Sudbury Catholic District School Board

Category: Student Achievement

St. Anne Staff “Pied” for School Challenge

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Students at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School were issued a challenge. The school takes part every year in the Jump Rope for Heart Event but Vice Principal Laura Stirrett felt that this year, they could do more. Stirrett set a few fundraising goals for the students and asked them to try to outdo what they had done in the past. If they met these challenges, then certain staff members would have to take part in some interesting challenges of their own.

The goals set for the students were as follows:
Bronze challenge – if the students raised $1000, then Vice Principal Laura Stirrett and Custodian Daniel Sauve would have their hair spraypainted different colours for the day.
Silver challenge – if the students raised $1500, Vice Principal Laura Stirrett and Custodian Daniel Sauve would have pies thrown in their face as well as have their hair spraypainted.
Gold challenge – if the students raised $2000, then the the Vice Principal and Custodian would have their hair spraypainted, pies thrown in their face… and would be subjected to a silly string attack.
Platinum challenge – after these challenges went out, Vice Principal Laura Stirrett threw down the final gauntlet and said that if these challenges were not only met but surpassed and the school raised $3500, then the students could subject not only herself and the custodian, but St. Anne Principal Guy Mathieu as well!

Well, the students surpassed all fundraising challenges and managed to raise an amazing $6300 in just one week. To the delight of students and staff, top fundraising students took the opportunity to spraypaint hair, throw pies and spray silly string at the Principal, Vice Principal and Custodian without consequences. In the gym the students screamed with excitement as the three staff members could do nothing but sit and take the abuse. Congratulations to all of the students and staff at St. Anne for taking on such a great challenge with fantastic school spirit!

MMA Flag Football Teams Played Strong in Toronto Tournament

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It was a great two days of football for the Marymount A and B teams on May 13 and 14 as they took part in the 2010 Danny Bob Invitational Girls Flag Football Tournament in Toronto. Despite the teams’ football season already being over in November, the girls ran a few practices at the beginning of May and headed to Toronto to take part in this tournament for the second year in a row. The Marymount A team included senior girls and the B team was comprised mostly of Grades 8, 9, and 10 girls. Twenty teams took part in the two days of football and other Sudbury teams included girls from Lasalle Secondary and Notre Dame College. At the end of the tournament, the Marymount A team finished strong and took home the Second place trophy. Danny Bob, organizer of the event was thrilled with the Marymount contingent and told the Regals’ coach, Matthew Wiecha that he was impressed with the strength of the A team and the spirit and work ethic of the B team. He also invited some of the Marymount players to join him for tournaments in Florida, the Domenican and other parts of the USA as he coaches a traveling girls flag football team that is made up of players from all over the province. Coach Matthew Wiecha was thrilled with the teams’ performances againstt all of the teams and is already looking forward to next year’s tournament.

Knit One, Purl Two… Learning New Skills at S.C.C.

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“I’m a knitting machine,” student Andrea Van Bekkum exclaimed when asked about her new found skill. The St. Charles College Lifeskills class invited teacher Elizabeth Szilva’s mother, Betty Szilva in to teach the students the skill of knitting. “In conversation with my mother, I got the idea that knitting might be a great experience for the kids,” Szilva said. “It is a lost art – and can be a great way to work on the students’ fine motor skills, expand their socialization skills and also learn how to deal with frustration.” They then came up with a class project to create a “crazy quilt”. Each student works on their individual piece and then Mrs.(Betty) Szilva takes the finished pieces home and crochets them together. For those that can, the students sit around in a knitting circle and their teacher explains that this is also a great exercise in working on their conversation skills. For other in the class, different adaptions are made to allow them to participate in the knitting, for instance those that need arm support sit in front of a desk in order to better support their arms. Students who require even more assistance dictate their knitting instructions to the teacher or educational assistant working with them and the staff member carries out their knitting task. Mrs. (Betty) Szilva inspired some of the more reluctant boys to start knitting by telling them the story of famous Montreal Canadian goalie Jacques Plante who learned to knit from his mother and later used this skill to relax himself between games. The students are allowed to take their piece home to work on and have recruited help from their mothers and grandmothers. With a huge grin, student Brandon Brown laughed when asked about his new-found skills. “I like knittin’,” Brown replied, and continued on with his needles and wool, eager to continue on his project.

St. Mary Staff Gets “Pied”!!

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Recently students from St. Mary Catholic School in Capreol participated in the annual Jump Rope/Hoops for Heart Campaign. Each year the energetic students have raised an incredible amount of money. This year was no exception as they brought in an amazing $1,408.30. In the past fourteen years, St. Mary School has raised $46,072.01. The boys and girls had lots of fun while displaying some very skilled skipping techniques and slam dunking. As always they are very grateful to the wonderful volunteers who give so generously of their time to help out in such a big way. The school is particularly thankful to Miss O’Reilly for co-ordinating this big event. As an added incentive teachers agreed to be ‘pied’ if fundraising goals were met. Each teacher was ‘pied’ by the top fundraiser in his or her class. Mrs. Waszczylo, Principal, was ‘pied’ by the top fundraiser in the school, grade 4 student, Britney Chevrier.

Sudbury Catholic Students are Real “Ace of Cakes”!

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TLC’s show “Ace of Cakes” has nothing on the students enroled in the Exploring Baking and Pastry Arts Dual Credit program at Cambrian College. Sudbury Catholic students Amber Walker (Marymount Academy, Grade 12) and Carlie Vautier (Marymount Academy, Grade 12) were able to show off their extreme baking skills recently as their class was commissioned to create a cake for retiring Cambrian Professor Rick Cooper. Cooper is the Coordinator of Art and Design Fundamentals program and is known for his passion for sailing and his love of bowties. The Dean’s office asked the bakers-in-training if they could produce a cake that paid tribute to Cooper. The end result was a cake entitled “The H.M.S. Bowtie” which was a stunning three tiered cake – each tier a different mouth-watering flavour.
Gaston Theriault, College Link Consultant for the Catholic School Board was amazed with the students’ final product. “What is astounding is that they do everything from scratch in this program,” Theriault said. “Nothing comes out of a box and everything is done on site.”
Kelleen Schonfeldt, Student Success Coordinator for the college spoke glowlngly about the program. “It is all about finding their passion,” Schonfeldt said. “It is so important that they take this great opportunity to find their own place in this program and by exploring the dual credit initiative, the students are able to do things outside of what they might not have considered otherwise.”
As people gathered around the cake to admire it from up close, student Carlie Vautier couldn’t help but smile proudly. “I have always been into cooking and baking,” Vautier said. “I looked into summer programs and found out about this program, applied and was accepted. Being in this program allowed me to see that my strengths are in baking and I do now think I have a future in this industry.” Vautier also spoke very highly of the staff at Cambrian and how supportive they have been throughout the term. “They really treat us like mature adults and give us a real college experience, especially Dual Credit Chef and Professor Lynne Van Beek. She is an amazing teacher and has really made it possible for us to be so successful.”
Many of the students have already found summer jobs in the industry. As well, many are considering registering for the second semester of the Baking and Pastry Arts program at Cambrian as their current program counts as semester one.

St. Charles College Student Wins OECTA Young Authors Award

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St. Charles College student Jillian Campagnola didn’t have any clue that her passion for writing would win her any awards. In her grade 12 Writer’s Craft class, the assignment was to write a ghost short story or myth. Campagnola chose the ghost story. Entitled “White Rage”, her story revolves around a house haunted by an enraged rabid Great Dane dog (ghost) that lives in the walls. Owner of her own big dog, a rottweiler, Campagnola knew that she wanted to include a big dog in her story. Campagnola submitted her story to teacher Nancy Daoust and the end result was top honours in the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association Young Authors Award.

When asked about how she felt when she found out she won, Campagnola replied, “I was really, really surprised and very excited because writing is one of my passions and I just love to write.” Campagnola plans to continue her writing craft and hopes to sign up for more of these classes at University in the fall.

St. Mary Students are Winners at “Raising the Flag”

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Students from both the Sudbury Catholic and Rainbow Valley East schools had the opportunity to enter a contest entitled “Raise the Flag Day”. The Kin club of Valley East once again supported this nationally celebrated event and hosted the contest for elementary students from the Valley schools. There was a picture/colouring contest for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 4 and a Literary Contest (essay or poem) for students in Grades 5 to 8. Criteria for the contest was similar as the entry had to reflect what being Canadian means to the student and each student received a certificate of participation from Claude Gravelle, MP. A total of seven Valley schools participated and three of the top winners were students from St. Mary Catholic Elementary School. Connor Foucault (Grade 2 – St. Mary) took first place and Jacqueline Brown (Grade 4 – St. Mary) took third place in the picture/colouring contest. As well, Alyssa Menard (Grade 6 – St. Mary) took second place in the essay contest. Mayor John Rodriguez was also on hand to present the winners with their awards. Congratulations to all of our students who participated in this contest!.

SCDSB Secondary Schools Host Social Justice Fair

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On May 6th, 2010, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s first ever Social Justice Fair involving students from all SCDSB Secondary schools took place at Marymount Academy. Students from grades 7 – 12 came together to learn more about local and global issues of social justice. They had the opportunity to listen to inspiring speakers, participated in engaging seminars, visited displays of community organizations working for justice, and celebrated what they are doing in their own schools. Some of the community organizations in attendance included Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury, Development and Peace, Access Aids, Community Foodshed, Free the Children, Sudbury Action Centre for Youth, and Chalice. Some of the seminars offered for the students included, Habitat for Humanity, Native Awareness, Global Solidarity, Social Inclusion (Sudbury Planning Council) Exposure trips, Environmental Awareness and Using Art for Justice. Jennifer Geddes, Chaplaincy Lead for the board was involved with a lot of the planning for the fair. “Today was about celebrating our achievements and exploring how our Catholic Secondary schools and community continue to champion social justice,” Geddes said. “The great thing about today is that they have been given even more tools to take back to their own schools to share with the other students and teachers. As well, the partnerships between the schools and the community organizations have been made even stronger and we will be continuing to act together for social justice.”

St. Charles College Presents “The Wedding Singer”

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The S.C.C. Drama department is hard at work on this year’s musical “The Wedding Singer. It originally made its debut on Broadway in 2006, and was nominated for several Tony awards. Based on the film starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, the show features a rock score that will bring you right back to the 80’s. “The Wedding Singer” tells the story of Robbie Hart trying so hard to find love when it’s “right in front of his eyes”. The cast of 24 is creating a show that will definitely make you tap your feet to the beats and go right back to the 80’s! Audience members of all ages are welcome!
The play runs from May 11 – 15 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults; $8 for seniors; children 5 and under free.

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