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.
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St. Charles College Brings Home Gold
Recently the team from St. Charles College brought home the Gold medal from the Special Olympics Ontario 4 Corners Provincial Basketball Championship. There were 12 teams in total at this tournament and it was sponsored by the Special Olympics Ontario. This is SCC’s 2nd year winning a division championship, last year it was AAA division. The tournament was help on May 14 and 15. A special thanks goes out to Chantal Dagostino (Gym teacher SCC) and Chad West (EA SCC) who helped train the team for this tournament.
Marymount Academy Student Medals at National Science Fair
Marymount Elementary Academy student Electra Millar competed at the Canada Wide Science Fair held in Lethbridge, Alberta May 11-18, 2013. Her project “Under Pressure” won a Bronze Medal in the Excellence Award Junior Division category, as well as an Entrance Scholarship to Western University.
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.
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!”
Taking the Pledge at St. Charles College
On Tuesday, May 28, almost one thousand students at Sudbury’s largest secondary school – St Charles College – signed a pledge to end drinking and driving. The pledge banner was sponsored by several local businesses and provided for the school by the Impact 6/21 Foundation.
The Foundation was developed by the parents, family and friends of three Greater Sudbury teens were run over and killed in the wee hours of Father’s Day, 2009.
The parents of Jazmine Houle, Steven Phillippe and Caitlin Jelley also spoke at the presentation.
The Impact 6/21 provided the students with a hard hitting presentation complete with a police presence and a first hand account from the first witness on the scene of that tragic accident four years ago.
The presentation hits close to home because Caitlin Jelley attended St. Charles College when she was killed. She would have graduated last year.
Mental Health – It Can No Longer Be Ignored
Students and staff at St. Charles Catholic School welcomed a great guest speaker: Paul Perry, Mental health nurse with CCAC and the SCDSB. They participated in an interesting session on anxiety and mental health. The information was delivered to students in grades 7 and 8, bringing messages of awareness, hope and where resources can be obtained.
St. Charles College Student Takes Top Writing Prize and Becomes a Published Author
Emily McCarthy has worked tirelessly to take the top prize in The Learning Partnership’s Turning Points Essay Contest this year.
Each year, the essay contest forces students to explore their character development through the use of literacy.
McCarthy’s personal essay of 500-700 words reflects on how individuals deal with conflict in their lives and how that changes them to become different people.
She shared the story of her cousin who died in 2009 and how she went through a dark stage in her life. To overcome the darkness, she turned to her family and found a better relationship with God.
This is a first-time win for Emily and for her school, St. Charles College.
Ms. Lindsay Morris, her English teacher from first semester says “Emily deserves this honour. As a class, we did a lot of legwork to make the students really think about who they are inside. Emily did many drafts, and worked so hard to take each revision of her work seriously. I would give her tips and the next day she would come back with an entire re-write.”
Emily will receive a cheque and a plaque for all her hard work. She will also have her work formally published.
St. David School Rocks!
Cold temperatures, rain, sleet and snow did not stop St. David’s Roaring Runners from participating in Sunday’s “Sudbury Rocks- Race, Run or Walk for Diabetes”. St. David Catholic School students have been training for the past couple of months for this race. Through their after school running club, they learned about healthy food choices, how to prepare healthy meals and snacks, the importance of daily physical activities to a healthy lifestyle and how to pace yourself when running in a race. They learned about diabetes and raised money for the charity at school. Local community volunteers ran with the students in the 1 km Sudbury Rocks Race because their teacher and coach, Terri Lynn Lepage, was herself running the half marathon.
“It was a wonderful experience for our students and all of us adult volunteers. It was cold and wet, but we had a great time. Once they started to run, we did not hear a single complaint about the weather. I think this experience has become a great memory for our students and I think there is a very good chance we’ll be back next year!” stated St. David Catholic School Principal, Dawn Wemigwans.