Thirty-two of St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School’s best and brightest business studies students recently travelled to New York City for a 5-day field trip from May 15-19. Among the activities, students experienced a trading simulation on Wall St. in front of the New York Stock Exchange, while also visiting the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and taking a full harbour cruise. Students were able to experience a myriad of business concepts in a real-world setting: from professional sports marketing (New York Yankees Game); to the entertainment industry (Broadway Show); to retail marketing (5th Avenue / Times Square); to corporate social responsibility (Central Park). The travel group also made a special visit to St. Patrick’s Cathedral as well as the 9/11 memorial (Ground Zero). Chaperones included Vice-Principal Stephanie Van Druenen and teachers Giuseppe Politi (Business Studies Teacher) and Gino Posteraro.
Category: Programs
Welcome to Kindergarten at St. Andrew
On Wednesday May 15th at 6pm St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School welcomed 11 young children and their parents to their Welcome to Kindergarten evening. The school partnered with the Learning Partnership and our community partners Angela an OT from the Children’s Treatment Center and Cheryl the teacher from the New Sudbury Cooperative Nursery School to give the students and their parents some tools to help them be prepared for school in the fall. There was a read-aloud, a letters and numbers activity, craft and a delicious nutrious snack of fruit, meat and cheese. Thanks goes out to Mrs. Waugh and Mrs. Sawkiw from the school who made this such a fun evening.
St. Andrew Visits Science North
On Thursday May 16th the entire student body and staff of St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School travelled to Science North and spent the day exploring the centre. Thanks to the generosity of a devoted group of parents who volunteer their personal time to work at a bingo the school enjoys a Science North membership and the busing to and from the Science Centre plus many other extracurricular activities. The JK/SK class has just completed a themed unit on space and all the children are very aware of astronaut Chris Hadfield and his recent expedition in space so they were excited to see the life-sized cut out of him at the Centre. This group also participated in the Music Monday Activity where they sang simultaneously with Chris Hadfield while he was still at the Internatinal Space Station.
Panthers on the Run!
On Sunday, May 12 2013, members of the St. Paul Running Club competed in the Sudbury ROCKS 5km Race, Run or Walk for Diabetes. Vice-Principal Tammy Lavalle, Educational Assistant Jennifer Palladino and Teachers Lucie Gautheir and Stacey Vendramin competed along with nine dedicated and energetic students who braved the snow and rain to take part in the race. To raise money for the event, St. Paul held a Spirit Day where students were asked to wear their favourite sports gear to school for the day. The school raised a total of $200.00 to donate to the Canadian Diabetes Association. The Running Club would like to thank the Knights of Columbus Council 6074, Evans Home Hardware and Coniston Guardian Pharmacy for sponsoring and supporting their race efforts. Way to go Panthers!
Trip of a Lifetime for St. Charles College Students
Last month 15 students from St. Charles College went on the vacation of a lifetime. From April 12 – 20, 2013, as part of the school’s Specialist High Skills Major (S.H.S.M.) in Health and Wellness, these students, accompanied by two teachers, had the opportunity to visit the country of Guatemala to work with a restoration group in local communities. Based on the belief that “if you can keep a community environmentally healthy, you can keep the community physically healthy” teacher Tim Kingshott led the students to support the Chico Mendez Project which is a non-profit organization based out of Guatemala which works towards reforestation of the forests, the provision of environmental education, and the generation of oxygen for the world. The students helped collect soil and loam to mix and prep for the next round of trees that were scheduled to be planted in the areas they visited.
As well as the community service, another aspect of their trip was a homestay with a family from Guatemala. Each student had the opportunity to live with a Guatemalan family and experience their traditional culture.
In order to prepare for this trip, the students were required to learn the basics of First Aid, as well as travel and health/safety. The group even learned a little Spanish in order to support their communication skills during their adventure.
Kingshott, who is also an outdoor education teacher, organized many hikes, and other outdoor activities including ziplining. “This is the fourth year I have brought St. Charles College students to another country for the S.H.S.M. in Health and Wellness,” Kingshott stated. “Four years ago I took students to Ecuador, then Costa Rica, then Belize and this year Guatemala. It is such a life changing opportunity for these grade 11 and 12 students as they take part in real hands on learning. At the end of these trips, they take away skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. These experiences are history and learning based, curriculum based, and most importantly adventure based – all the while pushing the students beyond their comfort zone – there is no better way to learn!”
St. John “Fights Back” Against Cancer
Despite the rain that poured down on May 10th, the students and staff of St. John Catholic Elementary School remained committed to their walk for their 5th annual relay for life with just one tweak – instead of walking outside, they decided to walk inside the school’s gym. Event organizer and teacher Irene Raymond didn’t miss a beat when the weather decided to be uncooperative and quickly made arrangements for each of the classes to rotate their walks in the school gym.
The day’s event was kicked off with a presentation of a banner from the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cathy Burns who wanted to publically acknowledge the school’s outstanding efforts in supporting their organization. Raymond received the banner on the school’s behalf and spoke to the students before the relay began. “Every single person in this room has been or will be affected by cancer,” Raymond explained. “Today we are honoured to have a group of survivors who will be joining us on our walk and we celebrate their strength and courage to fight back!” The students echoed Raymond’s message “Fight back” and it was the phrase that was shouted throughout the event. The students walked with the survivors as well as family and community members.
The school was visited by the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Cancer Society (Ontario Division) – Martin Kabat a few weeks earlier to kick of the school’s fundraising efforts for their event and he encouraged the students to continue in their support for such an important cause. As well, he thanked them for their fundraising efforts from previous years as they have contributed well over $15,000 to the Sudbury branch.
This year’s efforts have surpassed all other years for the school as the grand total to date is well over $7200 with more pledge money still coming in. According to Raymond, the students really outdid themselves this year and were completely focused on raising the most amount of money they have ever raised with one student raising close to $1000 all on her own. “I am so proud and thankful that the students, staff and parent community of St. John Catholic Elementary School are such giving and generous group,” Raymond stated. “We have shown once again that we care about each other and that we are committed to continuing to fight back againstt cancer.”
The event finished with the entire group gathering in the school’s gymnasium for the annual luminary ceremony.
St. Francis Students Celebrate the Month of Mary
During the month of May, grade 3 and 4 students from St. Francis Catholic Elementary School are celebrating the Month of Mary. Students are learning about Jesus’ mother Mary and the special role she had in His life. Each student was given their own rosary from their teacher, Ms. Graziella Visentin, to keep and use during daily morning prayers on the announcements and prayer after lunch in class. Students are developing an appreciation of the rosary as a special way of praying to God that honours Mary, the Mother of Jesus. As students recite the prayers of the rosary, students will reflect on certain stories in the lives of Jesus and Mary. The class is developing a greater awareness that Jesus will be with them in the joyful times of their lives and in times that are sorrowful. The events from the Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries are reminders of this as students learn that the rosary can also be used to pray during Advent, Lent and during Ordinary Time in the liturgical year.
Soccer Opportunities at St. Benedict
A group of grade 10 students enroled in the school’s soccer focus class from St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School recently had the opportunity to watch a professional match between Toronto FC and Montreal Impact at BMO field in downtown Toronto. Students at St. Benedict can register for this phys-ed soccer-focused course to learn and experience the various aspects of soccer – from playing, to training, to coaching, to refereeing, to nutrition, to strategy, and so on. In the photo, soccer class students with teacher and “A” license coach, Giuseppe Politi, pose at the entrance gate of the stadium.
Funky costumes, make-up and theatrics make Godspell a must-see this week at SCC
A cast of ten actors is bringing the parables in the Bible to life at St. Charles College this week. The students ranging from grades nine to twelve are putting on a production of Godspell in the school gymnasium.
The musical which is structured by a series of parables was created by Stephen Schwartz. It ends with Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus Christ is played by senior student Cole Thomson. Student President David DiBrina doubles as John the Baptist at the beginning and Judas Iscariot at the end of the show.
The play was last showcased by the school eighteen years ago when it was a co-production between Marymount College and St. Charles College. The director and producer of the school musical, Mrs. Diandra Zafiris was featured as a student in the 1995 production.
This week is Catholic Education Week and many of the students attending elementary feeder schools will be coming to St. Charles College to enjoy the performance.
It is also open to the public from May 8th to the 11th at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students and seniors. Children age 6 and under are admitted for free.