June 21st from 1:30 – 4:00pm – come and help us honour Bill Ward and Kathy Robbins.  Come for the whole time, or pop in when you can!
• Grade 7 Farewell – Thursday, June 22nd from 6:00 – 8:30pm – we will begin with Mass at St. James Church followed by a dessert reception in the gym where we will celebrate our Grade 7 students.
• Step Up Day – Monday, June 26th from 12:45 – 2:20 – for our future Grades 1 – 7 students; our new Kindergarten students would have received their schedule already.
• Consignment Blow Out Sale – Monday, June 26th from 1:00 – 3:00pm.
• Volunteer Tea/Talent Show – Tuesday, June 27th from 1:15 – 2:30pm in the school gym.
• Celebration of Excellence – Wednesday, June 28th beginning at 9:00am in the school gym.
• Rag & Bag Day – Wednesday, June 28th throughout the day, but after the Celebration of Excellence – send your child to school with a large, sturdy bag to collect all of their belongings for the year.  We will be sending home their Comfort Kits which you provided in September as part of our emergency supplies. We will be giving you a new bag and list of items to bring back for next school year when we return in September.
• Last Day of School – Thursday, June 29th – dismissal is at 11:30am.  We will begin our day at 8:30am as always, and we will have our final school Mass at 9:00am at St. James Church.  Following the Mass the students will return to the school for our year end dvd, to get their Progress Reports, and to say our good-byes.

While our Walkathon goal was not quite reached this year, we are glad to report that 69% of school families worked to raise pledges that totalled $20,332.  Thank you to everyone who participated by raising money for this year’s Walkathon.  Because of your hard work collecting pledges, we will be able to put most of the new technology that was planned into each classroom over the summer so that it is ready for September.

Each grade raised at least $2,000 for the Walkathon, so all students were awarded the grand prize this year.  This past Friday, all students were treated to the movie Trolls on the big screen, along with popcorn, drinks and candy.  Each student who raised money also received a Ring Pop or Trolls Prize Pack.  Those students who raised more than $250 received Cineplex gift cards as well.

Thank you for your support of St. James & St. Ann’s.