The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board 56 Oaklea Blvd, Brampton, Ontario, L6Y 4W7 Phone: 905-455-1001 Principal: D. Furlong Vice-Principal: P. Krolewski Secretary: A. Mijandrusic Fax: 905-455-3406 Superintendent: G. Prajza Trustee: 905-890-1221 T. Da Silva - 905-459-7089 Parish: St. Jerome Church Pastor: Fr. Jan Kolodynski 905-455-4260 NEWSLETTER # 3 CONSCIENCE Gracious and merciful God, during this season of remembrance, we remember how you have gifted us with free will. You have given us the virtue of conscience to ensure that we will know the good and decent way to act and then act that way. We come to you now asking for the grace and strength to form and to follow ourconscience. May your virtue of conscience free us to make decisions that serve the good of all your people. We ask this in the name of Jesus, your son, who lived to show us your way. Amen. November 2008. This month we celebrate the virtue of conscience. God has given us the ability to know the right and decent way to act and then to act that way. We trust that the common Spirit we share inspires us and guides us to make good decisions if we allow our conscience to be wellformed. A person of conscience allows prayer and scripture to influence him/her. A person of conscience … * Chooses to do the “right thing” and feels good about it * Can see how his/her actions may hurt others * Admits his/her mistakes * Says “sorry” and tries to make up for mistakes * Keeps promises Let us pray for the grace and strength to be people of conscience – people who know the good and decent way to act and then act that way. Report Cards Report cards will be going home on Tuesday, December 2nd. The parent, teacher, student conferences for Grades JK to Grade 8 are scheduled for the evening of Thursday, December4th and Friday, December 5th during the day. Information will be sent home next week regarding the scheduling of conference time. Parents are encouraged to contact your child(ren)’s teacher at any time should you require clarification, or if you have questions or concerns about student progress. Junior Kindergarten students do not receive formal report cards during the year. Senior Kindergarten students will receive their report cards in June. Parents of Junior and Senior Kindergarten students will be provided with opportunities to meet with their child’s teacher to discuss progress during each reporting period. DRESS FOR THE WEATHER Please assist us in encouraging your children to dress appropriately for the cold weather. Children need to be wearing their warm jackets, snow/splash pants, boots, hats, gloves/mitts and scarves to feel comfortable outdoors. Playing outdoors is a pleasant and healthy activity when wearing suitable clothing. Please label items of clothing with your child’s name, so that each student can more easily locate his/her own clothing from the coat rack area. If your child brings home an item by mistake, please return it to the school so that this mix up may be corrected the following day. Students are reminded to have a pair of indoor shoes/slippers at school. For safety reasons, wet and muddy shoes/boots may not be worn in the classroom. Children who are too ill to go outside at recess, should be resting at home and not be at school. INCLEMENT WEATHER AND TRANSPORTATION With the winter season fast approaching, we would like to remind you of bus cancellation procedures. Occasionally, because of inclement weather or other emergency situations, buses may have to be cancelled. Information regarding bus cancellation and other emergency information announcements can be obtained by listening to the radio stations. (Please refer to the attached list) Make sure the announcement is for the DufferinPeel Catholic District School Board. (refer to Bus Cancellation sheet) If transportation is cancelled, the schools will remain open except under extraordinary circumstances and when an announcement is made that Dufferin-Peel schools are closed. If school buses are cancelled in the morning due to severe weather conditions, they will not operate for the take home run, even if the weather conditions permit. QSP MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONS Once again the School Council is offering our magazine campaign to help promote Family Literacy and at the same time support and fund activities for students. We encourage you to participate in this year’s drive by renewing your subscriptions from last year and considering additional subscriptions for this year. Go shopping at www.QSP.ca and use our group number #16609 by Nov. 20th. Any inquiries can be made at QSP directly at 1-800-667-2536. (see notice) TERRY FOX WALK-A-THON Congratulations to our students and staff who participated in a very successful Terry Fox Walk. The Pauline Vanier community raised $2, 486.00 for cancer research. CANDY FOR MEDICAL CLINICS Thank you to Pauline Vanier Youth Faith Ambassadors for encouraging students to donate their Halloween candy. Two large boxes filled with candy were delivered to Dr. Simone’s “Canadian Feed the Children” Warehouse by Anthony, Sarah and Ashley. The candy will be sent to medical clinics in developing countries. CHRISTMAS SHOEBOX The Youth Faith Ambassadors are organizing the Christmas Shoebox Campaign. More information will be sent home this week. Each child is asked to wrap the lid and base of a shoebox separately and fill it with items they would like to receive – crayons or colouring pencils, small books, flip flops, candy, small balls, trucks, any small items from the dollar store.Please write whether the box is for a boy or girl and indicate the age on the top of the box. Your child may like to write a note and include it in the box. Students and staff are hoping to deliver the boxes on Friday, December 5th to Dr. Simone’s Warehouse. These boxes will be sent to villages in Africa. REMEMBRANCE DAY PRAYER SERVICE Thank you to Mr. Desantis and Ms. Pinelli, student teachers from Charles Sturt University, and the students from L. Cunic’s class for preparing a moving tribute and leading the school in prayer on Remembrance Day. PUNCTUALITY FRENCH CAFÉ Punctuality continues to be a concern for some students. Please encourage and assist your child to recognize that punctuality is a responsibility, which all students should be developing. A special Thank You to K. Byrne for organizing the “Café Des Monstres” on October 31st. Thank you to the talented Grade Eight students for sharing their vocal and musical talents and serving the delicious croissants and juice. Our concern is that when a child enters the class late, class instruction is already in progress. Your child is not only disrupting his/her learning by arriving late, they are also disrupting the learning of the other students by interrupting the flow of the lesson. Students who continue to arrive persistently late, will work in the office area, until there is a natural break in their class schedule when they can rejoin their classmates. All students should be at school 5 to 10 minutes before the 8:30 a.m. bell. KISS & RIDE Thank you to all parents who are using the Kiss & Ride lane. You are helping to make the drop-off situation safer for all children. Please do not allow your children to disembark from the car until you have reached the front of the line or a staff member has walked to your car to escort your child to the sidewalk. Pauline Vanier has four buses that arrive between 8:15-8:30 a.m. and one bus arrives around 8:40 a.m. Please do not drive into the bus lane. This is a gentle reminder: the round-about in front of the Kindergarten and Child Care Centre yards is reserved for parents using the Child Care Centre and/or if a parking space is available for parents of Kindergarten children that are being walked by the parent to the Kindergarten yard. Please do not park along the curb or over the cross-walk in that area, as you are putting other children at risk. St. Jerome’s Parish 8530 Chinguacousy Rd., Brampton 905-455-4260 FIRST HOLY COMMUNION and CONFIRMATION Parents unable to attend the information meetings, please pick up a Registration Package at the church office, complete the forms, attach a copy of your child’s Baptismal certificate and hand in the form at St. Jerome’s Parish Office by November 30th. ADVENT MASS Our school Advent Mass will take place on Tuesday, December 9th at 9:00 a.m. in the GYM. All are welcome to join us. CHRISTMAS CONCERT – December 15th Students in JK, SK, Grade 1, 2, and 3 and our Choir will celebrate the “Joy of Christmas” at 6:30 p.m. in the GYM on Monday, December 15th. All are welcome to join us. The cost of the ticket is one nonperishable food item. December 16th – Junior Craft Day December 17th – Primary Craft Day December 18th – Movie Day December 19th – PJ Day PICTURE WITH SANTA Tuesday, November 25th Order Forms will be sent home on Wednesday. Santa will also visit the Primary classes to share the True Story of Christmas. SCHOOL SAFETY We continue to remind our students about school safety. Students are reminded on a regular basis that there is to be no physical contact, i.e. pushing, shoving, hitting, punching. What can be viewed as playing, can result in students getting hurt. We realize that in most cases, children do not mean to hurt other children, however because of physical contact, students can get seriously hurt. Through continuous reminders, we are trying to prevent this from happening. We ask your continued support to remind your children to play with others without physical contact. On October 29th, all students participated in Safe Schools Assemblies. The importance of interacting with each other in a respectful manner was highlighted. CATHOLIC EDUCATION Did you know why Catholic Schools can’t operate as part of just one publicly funded school system? The Catholic school system offers a distinctive and valuable approach to education. For Ontario, this distinctive approach would be compromised within the context of one umbrella board where administrative and financial control would be in the hands of people who do not support, or may even oppose, our vision of education. A separate governing structure is essential for Catholic Schools. The Constitution guarantees and recognizes the right of Catholic parents to govern and manage the education of their children. The highest courts in the land have consistently upheld this right. (Ontario Catholic Trustees Association)