Thunder News Flash – May 11, 2019

The sacraments are a very important part of our Catholic faith, so we want to congratulate all of our students who celebrated their First Communion on Sunday, May 5th at St. James Parish.  It was a wonderful Mass with Fr. Ashley as the main celebrant, and the students looked angelic as they received Jesus for the first time.  Thank you to Mrs. Hunger for preparing the students so well and to the parents for supporting your child’s faith formation.  We hope their relationship with Jesus continues to grow throughout the years and that the memories of their First Communion remain an important part of their journey as young Catholics.

Please note these important dates in May:

• Thursday, May 16th – Parent Support Meeting for parents of children in grades 4 – 7
• Friday, May 17th – No School
• Monday, May 20th – Victoria Day – No School
• Wednesday, May 29th – Confirmation Mass at St. James Parish

The Lost and Found bin is overflowing with coats and sweaters.  If you happen to be at the school, please come in and check to see if any of these items belong to your children, or have your children check the bin.

We had originally planned our June early dismissal day for Wednesday, June 5th.   However, due to their Graduation Mass, SJB needed to change this early dismissal day to Tuesday, June 4th.  In order to be aligned with their calendar as much as possible, we have decided that we will also change our early dismissal day in June to Tuesday, June 4th.  Please mark this change on your calendars.

We will be having our annual Student Attendance Audit on May 21st and we require notes explaining all student absences in order to qualify for the government grant.  If your child was absent in April and we did not receive a note, absentee notes were sent home from the School Office a second time on May 9th.  Please check your child’s backpack to ensure that you receive this note to sign and send back to the school.

The Track Meet at Cloverdale Catholic for students in Grades 2 – 4 on May 15th is at the school grounds and there are NO bleachers.  Parents wanting to watch and support their children and the team should bring seating for themselves.

Many of our school families enjoy the practice of attending morning Mass together, and we certainly support this.  Please note that when the school students attend morning Mass, and they arrive in class after the 8:30 bell, they are not considered late.  They are asked to come to the office to check in, as the attendance bins have often already been sent to the office, and they are given a “late slip” which is simply the way that their classroom teacher knows that they have checked in.  However, they are not marked as “late” in our attendance records.

Fraser Health is continuing to hold mass clinics to catch up children who are not immunized against the measles.  If your child is behind in their vaccinations you will have received a letter from Fraser Health in the last few weeks.  For information about these mass clinics, please click here. 

Why not celebrate the Easter season by joining the Parent Prayer Group in praying the rosary for our school community at 8:30am on Thursday mornings.  Please note that they meet each week in the school Library.  Small children and babies are welcome.

The next Work Bee will take place at the school today, Saturday, May 11th from 9:00am to 2:00pm.  After this there will only be one more Work Bee in June for parents to earn their Parent Participation hours for the 2018-2019 school year.  If you still need to make up several hours for this year, please make every effort to attend these last two Work Bees.

We are happy to announce that we have been invited to participate in the Abbotsford District Track Meet, which will include students from the public schools as well as MEI and Abbotsford Christian.  This meet is for all of our track team members in Grades 3 – 5, which is most of our track team, and there are opportunities for the track team members in Grades 6 and 7 to play a leadership role as helpers at the meet.  However, that means that we will not be participating in the CISVA Track Meet this year as the Abbotsford District Track Meet also takes place on June 5th.  Our decision about our participation in the CISVA Track Meet is made on a year by year basis, and takes many factors into account.  We will re-evaluate this decision again next year.

We have just been informed that St. John Brebeuf will be having an additional early dismissal day on May 22nd at 12:00pm.  The school busses will be leaving shortly after that and there will be no busses in the afternoon for our students who are dismissed at 2:30pm as usual.  We hope that parents will be able to make alternate pick up arrangements for their children, or take advantage of the Thunder Club, instead of having their children go home early that day.

The Abbotsford Police Department is hosting the Heroes Ninja Challenge on Saturday, June 1st at Bradner Elementary School starting at 8:30am.  All proceeds are donated to Special Olympics BC.  The Heroes Ninja Challenge is a Family Friendly Fitness challenge that consists of running and 10 fun fitness challenges.  The Challenge is open to all participants 4 yrs and older.  All youth under 12 must be accompanied by a guardian and the ratio of kids per adult is 10:1.  For more information, please click here.

We wish a very happy Mother’s Day to all of the mothers in our community.  We hope you have a wonderful day, and that your family treats you extra special on Sunday for all of the amazing things that you do for your family.