St. Bernadette Elementary
School Newsletter
December 16th, 2015
Highlights
• AGM and Parent Support Meeting
• Final Call for Parent Classroom Reps
• Parent Survey
• December 14-18 Spirit Week
• December 18 School Mass
• December 18 Dismissal @ 12:15
• December 18 Last day of school before Christmas Break
• January 4 School re-opens
IMPORTANT
New Professional Development Dates
Dear Parents, Next year all public and independent school will be required to teach a redesigned curriculum from Kindergarten to Grade 9. To assist in the transition, the Ministry of Education has been making efforts to prepare teachers and administrators in a variety of way. Recently, more resources were made available to all school in the province. As a result, …
SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL THANK YOU
We are so blessed to have such hard working members, giving so much for the people we serve, whether it be of time, our talents, prayers and blessings, or a combination. We send our sincere thanks to the students, parents and staff members of St. Bernadette school who supported our Christmas mission of charity by the abundance of food donated to fill our hampers to over flowing. Hip hip hooray grade 5 class for a job well done.
We are blessed to have an amazingly generous parish community. May we continue to see the face of Jesus in everyone; from those whom we have met in the past, those we serve in the present, and those whom we have yet to meet in the future.
We are thankful that our street ministry team have enjoyed so many happy faces this month.
We are thankful when someone in need is put in front of us. It gives us a sense of purpose to help in any way we can.
We are thankful for our families who stand by us in support of our ministry.
And we are thankful for our SSVP family, for in all we do together, we do it with the Love of God, the Light of Christ and the Presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us and protect us.
A Merry Blessed Christmas to all
From the members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
School News
PARENT VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Parent volunteers are needed during the Christmas Break to help do some cleaning inside & outside the school. If you are available and you are needing parent participation hours, please call Bob Barry at 604-319-8557.
VIRTUE OF THE MONTH
The virtue of the month for December is charity. The virtue of charity is interchangeable with love. We see this quite a bit in church teaching and throughout scripture. St. Paul says “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling symbol”. Our acts of charity are what bring us closest to God. God has made us in his image and that image is charity (love). Thought this month we encourage students to show charity and love in all situations in order to be closer to God and help fulfill his mission for us – to enter into his kingdom.
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM) AND PARENT SUPPORT MEETING (PSM)
Each year there are a handful of meetings that provide critical and useful information to parents. Out of those meetings three are mandatory for parents to attend. The first was our Parent Information Night in September. The other two are our AGM and PSM (Mandatory for grade 4-7 parents). To help you attend these meetings we have combined them and made them on the same night. On January 21st, 2016 starting at 6:30pm we will have our AGM followed by our PSM at approx. 7pm. We are providing you with six weeks notice so that you can make arrangements to attend. Once again we will be offering an hour of parent participation per family that attends.
FINAL CALL FOR CLASSROOM PARENT REP
Unfortunately we have had a low response to the parent rep position for each class. So far reps have come forward for the Grade 2 and 6. If we do not get a parent rep for each class we will move to an alternate safety arrangement.
To improve student safety and to enhance communication between the school and parents, we are implementing a new system for parents to be contacted quickly and efficiently if children need to be sent home due to an emergency, problem on or in the school area, or if there is a power outage. We will be asking for two parents to be classroom representatives per class. A good candidate should be easily contacted and have the flexibility to call parents when an issue arises. The class reps are responsible for:
1. Organizing, implementing and initiating a phone tree for all parents in their class.
2. Working with the teacher to help communicate to parents not only about emergencies, but classroom items that are ineffectively communicated through letters and email (for example not enough drivers the day before or a driver is sick for a field trip).
3. Help support school and classroom initiatives that require parent support (for example reminders or clarification around certain events)
As this is a new position in the school we will continue to evaluate and make adjustments. Parent Participation hours will be given to the classroom reps.
If this interests you and you feel that you fit the criteria for the position, please contact Mr. van der Pauw at principal@stbernadette.ca
We hope to have this new system in place by the new year.
REMINDERS
CHRISTMAS BREAK
The last day of school before the Christmas Break is Friday, December 18th, dismissal is at 12:15pm. The school will re-open on Monday, January 4th.
PARENT SURVEY
So far we have approximately 27% of our school community respond to our call to take the Parent Survey. From time to time the PEC collects feedback from parents to help assess the needs and direction of the school. This is done in a variety of ways: surveys, AGMs, Parent Info Night, etc. The PEC is putting out a short survey that they would like every parent to fill out. It should not take any more than 2-5 mins to fill out. Please click here to be taken to the survey.
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
NOTIFICATION OF CAREGIVERS
If someone else is going to be your child(ren)’s caregiver/guardian, whether it is for one day or one week, please give this information to the school office. In the event of an emergency, it is extremely important that you notify the school if you are going to be away and someone else will be looking after your child(ren).
Links
School Calendar
Absentee Forms
Stingers Club
We wish you all a very blessed Christmas
St. Bernadette Elementary Catholic School
13130 65B Ave
Surrey, BC V3W 9M1
phone: (604) 596-1101
fax: (604) 596-1550
stbernadette@telus.net
