Thunder News Flash – June 22, 2019

This coming school year will see the makeup of our REC change to include St. Joseph’s, Mission and Sts. Joachim and Ann, Aldergrove.  This move into a truly regional elementary school means that the REC will now consist of two parishioners from each parish community for a total of 8 REC members.  If you are interested in learning more about becoming involved as an REC member for the 2019/2020 school year, please email the Nominating Committee by clicking here.  Elections will be held September 28th and 29th this coming Fall.

Are you short a few Parent Participation hours?  We are looking for 1-2 parents to help clean the French Room on Tuesday, June 25th (tables, chairs, shelves, windows, etc….).  This job should take 2-4 hours, depending on the number of people available.  Please contact Erika if you are able to help by clicking here. 

We are also looking for someone interested in repainting some of our Fun Night games.  This job can be completed over the summer.  If you need Parent Participation hours for this school year, we will consider extending the deadline for you.  Otherwise, the hours will count toward the 2019-2020 Parent Participation Program requirement.  If you are interested or need more information, please contact Nicola by clicking here.

Grey Matters Carnival is a fundraising event to raise awareness and money in support of people affected by brain cancer.  100% of the money raised will go towards The Brain Tumor Foundation and Balding for Dollars.  The Grey Matters Carnival will take place at Notre Dame Secondary, 2880 Venables St. in Vancouver on July 6th from 11:00am – 4:00pm.  There will be lots of food, carnival games and hair cutting!  If you are in Vancouver that day or are looking for something fun and worthwhile to do, please come out and show your support for this great cause.

The monthly Hospital Mass will take place on Sunday, June 23rd at 4:00pm at the Sacred Space in the Abbotsford Hospital.  Any students wishing to read, please meet Mrs. Wakely at 3:45 at the Sacred Space.  This is a wonderful outreach opportunity for our students and their families.

On Monday, June 24th, students going into Grades 1 – 7 in September will “step up” to their next year’s class.  This will give the students an opportunity to spend time with their new teacher for next year, to hear a little bit about what they will be learning next year, as well as to participate in some fun activities.  Most importantly, this often helps to relieve some of the anxiousness they might be feeling about leaving the familiarity of their current classroom and going to what they perceive as the unknown.  We have also invited any new students to the school to come for Step Up Day so that they can meet their new classmates and experience life at St. James & St. Ann’s School, instead of waiting until September for this to happen.  Step Up Day will take place from 12:50 – 2:20pm on June 24th.

On Tuesday, June 25th from 8:00 – 9:00am, the staff of St. James & St. Ann’s School would like to say a special “thank you” to all the parents for all you do to support the school and all of us.  Since we know that everyone is so busy, especially in the mornings, we are providing you with a special “Grab & Go” treat.  There will be coffee and homemade treats for you to eat, all bagged and ready for you to take with you if you need to head off quickly, or feel free to stay and socialize.  Entertainment will also be provided.  We hope to see you on Tuesday morning so we can let you know just how wonderful you all are!

Come and join us in the gym for our Celebration of Excellence on Wednesday, June 26th from 8:45 – 10:00am.  This is our opportunity to acknowledge the intermediate students at the school who have displayed great leadership, service, academic abilities, sportsmanship and athleticism, school spirit as well as being models of our Catholic faith.  These students will be presented with our school awards as well as recognized by their peers, school staff and parents.  We hope you will join us for this wonderful celebration. 

After our Celebration of Excellence, the students and staff spend much of the rest of Wednesday cleaning up the classrooms and the school.  Please send your child to school with a good rag so that they can wash their desk and chair, as well as help to clean up the classroom.  The younger students and their teachers will be helped by the senior students in the school.  Please also send your child to school on Wednesday, June 26th with a very strong, large bag to bring home all of their belongings from the year.  We wouldn’t want any of their treasures to get damaged or destroyed on the way from the school to your vehicle, so the right bag is very important!

Our last day of school for the 2018-2019 school year will take place on Thursday, June 27th.  School will start at our usual time, 8:30am, and we will celebrate a very special Mass at 9:00am at St. James Church.  Following the Mass the students will return to the school, take a bit of a recess break, and then we will gather in the gym for our year end video.  Following the video the students will return to their classrooms, receive their Progress Reports, say their final “good-byes” for this school year, and will be dismissed at 11:30am.  We hope you will be able to join us for part or all of this special day.

As explained in the letter which went home to parents on March 8th, reporting practices have definitely changed in British Columbia with the introduction of the redesigned curriculum.  In Grades 1 – 7 the proficiency levels include a level referred to as “extending” which is very challenging for students to achieve as it means that the students must display their learning in a sophisticated way and in a different context than it was introduced to them in the classroom.  In light of this, many of the Curricular Competencies on the Progress Report simply do not lend themselves to students being able to actually reach the “extending” level.  As such, we have decided that the highest level we will use to describe student achievement in the Curricular Competencies section of the Progress Report will be “proficient”.  However, if your child did extend their learning in any of these areas, this will be described for parents in the “Teacher’s Comments” section of your child’s Progress Report.

We would like to take this opportunity to say good-bye to a few staff members who are leaving St. James & St. Ann’s School at the end of June.  We wish blessings, happiness and success in their future to Mr. Yang, Mrs. Foster and Miss Draayers.  We will definitely miss them.

We would also like to welcome the following staff members who are joining St. James & St. Ann’s School in September.  New to our staff will be Mr. Mendonca teaching Grade 5, Mrs. Cobo in the Learning Resources Department and two Educational Assistants, Miss Gibson and Mr. Sorley.  

Below are the teaching assignments for the 2019-2020 school year:

• Mrs. Di Palma – Kindergarten
• Mrs. Gaudet (Monday – Wednesday) and Mrs. Wakely (Thursday/Friday) – Grade 1
• Mrs. Hunger – Grade 2
• Mrs. Doyle – Grade 3
• Mrs. Filiatrault – Grade 4
• Mr. Mendonca – Grade 5
• Mrs. Lavrikova – Grade 6
• Mrs. Dos Santos – Grade 7/Vice-Principal
• Mrs. Stobbe – French/Grade 7 (Thursday afternoons)
• Mrs. Wakely – PE (Tuesday/Wednesday)
• Miss Lewis – Learning Resources Coordinator
• Mrs. Cobo – Learning Resources Teacher (Monday – Wednesday)
• Mrs. White – Library/STEAM Lab (Monday – Thursday)

We are looking forward to a wonderful 2019/2020 school year.