Thunder News Flash – October 17-21

In light of our theme, Care For Our Common Home, a very good idea was brought to us by one of our students.  It was suggested that we could reduce the amount of garbage that our school produces by having one day a week where we do not throw anything in the garbage.  This will be “Waste-free Wednesdays” starting next week on October 19th.  We are asking that when student lunches are packed they come in reusable containers, or a thermos.  If food is brought in a Ziploc bag, students can bring them home to be reused another day.  When you send a drink, consider a water bottle rather than a juice box.  Any garbage that is produced by the students through their recess snack or lunch will be brought back home to be disposed of there.  Garbage cans throughout the school will be covered to remind students that we are trying to avoid producing any waste on Wednesdays.  We are very excited about this creative idea and reducing the amount of waste at our school – we know that everyone will jump on board with this!

We are going to extend our collection of food for the Poor Clares until the end of the day on Monday, October 17th.  If you have not yet donated any non-perishable, vegetarian food items for the Poor Clares, you have one more opportunity.  These items will be collected in each class and delivered to the Poor Clares in Mission the week of October 17th – 21st.  Your donations help to support this group of cloistered Religious Sisters who work tirelessly for others, and spend their lives praying for the Church and all those in need.  Your donations will be greatly appreciated!

All students and their families are welcome to join us at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital for the Hospital Outreach Mass on Sunday, October 23rd 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 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.

If your child has been absent from school during the month of September and you have not sent in an absentee note, the office has sent one home for you to fill out.  Notes are required for all absences to comply with our yearly Eligible Student audit.  If you receive one of these notes, please return it to the school office explaining the absence as soon as possible.  When your child is absent from school you can go onto the St. James and St. Ann’s website under the Parents’ tab and fill out the absentee note.  The school will then receive an email which serves two purposes – it informs the office that your child will be away, and it satisfies the requirements of our audit.  You can find this absentee note by clicking here.

We will be focusing on Mary by participating in the Living Rosary on Friday, October 21st.  Please join us at 1:45pm in the school gym for this beautiful event.

As you are aware, with the full implementation of the Redesigned Curriculum in British Columbia, our Superintendent’s Office has given the Catholic schools permission to experiment throughout the course of this school year when it comes to Communicating Student Learning to parents.  At St. James & St. Ann’s School we are embarking on creating a new template for reporting and are making several key changes.  If you would like to be involved in an open discussion regarding important topics such as assessment, how we communicate learning to parents, letter grades and much more, please join in the conversation by attending a meeting on Wednesday, November 2nd starting at 6:30pm in the school gym.  You won’t want to miss this! 

On Friday, October 28th the staff will be participating in a professional development day, and parents have already been made aware of this day.  As you know the Catholic schools were given permission to add one additional pro-d day to our school calendar this year to focus on the new curriculum, and we have decided that this day will occur on Monday, November 28th.  Please note that there will be no school for students on both Friday, October 28th and Monday, November 28th.