Sudbury Catholic District School Board

“Trick or Tree”

This fall the teachers and students of St. David Catholic School have embarked on a challenge to make their school a healtheir place.  One of the “green” initiatives they have initiated is to plant almost 2000 saplings in a local area that suffers from deforestation. The grade 5, 6 and 8 classes and their teachers learned from local biologist, Franco Mariotti, that “if one class plants trees, we have created a new habitat.  If everyone in the school plants a tree then we have created an ecosystem”. 

“This is a great example of authentic learning”, teacher Jennifer Gran stated, “we are excited that our students have the opportunity to take classroom learning into the real world and have fun while making our community a healtheir place”.  Not only are the students planting saplings in the community, they all were given a sapling to take home and plant with their parents and families.

St. Charles Elementary Kicks Off Dearness Conservation

Students at St. Charles Elementary Catholic School gathered in the gymnasium on October 14, 2011 in a traditional way for their Dearness Conservation kickoff. Students and staff support, promote and practice programs that foster stewardship of the earth which are integrated with the Medicine Wheel teachings, Catholic Graduate Expectations and Virtues of the month.

St. Charles teachers and students were assigned a Direction and asked to dress in the colour corresponding in the Medicine Wheel (East-yellow, South-red, West-black and North-white). They were called down to the gym by Direction starting with the East and ending in the North. Students wrapped around the gym forming a human Medicine Wheel as they sat attentively and listened to the teachings of Elder, Vince Pawis. Following the teachings, Gr. 5 teacher, Ms. Cormier explained the importance of the Dearness Conservation Program and how each student is responsible for making a commitment to a healtheir Mother Earth.

The students are excited to learn about their role as stewards of the earth and how they can make a difference.

St. Paul Gives Thanks!

St. Paul the Apostle School Community gathered to give thanks to God for all His wonderful gifts on Friday October 7th. The staff students and special guests met in the gym to sing, pray and listen together. Everyone was encouraged to enjoy family, friends and food together this weekend and to remember to give God thanks by attending Mass at their home parishes. All sang: “Alleluia Praise the Lord.” Pictured is Mrs. Rossella Bagnato the school’s superintendent, Mrs. Henry the principal and several students.

Thank You Teacher!

Since 1994, World Teachers’ Day is celebrated on October 5. It is a day to celebrate the profession and to promote international standards for the teaching profession. The theme for this year is : Teachers for gender equality. Today, Daven Neddo, a Grade 3 student at St. Charles Elementary Catholic school, said thank you to his classroom teacher, Mrs. Harris, by reading her the book ‘Thank You Bear’. Today, all St. Charles Elementary students said a special blessing and thank you to all of their teachers to show them how grateful they are for all that they do. Tina Timpano, vice principal of the school encouraged all of the students to express their gratitude to their teachers. “Being a teacher is a very hard job,” Timpano said. “We want our students to recognize the dedication, hard-work and passion of our teachers in making our students the very best they can be – and we are very thankful to them.”

Making School and Parish Connections at St. Andrew

Father Sam, new parish priest at St Andrew the Apostle, is making connections with St. Andrew school. Father Sam visits to the school every second week, and is a welcome guest for all students as he meets the students in all classrooms from JK-GR.6 and revitalizes student’s Catholic faith through dialogue and discussion. On Wednesday, Oct. 5th, students will walk to church and attend mass where they will bring along photos of their pets for a special blessing since they will be celebrating the feast of St. Francis of Assisi known as the patron saint of animals.

St. Charles College on Par with Golf

Congratulations to the St. Charles College boy’s golf team who won the Sudbury District Secondary Schools Athletic Associations (SDSSAA) golf tournament September 22 led by Stephen Gonko who also finished second in individual play at the tourney. The win qualified the boys for NOSSA play. At NOSSA the boys played extremely well with Ryan Lafreniere shooting 73 followed by Stephen Gonko with a score of 74. They placed both first and second in individual play. The team itself then had to play an extra hole breaking a tie with Franco-Cite from Sturgeon Falls. In the playoff, Ryan Lafreniere drove the green and two putted for birdie. The team proceeded to take the team competition thus qualifying them for OFSAA October 11-13 to be held in Belleville. Members of the golf team are: Stephen Gonko, Ryan Lafreniere, Joel Charlebois, Evan Purcell and Stan McGillis.

Sharing Best Practice and Honouring Culture

Visitors from the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board were in town on Wednesday, September 29 to learn more about the inclusion of aboriginal culture within the school system. Dufferin-Peel CDSB’s Director of Education John Kostoff, Superintendent Clara Pitoscia and General Manager of Communication and Media Relations, Bruce Campbell visited with administration from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board to discuss the inclusion of aboriginal culture into the teaching and learning practices at the Sudbury Catholic Board. The group visited three of the Sudbury Catholic schools including St. Charles College, St. David Catholic Elementary School and St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School. At each of the sites, the principals, teachers and students spoke about the importance of the presence of aboriginal culture physically in the learning spaces, as well as embedded in their curriculum and teaching.”At Sudbury Catholic, we are so privileged to have key people in place in our organization who are passionate about honouring aboriginal culture in our educational community,” Catherine McCullough, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic Board stated. “We always welcome the opportunity to share what we continue to learn, with other Boards across the province.”

“Welcome Back and Happy Birthday!”

Welcome back to classes! Students and families gathered in the gym at St. Bernadette Catholic school to celebrate the start of another school year with, Father Sam D’Angelo of St. Andrew the Apostle Church. Grace Olive in Grade 1 presented Father Sam with a birthday cake as he was also celebrating his birthday. Principal, Diana Salvador, stated that “Coming together as a school community on a monthly basis to share our faith, is a unique opportunity that we have here at Sudbury Catholic Schools.”

St. Anne Kindergarten Student Authors Her Way Into Prize Winning Story

How young can you be to write your own story? Just ask St. Anne School student Ashlyn Carrierre. She is the newest recipient of the Ontario Catholic Elementary Teacher’s Young Author Award for 2011. Ashlyn is a student within the English Senior Kindergarten class at the Sudbury Catholic School in Hanmer. In January of this year, she wrote her own fairy tale entitled, “Princess Shalla and Prince Aucoinia Get Kidnapped.” Her story was then submitted to the Young Author’s contest in the fiction category for the Junior and Senior Kindergarten division. In April, the school received notification that Ashlyn’s story had won!

“I am so excited,” said Ashlyn. “I am so happy that I got a plaque. It feels really good to be an author.” In an awards ceremony that took place on June 17th, Ashlyn was presented with a plaque for her wall. The plaque shows not only Ashlyn’s name, but also the title of her fairy tale. The Ontario English Catholic Teacher’s Sudbury Unit President, Mr. Kent MacNeill, presented the award to Ashlyn in front on the entire school body as well as her family who were also attending. Her classroom teacher, Cheryl MacRury, told the assembled group that Ashlyn had a wonderful imagination for a little girl of her age and that she was very deserving of this award. Ashlyn knew that fairy tales started with “Once upon a time” and that they ended with everyone “living happily ever after”. She had picked her own characters and setting. She had come up with a problem for the characters and then the solution. And finally, all on her own, Ashlyn had used words like ferocious, sparkly, huge and dungeon, as well as names like Queen Shata, Princess Shalla, and Prince Aucoinia.

Ashlyn may or may not be Ontario’s newest author, but there is a good chance that she may be Ontario’s youngest author. Both staff and students from St. Anne School hope to one day be able to walk into Chapters and read books that Ashlyn has authored. She is certainly a little girl with a wonderful ability to write entertaining stories. Good luck with your talent in the future Ashlyn! St. Anne School is very proud of you!

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