Holy Family School
61 Allan Drive, Bolton, ON L7E 1P7
Phone: (905) 857-1300
Newsletter # 8
www.dpcdsb.org/HOFAM
Principal: M. Clarot
Secretary: M. Proctor
Catholic School Council Co-Chair: M. D’Alelio
Superintendent: L. Storey 1-800-387-9501
Fax: (905) 857-9432
April 2016
Holy Family Church - Pastor: Father Larry Leger
Associate Pastor: Fr. David Gikonyo
Church Phone: (905) 857-1938
Trustee: F. Di Cosola (905) 951-8898
Principal’s Message
The Radiance of Easter
In the early morning hours, the day arises
The first light glimmers
There hasn’t been much time to sleep
Yet already there is nothing to see in this tomb!
There is nothing to see in this tomb!
Like the earth in spring, it has broke open,
Given way to the first surges rising
Life has sprung forth, new, joyous, like a first-born!
There is nothing to see in this tomb,
Nothing to touch.
The Living One cannot be contained!
No living one can be contained!
Finally free, this life is now restored.
Free, it calls to us;
Free, it lifts us up out of fear!
There is nothing to see in this tomb!
Let the Good News spread like wildfire
Across the world!
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Easter Mass / Catholic Education Week
Page 2
Student Transportation / Stopr
Page 3
Eco Team News
Page 4
Virtue of the Month – Love
Page 5
Math Insert April 2015
Page 7
Dates to Remember
Page 8
Spring, the season of new life and renewal, is now upon
us. Our second term is progressing well and it is this time of year I
try to reflect on the many positive initiatives that have been
undertaken during this year.
One of our most significant
accomplishments has been the continuation and further
development of our monthly “Virtue Assembly”. Each class has had
the opportunity to present one of the virtues. The virtues assemblies
have provided our school community an opportunity to be reminded
of our goal of conducting ourselves in a positive manner that we
can all be proud of. In addition, students are recognized and
rewarded for demonstrating these virtues. Please continue to
review our monthly virtues with your children and encourage them
to be positive and caring members of our school community. In
addition, the faith ambassadors met their target for rice, sugar, oil
and salt collection. We also had a coin collection for ShareLife. On
March 29th, our students participated in the Lenten and Easter
Retreat. The Faith Ambassadors reenacted the 15 Stations of the
Cross as part of the Passion Play. We were very fortunate to have
our Grand-friends from the Davis Center come over to watch the
Passion Play. In addition, our Faith Ambassadors continue their
visits to the Davis Center. Our Holy Family students are matched
to a senior from the Davis Center. They’re matched according to
their common interests. Some enjoy music together, some like
sports, and others maybe have a common sense of humour. This
wonderful program allows our students to build awareness and
empathy for our senior community members. In May our Faith
Ambassadors will volunteer their time at Dr. Simone’s Warehouse.
We are extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to be involved
in so many special spiritual activities. I would like to thank our Adult
and Youth Faith Ambassadors for continuing to renew our faith and
for all their extra efforts.
Also, I want to extend a special thank you to Father Larry
Leger and Father David Gikonyo for their spiritual guidance and
leadership. We have had many opportunities to attend mass as a
school. In addition, teachers have been bringing their classes to
mass over the Lenten season. By attending mass regularly as a
family and as a school, your children will understand the important
connection of school, family and parish.
Please join us on Tuesday, April 12th at 10 a.m. at the
church for our Easter mass. I would like to wish all of our families
all the blessings and joys of the Easter season.
M. Clarot
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all peo ple.
1
Easter Mass
Our Easter Mass will be celebrated on
Tuesday, April 12th, at 10:00 a.m. at
Holy Family Church. As always, all are
welcome to join us.
Catholic Education Week -May 1 - 6, 2016
P.A. Days
Monday, April 11th, 2016 is a P.A. Day, as is Friday,
May 13th, 2016. Therefore, there will be no classes
for either elementary or secondary students on
either of these days.
School Council
The next Parent Council meeting
is scheduled for Wednesday,
April 13th, at 6:30 p.m. As
always, all parents are welcome and encouraged to
attend this open meeting.
Day of Pink
Holy Family School will be taking
part in International Day of Pink on
Wednesday, April 13th, 2016.
Students and staff are encouraged
to join us by wearing pink and
celebrating diversity to unite against
bullying in our school.
E.Q.A.0. Testing – Grades 3 & 6
Provincial assessment in reading,
writing and mathematics will take
place during five days that occur
between May 25th and June 8th for all
students in grades 3 and 6. Kindly
avoid booking dental, doctor, etc.
appointments during that time period. Visit
DPCDSB on the web for Board and School profiles
http://www.dpcdsb.org/EQAO
“Blessed
are
the
merciful, for they will
receive mercy.”
Matthew 5:7
Pope Francis has declared 2016 a “Holy Year of
Mercy” as a way for the Catholic church to “make
more evident, its mission to be a witness of mercy”.
The Holy Year began on December 8, 2015 and will
be celebrated until November 20, 2016. Throughout
the year, there will be a series of jubilee celebrations
on the theme of mercy for teenagers, deacons, the
sick and disabled, prisoners, catechists and clergy.
As well, Pope Francis opened the Vatican’s Holy
Door on December 8th. The Holy Door is opened to
evoke the concept of forgiveness which is the main
focus of a Holy Year. The theme God’s mercy is
illustrated in fifteen of the sixteen bronze panels that
make up the Vatican Door. There are seven such
Holy Doors in the world, including one in Quebec
City.
There are five sub-themes for each day of Catholic
Education Week:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Mercy that Welcomes
Mercy that Loves
Mercy that Forgives
Mercy that Lives the Gospel
Mercy that Rejoices
Every year, the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’
Association (OCSTA) provides our Catholic schools
with a resource kit to help schools prepare for
Catholic Education Week. Using these resources as
well as our own developed activities we have
prepared a series of activities which will highlight
how our school is ‘Opening Doors of Mercy’.
Next week, you will receive more details of the
variety of school events for Catholic Education
Week. We hope to see many of you during our
school celebrations.
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all people.
2
Class List Formation for
2016 – 2017
We will soon begin the process of making up the
class lists for next fall. This is a complex procedure
which takes into consideration not only the needs of
the individual child, but frames those needs in the
context of the larger classroom group. In each class
we strive for a balance of learning styles, a balance
of gender, a balance of learning needs and a crosssection of abilities.
The current teachers of a grade, support staff and
administration all take part in the process. If you
wish to provide input into the process, please take
into consideration the following guidelines: Input
must be made in writing to the Principal no later than
May 2nd, 2016. Requests should be made in terms
of educational contexts, e.g. your child’s learning
needs/strengths/style, information not already
known to the school, best learning environment.
Please do not make requests for specific teachers
as staffing is always tentative and changes can take
place between now and September.
ALSO LETTERS MUST BE WRITTEN YEARLY.
Requests made in the past will not be considered for
the up-coming year. Therefore, if you have made
a request in the past and your request has not
changed you must put it in writing every year.
Are You Moving?
If you know your family is moving
out of our boundary, we would like
to know. Each year, a number of
families move out of the area and
it assists us in our planning
purposes to know whether students will be attending
our school next year. Please inform the office at your
earliest convenience.
Eye See Eye Learn Program
With 80% of their learning being
done through their eyes, vision
issues can have a severe impact
on your child’s ability to learn.
Parents will not often be able to
detect a problem. Signs and
symptoms can be subtle. Children rarely know that
they have a vision problem, and they can’t always
tell you what they see. Make sure they can see to
the best of their ability by getting them a
comprehensive eye exam by an optometrist. Eye
exams and follow-ups are covered under OHIP for
children under 19 years old, so there are no out-ofpocket costs. Just show your Ontario Health card.
For this year’s Junior Kindergarten students, the
Eye See…Eye Learn® Program offers one
complementary pair of glasses with their OHIPcovered eye exam, if prescribed by a participating
optometrist.
Learn more at www.EyeSeeEyeLearn.ca.
Student Transportation -Stopr Website
Effective June 1, transportation
eligibility information for 2016 2017 will be available on our
website.
To
confirm
the
transportation eligibility status for
your child for the 2016 - 2017 school year, please
access our website at www.stopr.ca. Access the
“Am I Eligible for Transportation?” icon, select 2016
- 2017 and enter the required address, 2016 – 2017
grade level, and program information to obtain the
transportation eligibility status for your child. This
website allows parents to login and find their child’s
transportation information by following these
instructions:

Immunization Clinic #3


Parents of our Gr. 7 and 8 students are
asked to note that the 3rd Hep B/HPV
immunization clinic is scheduled for
Wednesday, June 1st, 2016.

type in the website address:
http://businfo.stopr.ca
click “student login”
enter your child’s OEN number (found on
child’s report card), street/house number,
school and grade
click “login”
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all peo ple.
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This will automatically display the child’s
transportation information, if they are eligible for
bussing. This capability for “student login” will be
available for parents starting the second last week of
August until the end of June each year. This feature
will be locked down during the summer for route
planning purposes. Additional features of this
website are: School Information, Which School Do I
Attend and Transportation Eligibility, and Delays and
Cancellations. Parents are encouraged to check
this website before the start of school in September
for route information including pickup and drop-off
times.
Also, please note that the board
Transportation Eligibility Policy is as follows:
Kindergarten – Gr. 1
Grades 2 – 4
Grades 5 – 8
1.0 km
1.6 km
2.0 km
EcoTeam News
We had some fun ECO activities in March. Thank
you to all the students who took part in “The Great
Gulp” on March 22nd. We gathered all the students
in the gym and the ECOTeam talked about the
importance of using and enjoying our tap water.
They talked about how plastic water bottles are filling
our landfill sites, are found floating in lakes and rivers
and how they are just bad for the environment. We
talked about the importance of recycling properly. It
was nice to see so many students with their many
styles of reusable water bottles. We did a count
down and everyone had a big
water gulp together.
On Friday, March 11th, Holy
Family School celebrated Earth
Hour. We had all the classes
turn off any unnecessary lighting,
computers, and smart boards, to do our part in
observing Earth Hour. Each class was also asked
to write down any suggestions that they might have
on how each family could spend the official Earth
Hour on Saturday, March 19th, between 8:30 and
9:30 p.m. We encouraged all families to think up
fun and creative ideas for how to spend their Earth
Hour together as a family. We encouraged students
to share their ideas during the following week. You
can
find
out
more
by
looking
at
www.wwf.ca/EarthHour
have conscientiously remembered to turn off their
engines while waiting in the Idle-Free Kiss ‘N Ride
Zone, THANK YOU!!!!! It does
make a difference to the air
around the school. Please visit
www.caledon.ca/environment for
more information regarding this
bylaw.
We are looking forward to seeing our gardens start
to grow again. If you look in the front flower beds of
the school, you can already see the tulips starting to
push through the ground. We hope this is a good
sign that spring is finally here.
Student Council
Thank you to everyone who has
been supporting Student Council's
popcorn sales. Popcorn sales will
resume on Wednesday, April 13th,
2016. Popcorn will be sold for $2 a
bag. Our flavours are: Butter and Salt, Salt and
Vinegar, White Cheddar, Kettle Corn and Dill
Pickle. Once a flavor is sold out, we will not be
replacing it. Thank you again for your support!
Youth Faith Ambassadors
Lenten Retreat
On March 29th, the students participated in a Lenten
Retreat. The students made mosaic crosses,
Resurrection eggs, and re-enacted the Last Supper;
sharing wine (grape juice) and bread. These
activities were facilitated by the Youth Faith
Ambassadors.
In the afternoon, the students
watched the Passion Play performed by the Youth
Faith Ambassadors. Thank you to Mrs. Kirec for
working so hard with the students. It was a beautiful
dramatization. Thank you also to Mdm. Fazio, Mrs.
Valotta, Mrs. Kirec and Mrs. Harden for organizing
the activities and preparing the materials for the
students.
We are continuing to try and make a difference to
our clean air outside. Again to those parents who
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all people.
4
Virtue of the Month -- Love
The Passion Play
In April, we celebrate the virtue of love. God has
given us many guidelines and examples of how to
live our lives. He sent his Son Jesus to make sure
that we could see what life could be like. Jesus
made one lesson clear above all other lessons – the
lesson to love. Love is not about us – it is about
forgetting ourselves and looking out for the good of
the other. That’s what Jesus did – he forgot about
himself on purpose. He chose to give up his life for
the good of others – us! It takes prayer and
concentration to get used to making little sacrifices
for the good of others. Making little sacrifices on
purpose so that others will have a bit of food, a bit of
shelter, a bit of peace, a bit of quiet, a bit of fun, a bit
of friendship. Through prayer and concentration, we
can get better at showing love to everyone we meet.
Year of Mercy Lenten Collection
Thank you to all the
families who donated
sugar, salt, rice and oil.
We exceeded our goal of
collecting 40 of each item.
The
Youth
Faith
Ambassadors will deliver
these items to Dr.
Simone’s
Warehouse
next month where they
will be sent to countries in
need. Thank you for your
continued generosity.
Bullying Prevention Corner
April’s anti-bullying theme is “If
you’re not part of the solution,
you’re part of the problem.”
Research shows that bystanders
make or break bullying episodes –
they hold the power to stop bullying. They provide
the audience for students engaged in bullying
behaviours. We can all be part of the solution by
using the 3 R’s of bullying: recognize that someone
is being bullied, refuse to let the bully pick on the
person, and report the bullying to an adult.
Tips for parents:
encourage your children to show empathy for
others who are bullied (befriend them, include
them)
teach your children to intervene appropriately or
walk away and tell an adult
role model being “part of the solution” when you
encounter difficult situations in your life
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all peo ple.
5
Lenten Retreat Day Activities
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all people.
6
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all peo ple.
7
April 2016
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
-Speech
Competition
-ELPs to Jiggi
Jump
3
4
5
-Rosary
Apostolate—pm
-Lego Club
10
11
-P.A. Day—No
School for
Students
17
12
-Easter Mass @
10 am
-Lego Club
18
19
25
7
-PIZZA DAY
13
-Gr. 3s to Swim
to Survive
-Day of Pink
-Catholic School
Council Meeting
@ 6:30 pm
-Lego Club
24
6
-Virtue Assembly
-Gr. 3s to Swim to
Survive
26
9
-CCCSC
Conference &
Marketplace
14
15
16
21
22
23
29
30
-PIZZA DAY
20
-Gr. 3s to Swim
to Survive
8
-Scientists In
School—Valotta
a.m. / Read p.m.
-PIZZA DAY
-Equity
Conference-- Gr.
7s
27
28
-PIZZA DAY
May 2016
Sun
Mon
Tue
1
Start of Catholic
Education Week
15
Thu
Fri
2
3
4
5
6
Catholic
Education Week
-Rosary
Celebration
Catholic
Education Week
Catholic
Education Week
-PIZZA DAY
Catholic
Education Week
10
11
9
-Gr. 6s to Cedar
Glen
-Gr. 6s to Cedar
Glen
16
17
12
18
23
-Victoria Day—
School Closed
29
24
-Holy Family
Outdoor
Adventure Day:
@Albion Hills
19
30
-Parent Council
Mtg.—6:30 pm
-EQAO
25
-EQAO testing
begins
13
14
20
21
-Virtue Assembly
26
-PIZZA DAY
-Welcome to
Kindergarten
Night
-EQAO
7
-P.A. Day—No
School for
Students
-PIZZA DAY
-PIZZA DAY
22
Sat
Catholic
Education Week
8
-Happy Mother’s
Day
Wed
27
28
-EQAO
31
-EQAO
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all people.
8
We believe that each individual is a unique gift of life from God, and we believe in the innate spiritual goodness of all peo ple.
9