Sudbury Special Olympics took their talents to the basketball court in February to play againstt staff and students at Bishop Alexander Carter. Students and staff donated money towards this event. The money raised will be used by the Special Olympics to help them host their first ever Northern Ontario basketball tournament. The $500 raised at Bishop will help fund the tournament and the teams participating in this event. Way to go Gators!
Category: Schools
Jamie the St. James Bear Travels to Sochi, Russia Olympics
St. James students are “beary” excited that “Jamie”, our St. James Bear has travelled to Sochi, Russia with Meagan to cheer on Meagan Duhamel from Lively. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford have been sending St. James students pictures of Jamie in Sochi.
Our latest picture that we have received is our very own Jamie wearing Meagan’s silver medal that was captured for Canada’s Team Figure Skating! Go Canada!
St. John School celebrates 100th day of school
On Monday, February 10th, St. John School celebrated our 100th day! Students and parents from the FDK classes participated in a variety of 100-themed activities in the school gym.
Parent Survey: Share Your Views about Careers in the Skilled Trades
The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum is conducting a national survey with parents and we want to hear from you!
We are interested in your opinions on careers in the skilled trades and your approaches to career planning with your child. Your views will shape future career awareness programs and resources so they will better meet your children’s needs as they explore potential careers.
To be eligible for this survey, you must have a child under the age of 24. If you have more than one child, complete the survey only thinking about the child who most recently had his or her birthday. You may only do the survey once.
The results are anonymous. The survey will take 10 minutes to complete.
All surveys must be complete by February 28th, 2014.
The Canadian Apprenticeship Forum is a non-profit organization that promotes apprenticeship training. We share information about careers in the skilled trades with youth and parents across the country by distributing career resources and conducting information workshops on apprenticeship.
For more information about the survey or the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum contact Emily Arrowsmith, Project Manager (t) 613-235-4004 ext. 201; or by email at emily@caf-fca.org
Youth facilitators trained in bullying awareness at BAC
On February 5th and 6th a group of ten students and two teachers at BAC were trained through the Red Cross RespectED Program.
Why do we need to prevent bullying? Here are the facts:
❏ Victims of harassment report a loss of interest in school activities, more absenteeism, lower quality school work, lower grades and more skipping/dropping classes, tardiness and truancy.
❏ 71% of teachers say they usually intervene with bullying problems; but only 25% of students say the teachers intervene.
❏ Over 80% of the time, bullying happens with peers around – and 57% of the time, bullying stops within 10 seconds when a bystander steps in.
BAC’s youth facilitators will now be taking what they have learned into the classrooms of BAC and our feeder schools. At BAC our students are aiming at creating a safe, bully-free, healthy environment, for everyone!
Balloons are like stress
Grade twelve students at St. Charles College were blowing up balloons today as a symbol of their stress levels. These students will form the graduating class of 2014 in a matter of months, and while they are thinking about their post secondary options, they are also trying to keep their grades up and budget for next year.
The Sudbury and District Health Unit came to deliver some stress strategies and tips to the soon-to-be graduates. One of the activities was for students to blow up a balloon and gradually release a little bit of air at a time. This was to show them how small stresses compound and create anxiety and depression.
Student Success Teacher Anastasia Rioux says, “the school has made anxiety and depression a focus this year after viewing the results of the school climate survey completed by students last spring. Students feel that they are stressed and don’t know how to deal with their feelings or where to turn when they feel that way.”
Public health unit nurses K.C. Rautainen and Stacey Gilbeau were on hand for the interactive session that left students pondering their stress loads.
Family Literacy Day at St. John
Danielle Daniel writes and paints to unearth the buried stories within. She was born and raised here in Sudbury and is the daughter of one of our retired teacher’s Mme Denise Fraser who taught at St. John’s school for many years. A school teacher herself, Danielle has now become a full-time artist and writer.
On January 27th 2014, students & parents from the primary division at St. John school had the privilege to interact with this local author. Danielle read her book “Sometimes I Think I’m a Fox” to the students and shared with them her love of writing and painting. We could hear animal sounds coming from the gym as the students actively participated in the read aloud. A fun time was had by all!
Learning about the pressures of today’s teen society by teens and for teens
The grade twelve leadership class at St. Charles College put on a Wellness Day for the grade nine students last week. The purpose of the Wellness Day was to educate our youngest high school students about the pressures of today’s teenage society.
Students in the leadership class paired up to provide professional development on various topics such as substance abuse, reducing stressors, the pitfalls of technology and social media as well as a host of other informative topics.
The presentations lasted the morning and served to even educate the adults presiding in the room. One presentation by Keira Cronin and Cooper Joly honed in on the issue of technology making teens anti-social and creating other problems like generations of “tech-besity”. This idea of technology causing obesity was raised in an article called “Always On” by Sherry Turkle.
Beverly Belanger, the grade 12 leadership teacher used the presentations as a final way to evaluate the leadership students going into the last days of semester one.
There were all kinds of surprises at the event, which was sponsored by a Speak-Up grant from the Ministry of Education this year.
Explore Carpentry Day for Girls
On November 28th, December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, female students from Bishop Alexander Carter, Marymount Academy, St. Benedict Elementary and St. Charles College participated in an “Explore Carpentry Day” at the Local 2486 United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America Training Centre located in Azilda. A great time was had by all. In the morning the girls were introduced to the trade by Cindy Hykin and Rhéal Gélinas, both journeypersons and members of local 2486. After a question and answer period the girls were outfitted with safety apparel including safety glasses, hard hats and safety footwear. Each girl also sported a fashionable pink T-shirt and a carpenter’s tool belt complete with hammer. The girls were divided into teams to frame two walls. Under the supervision of Cindy and Rhéal, they measured, cut, hammered and framed one wall with a window opening and a second regular wall.
Once framing of the two walls was complete they continued on to drywall the interior. After a full day of measuring, cutting and swinging of the hammer, the girls felt proud of their accomplishments and truly appreciated a glimpse into the carpentry trade. This event was organized in partnership with Tom Cardinal Union co-ordinator with Local 2486 United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America and Michel Grandmont co-ordinator with the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program.