Dear Parents, New and Prospective Families and Friends to our Community,
We are very pleased to officially announce that our school has been seismically upgraded to meet the provincial guidelines as set out in the 2015 National Building Code (NBC2015). Through the leadership and guidance of engineers and geoscientists, the school was seismically retrofitted to allow for a safe learning environment for our students. We are very grateful for the hard work from our building committee, engineers, geoscientist, architect, and construction crew to ensure that the upgrade was completed at the highest standard and done on time. It is vital that we have a school that is current with the national codes and standards, as safety of our staff and students is our number one priority.
We are thrilled that you are considering our school for your family.
In order to provide you with the best information for you to make an informed decision about our school, we have created a Parent Information Night for New Families.
The evening is on Thursday, January 28th from 7pm to 8pm.
Please come to the front entrance and a greeter will meet you there.
The evening is an intimate engagement (we predict 5 – 10 parents) that allows you personal time with the Principal.
The evening will provide you with our mission and vision, introduction to the many programs we offer, what to expect when attending our school, and how we incorporate families into our vibrant school community. There will also be time for question and answers and a short tour of the school. We hope you can join us. To register please send an email to:
We hope you can join us for our Open House on Sunday January 31st 2016. Please feel free to drop in anytime between 9am and 1pm. There will be guided tours, classroom presentations, refreshments and snacks, and you can pick up your registration form for the 2016-2017 school year.
Everyone is welcome and there is no need to register! We look forward to seeing you there!
For more information please contact the school at:
Last night St. Bernadette School held our annual combined Parent Information Night and Meet the Teacher Night. This allowed parents to come together to gain information on the new school year from the principal, teachers, and the PEC. It was wonderful to see so many families at the event, it was close to 100% participation. Below are some highlights of the night:
Principal’s Message
Here are a few quotes from Mr. van der Pauw’s talk to the parents:
“I feel very blessed to be part of this community… I know we are making excellent strides to provide your child with an education that is among the best in the province… we are in the profession of creating saints, we want the best for every child that walks into our school, we welcome every child with loving arms and a caring heart, and we seek to provide an education that teaches critical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values. I came with the vision to build a culture of change, to establish high expectations in academics, and to foster meaningful and trustworthy relationships within our school community. There are several examples of the staff committing to this vision. We have a dedicated and experienced teaching staff. The teachers at St. Bernadette’s are fully committed to the whole child and are forever striving to achieve higher student achievement.”
PEC Messages
For formal communication with the PEC you can send email to ec.sbern@cisva.bc.ca or an envelope addressed to “P.E.C.” and left at school office
We have a series of new initiatives that we are starting or looking into for the new year
Stingers Activity Club – 20+ students enrolled so far
New Fundraising Initiatives – see below
Increasing Enrolment – excellent enrolment in kindergarten and we are seeing an increase in some of the other grades as well.
Pre-School Feasibility – this is a long term project that may or may not be feasible for the school.
Preventative Maintenance – Although it is expense, it is not as expensive if we were to be reactive to the needs of the school (eg. replacing the furnaces, outside siding, repainting, new flooring, etc.)
Security & Safety – looking into lighting and new gates/fencing
We are excited to hear that individuals and companies are inquiring about making donations to the school. We want to thank the CWL for their generous donation of $2000.00. This money will have immediate impact on the learning that takes place at St. Bernadette’s. Every donation, no matter the size, improves the quality of education. If you would like to make a donation please speak with Mr. van der Pauw (mvanderpauw@cisva.bc.ca).
We have a fundraising goal of $35,000.00 for this school year.
The following are major planned events:
Fall Pub Night Social – October 17 – One20
Purdy’s Chocolate Sale – November
Lights of Hope – Ending December 10 (Christmas Concert)
Raffle – Late December to February
Walk-a-Thon – April 29
Year End BBQ/Carnival – June 3
Other events:
Clothing Drives – Various (First one: October 18-20)
Movie / Family Nights – Various (First one October 2)
Possible Gala Dinner in conjunction with Parish
If you can help with any of the major events, please contact Stephannie through the PEC email.
We changed the Parent Participation policy. There will be one $500 cheque cashed at the end of the year if your hours are not completed. Contact Ashley @ ashleyk.hartnett@gmail.com if you have questions.
School Reminders
Teachers have a new email address. It is grade__@stbernadette.ca (in the blank insert your child’s grade. For kindergarten it would be kindergarten@stbernadette.ca).
Please subscribe to our newsletter through our website. We currently have 70+ people subscribe, but we want all parents (mom and dad, and grandparents if necessary) to receive our newsletters.
We are a nut aware school. Nuts and foods that contain nuts are not permitted in the school.
We will be implementing the new curriculum for the 2016-2017 school year. If you would like more information please go to https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/
Those were the highlights of the presentation. It is not a list of everything that was presented. The school has two mandatory nights in the year – Parent Info Night and the AGM/Parent Support Meeting (PSM) Night. Valuable and critical information is presented at these night. Although we give an update, it does not include the discussions, all the details and questions that are apart of the evening. Please mark your calendars and plan on attending our next mandator evening, AGM and PSM on Thursday January 21st @ 6:30pm.
