To celebrate World Autism Awareness Day, students and staff at St. Benedict C.S.S paid a toonie to dress in blue, donating over $750 to Autism Ontario. As part of their Raise the Flag Campaign, the ASD class baked 350 cookies and handed them out to those showing their support by wearing blue. Members of the school community signed giant puzzle pieces, that are now displayed in the Communication classroom as a visual reminder of the supportive St. Ben’s community they are so fortunate to be a part of.
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Family reading morning at St. David School celebrates student success
All schools want family members to be active participants in their children’s education. It has been proven statistically that students with parents that take an active role in their education, achieve more and display generally more positive attitudes towards their education. Developing truly effective and equitable partnerships with families requires that school staff members work to create an educational environment that welcomes families into the school culture. Family members might also need training on how to become involved and how to reach out in supporting their children academically as well as socially and emotionally.
St. David Catholic Elementary School continues to partner with parents and family members to support student improvement in reading. Families participate in a nightly “read at home” program. This program greatly supports improved reading achievement as well as reading confidence.
St. David Catholic School hosted an annual “Family Guided Reading” morning. On this morning all families were invited into the school to participate in guided reading lessons with their children. Parents learned about how the school determines student reading levels and what reading level their child was reading at. Most importantly, the children read with their parents and conferenced about their individual reading goals.
Colin Lapalme, St. David School vice principal stated, “successful home / school relationships are built over time. The more opportunities families have to be in the school and witness for themselves the great learning that is happening each day, the more trust develops. We are appreciative of the families that come to these special mornings hosted by their children. We know the kids love having special guests in the school and we hope that the parents enjoy it as much as we do.”
Sudbury Catholic Elementary Band takes silver, gold at the Northern Ontario Music Festival
It’s Festival season, and the Sudbury Catholic Elementary Band did not disappoint! This band is made up of 125 students from 6 schools – St. Charles College, St. Benedict, St. Anne, St. Charles Chelmsford, St. John and St. James – and is directed by Leanne Urso, JoAnne Comisso, Sabrina Clark and Eric Miron.
The students competed at the Northern Ontario Music Festival on Tuesday, March 21st at Sudbury Secondary School and came away with a Silver award. Then, on Tuesday, April 4th, the band competed at the Kiwanis Music Festival at St. Benedict School and improved on their score by winning a Gold award! Congratulations goes out to all the band members for all their hard work.
Seeds of Potential at Holy Trinity Catholic School
To celebrate World Autism Day, the students at Holy Trinity were engaged in a fun and creative art project while inviting them to think about the importance of inclusion and understanding of students with ASD within their school and community. Students were asked what kinds of actions or specific behaviours go into creating a supportive school, for not just students with ASD, but for everyone. They were asked to think about ways they could be supportive of everyone’s unique differences and what this might look like. The intention of this activity was to show students that every seed or idea will be uniquely one of kind and that all ideas about how to make school a better place are equally beautiful in their own way. In other words, all seeds have the potential to grow and flourish and when placed together all seeds have the potential to create a beautifully diverse and colourful mural – and ultimately a beautifully diverse school.
A “Toonies for Autism” fundraiser was also launched to support Autism Research. Ms. Reynolds would like to thank the staff and students for supporting this initiative! “Together we can promote awareness about ASD, and increase understanding, critical first steps to creating more supportive environments for people living with ASD in our classrooms.”
MMA students take gold at qualifications for Skills Ontario Competition, move on to provincial finals
Congratulations to Hannah Watterson & Brittany Thornton (grade 10 students) for winning gold in the Northern Ontario qualifications for video production at the Skills Ontario Competitions in North Bay this weekend. Next they will be competing in the provincial Skills-Ontario competition in Toronto! Congratulations Regals!!
Cards Crunch Celery
More than 11 hundred students at St. Charles College bit down on sticks of celery this morning to celebrate the BIG CRUNCH.
The big crunch is an annual event each year in Ontario to celebrate Nutrition Awareness month.
The St. Charles College event was organized by teacher Julie Jessop as part of her Foods classes.
Many schools opted for apples but St. Charles decided to go green for their synchronized crunch.
St. Benedict teacher Giuseppe Politi wins Community Builders Award
Giuseppe was awarded the Community Builders Award for Sports and Recreation. He had an outstanding career as a soccer player before becoming a qualified soccer coach. He is the boys’ coach for St. Benedict, head coach of the women’s and men’s programs at Cambrian College, the head coach at the Greater Sudbury Soccer Club, a coach developer with the Ontario Soccer Association and he coaches at the Northern Soccer Academy. He says he believes in Sudbury soccer and in raising the bar of the sport in the city. He acknowledges he is highly invested so, of course, he advocates strongly for a soccer centre, including a bubble or dome so local players have the same advantages as others across the province during the winter months. He gives a nod to former coaches, players’ parents, and officials, not wanting to miss anyone who played a role in his success. He specifically mentions his mom, Antonietta. “If I didn’t have my mother as my #1 support system, this soccer thing never would have happened.”
Congratulations and well-done Giuseppe.
St. David School invites youth to talk about mental health
After hearing about the United Way and Sudbury Wolves partnership to support youth in our community, St. David School students had the opportunity to meet “Howler” from the Sudbury Wolves. St. David School would like to thank the Sudbury Wolves and United Way for partnering to support the youth in our community and allowing the school to be a small part of such a worthwhile, innovative initiative. “The students at St. David School love the Sudbury Wolves and when they attach themselves to supporting youth in our community it makes us all proud”, stated Maria Cimino, St. David School grade 1 teacher.
During the school visit, Sudbury Wolves tickets were given to kindergarten student Ava Demefroff and her family by Dario Zurich. Again thank you for your contribution to our community!
St. Benedict holds Parent Wellness evening
St. Benedict hosted a Parent Wellness Evening, for parents of teens in the school board, on February 23rd. The evening consisted of presentations on teen stress, sleep, crisis intervention and online presence with Greater Sudbury Police, the Health Unit, Canadian Mental Health Association and the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. After the presentations, parents enjoyed hor d’oeuvres prepared by Mike Sipos and the Foods Class. Following the break, there was a question and answer period with the presenters. The evening was a tremendous success. Thank you to the St. Benedict School Council for planning and organizing the event.