St. James Catholic School in Lively supported the fourth annual Teddy Bear Picnic– a fundraising event organized by the students at Cambrian College’s Police Foundations program in conjunction with the Sudbury and District Unit of Canadian Cancer Society. The St. James student council donated a bear to the teddy bear auction that raised funds for pediatric and childhood cancer research. Another part of the Teddy Bear Picnic campaign was a colouring contest and Ava Chenier, a Junior Kindergarten student was the grand prize winner of contest. Presenting Ava Chenier with a John Deere bike and a teddy bear is Patricia Clizia from the Canadian Cancer Society.
St. James Catholic School Selected Provincially as a School on the Move
St. James Catholic School joined an elite group of schools across Ontario recently that have been recognized by the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat as a School on the Move. The School on the Move initiative highlights schools that are making substantial progress in raising student achievement and have sustained this progress over several years. St. James was nominated by the Ministry of Education and after a visit to the school by Ministry officials, was one of only 33 schools selected provincially. With over 4900 schools in the province including Catholic, Public, English and French Boards, Cara Soehner, Principal of the school was thrilled that St. James was selected to be part of such a prestigious group. Only four Northern schools were named as Schools on the Move, and Soehner attributes this to the strength and support of the staff who set strong foundation skills for learning.
Selection for Schools on the Move includes the following criteria:
EQAO scores in reading, writing and mathematics have improved in both Grades 3 and 6 over a three year period
Staff being able to articulate what they did and how they implemented changes
Staff being able to provide evidence of growth in student achievement
Strategies the school identified are supported by research evidence
Collaborative culture, with teachers working together, constantly learning, challenging and supporting each other
Doors being open and parents being partners.
As well as being a School on the Move, an additional accolade for the school includes their receiving the Dr. Bette M. Stephenson award this past year which is an award given to a school that demonstrates leadership, proactive initiatives, positive attitude and sincere efforts to help every child succeed. As well, the school must also be making effective use of the EQAO data and show evidence from other sources to enhance and support student achievement. Again Soehner ascribes the school’s success to the continuous work of the staff. “Our staff works tirelessly to engage and support each and every student at St. James,” Soehner said. “Every single day we collectively focus on the belief that everything we do is for the success of all of our students and that every single child matters.”
St. James is the second school in two years from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board to be nominated and selected as a School on the Move as St. Christopher Catholic Elementary was a School on the Move in the 2008-2009 school year.
New Life at St. James School
Students at St. James Catholic Elementary school had the unique opportunity this past month to witness the hatching of baby ducks. Grade 5 student, Danielle Battistelli has a love for ducks so her family offered the school a whole kit including eggs, an incubator and all supplies and equipment needed in order to hatch some duck eggs. The school jumped at this chance to show students the miracle of new life and within a few weeks time the first batch of eggs hatched. Everyday at lunch, Battistelli and her friends set up a demonstration and are available to answer questions regarding the new hatchlings. As well, these students contribute to the morning announcements calling themselves “The Hatchers” and give daily updates on the ducklings. There have been eight ducks born so far and some students were lucky enough to witness the eggs cracking and seeing the ducks emerge. All of the new ducklings have been named and some of these names include Bubbles, Twitter and Chezabell. The Battistelli’s have contributed a few more eggs and when the first set of ducklings are ready to bring back to their house to be raised as pets, there will be a whole new set of ducklings for the students to observe. Grade One teacher Sarah Pappin found her students to be positively amazed by the whole process. “My students were absolutely awestruck when they saw the eggs hatch,” Pappin said. “They were speechless at first, and then couldn’t stop talking about how excited they were to see real baby ducks hatch.” Pappin explained that this was a fantastic opportunity for all the students at St. James to work with community partners, and families and have a hands on experience with new life.
St. James Hosts Family Barbecue for Catholic Education Week
Students, family members and staff gathered at St. James Catholic Elementary School in Lively on the evening of May 7 as the school hosted a family barbecue and celebration. In honour of Catholic Education Week, the night kicked off with a performance by the school choir (under the direction of teacher Tammy Lanci), and was followed by a short service that included a student presentation of the Virtues that are celebrated by all SCDSB schools. After grace, the crowd feasted on food that was donated by Perkins, and prepared by the Knights of Columbus. As well, the Catholic Women’s League supplied desserts for the gathering. “It is a great way to come together as a community,” Cara Soehner, Principal of the school said. “It also gives our students and their families the opportunity to meet each other socially and spend some time getting to know one another.”
St. James Gets “Wild at Heart”
The Grade One classes at St. James School in Lively enjoyed a visit by Sarah Wendorf, Education Co-ordinator for the Wild at Heart Wildlife Refuge Centre in Lively. Sarah gave a wonderful and informative laptop presentation showing how the refuge centre rehabilitates sick, injured and orphaned animals. She also had the pupils participate in an activity to help them understand the use of materials employed at the centre. The students had previously collected many supplies from the Centre’s Wish List, and were happy to actively help in supporting the animals. They also made bookmarks with wild animal pictures and slogans to encourage others to care for animals. These bookmarks were sold at St. James School and the proceeds were also given to Wild at Heart.
The pupils’ science teacher, Rosanna Battigelli, had registered her class for a Wild at Heart membership, which included many resource materials for her “Animals: Wild at Heart!” Unit. More information about getting a class membership, along with a visit from Sarah Wendorf, can be found at [ http://www.wahrefugecentre.org/ ]www.wahrefugecentre.org
Torch Run Kicks Off St. James Winter Olympics
St. James Catholic School was thrilled to have Olympic Torchbearer Chris Jeffkins lead the school in a Torch Relay to officially open their Winter Olympic Day. Chris shared his amazing, once in a lifetime experience of being a part of the Olympic Torch run and explained how the torch “symbolizes Hope” and in carrying the torch Chris “felt like he was holding Canada in his arm”. Pictured with Chris are the Grade 6 torch run organizers Madison Kvaltin, Nikki Lemieux, Evan Collins,Vanessa Larocque and Holly Gran and Kindergarten students Bradley Markic and Aaric Rautiainen.
St. James Student Council and Custodian Unite to Create Hopes and Dreams for Haiti
Five hundred dollars was collected during a recent theme day hosted by the St. James student council for Haitian relief. The student council has forwarded the donations to Mr. Sunny Fournier, staff custodian and accomplished musician. Mr. Fournier, who hopes to raise $10,000 will be hosting a benefit concert for Haiti relief later this month and monies will be forwarded to aid Haitian Children.
St. James Recycles for Haiti
Along with all of the money raising efforts going on at our Sudbury Catholic Schools, Grade 5 Eco-Squad leaders at St. James Catholic School in Lively are collecting milk bags which are used to make sleeping mats. The bags are then crocheted by a neighbour Cindy Kavanaugh into comfortable, waterproof mats which will be forwarded to Haiti. The mats can be used for eating or sleeping and also due to their bright colours these mats do not attract bugs. It takes 250 milk bags to make one large mat and 150 bags to make a smaller mat. To date the students have collected over one thousand milk bags. The St. James students will continue their campaign until the end of March.
Singing for Literacy at St. James Catholic Elementary School
Musician Chuck Roberts led a sing-along at St. James Catholic School in celebration of Family Literacy Day. Grade 7 and 8 students proved that literacy can come in many forms, including in song, as was the case as they wrote and performed songs about the importance of literacy in their lives. Joining the “Sing for Literacy” celebration were all St. James students and staff, parents and grandparents as well as Trustee Estelle Scappatura.