St. Bernadette Elementary
School Newsletter
May 18th, 2016
Highlights
• Increase in Enrolment
• Communications
• Stingers Basketball Camp
May 19th – Wildplay
May 20th – Feast Day (NO SCHOOL)
May 23rd – Victoria Day (NO SCHOOL)
May 25th – Crowning of Mary
May 27th – Year End BBQ Fun Fair
School News
VIRTUE OF THE MONTH
The virtue of the month for May is Equality. The virtue of equality aligns itself closely to justice. It is not about treating people the same, but with the same standard. As Jesus said “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.” (Luke 11:46). At school, we show equality by teaching the students about rules and how to treat others.
CROWNING OF MARY
The Crowning of Mary will take place on Wednesday, May 25th at 10:00am. We ask that every student bring in a flower(s) for the Crowning.
UNIFORM FITTINGS
Effective this week you will be able to come to the school every Tuesday afternoon from 2:30-3:30 and/or Thursday morning 8:30-9:15 for uniform fittings. This is being done by the school, not Cambridge Uniforms. We do not accept orders, you will need to place your own order. Please note that Cambridge Uniforms will be having a no GST sale week, the week of June 20th. If you wish to take advantage of this sale, get your child(ren) fitted and then place your order the week of June 20th. Uniform fittings will take place in the PE office, by the gym.
FORT MCMURRAY FUNDRAISER
The school raised $1150.00 for the Fort McMurray victims. A great big thank you for your support !!!
PROJECT ADVANCE 2016
The 2016 Project Advance campaign is underway. Our funds this year will go towards further seismic upgrading and improvement of St. Bernadette’s Elementary School. Our parish goal remains at $150,000. Once we have raised $58,000 for the archdiocese, anything extra comes back to the parish. To donate, you may give your pledge card to the volunteers after weekend masses, or you may detach the pledge form from the Project Advance brochure, or go to the secure online donation site at: www.projectadvance.ca.
COMMUNICATION
Dear Families,
I would like to thank you for your patience as we navigate through our new communication system. At the beginning of this year we switched to a more collaborative system where multiple staff can contribute to a newsletter that is meaningful and beneficial to all families. We also wanted to move away from sending out mass emails as we were finding that the system was unreliable.
At first the switch seemed seamless. After a few months we became aware of several issues and were unprepared for the continuous hurdles we faced. Over the last few months we have been operating under solving one problem just to have another problem replace it. It has caused families to miss newsletters, rushed efforts by us to get a newsletter out which has caused errors and missing information, and a lack of continuity in our communication practice. The goal is to have a system that is efficient, cost effective, and professional. So far we have not reached our goal, however, I hope that with this last upgrade and correction, we can finally have a communication system that is worthy of our school.
In the meantime, we will continue to send out PDF versions of our newsletter via email and to update our school website with current issues of the newsletter. We know we have many options moving forward with how we communicate with parents and we are currently looking into those options. We hope that after this week our issues are finally resolved. Until then, we will continue the current practice.
Michael van der Pauw
Principal
UNIFORM FITTINGS
Uniform fittings will be available starting next Tuesday, May 17th 2:30-3:30 and Thursday, May 19th 8:30-9:15 in the PE Office, located next to the gym. This will be ongoing until the end of the school year. Tuesdays & Thursday are the ONLY DAYS that the fittings are available.
Cambridge Uniforms will be having a no GST sale, the week of June 20th.
ST. BERNADETTE SCHOOL HAS LIMITED SPACES LEFT FOR 2016-2017!!
We are seeing an increase in applications and registrations. We would like to thank all of our families for their support in increasing the enrolment and getting the word out as to how great of a school we are! As a top ten school in Surrey (and top 10% in BC!) we are getting almost daily inquiries about our admissions for next year. If you would like to attend our school, please contact the office at 604-596-1101. Financial assistance is available. We don’t want finances to be part of their decision making process.
We currently have space in the following classes:
Kindergarten – 6 spaces available
Gr. 1 – 3 spaces available
Gr. 2 – 3 spaces available
Gr. 3 – 2 spaces available
Gr. 4 – 4 spaces available
Gr. 5 – No spaces left – Waiting list only
Gr. 6 – 8 spaces available
Gr. 7 – 4 spaces available
We would love to see these spaces filled by next year. If you know someone who would like to attend our school, please pass on our information and have them call the school.
Fundraiser for Canadian Development and Peace
Students in Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 will be raising money for Canadian Development and Peace by holding a plant sale on May 30 and 31. Kindergarten and Grade 1 will be selling plants that they have grown during their Science unit and Grade 2 will act as cashiers to build on their Math unit about coins.
We are also selling (by pre-order only) beautiful plants from De Vry Greenhouses which can be ordered on line by visiting the website at
https://stbernadette.growingsmilesfundraising.com
If you are interested in supporting this fundraiser and would like the convenience of pick up of plant orders at the school on Friday, June 10 at 1 p.m. after Fun Day, please complete the order form online by visiting the above website. Please note that the order deadline is Friday, May 27.
Please return payment to the school by Friday, May 27 also.
If you have any questions, please contact Mrs Fraser, Mme Peck, Ms Masiti or Mrs Schollen at the school. Thank you for your support.
STINGERS BASKETBALL CAMP
St. Bernadette School is proud to team up with Roundball Basketball to offer students a one week basketball camp. The camp is open to students who are currently in grade 4-6. It will take place at our school gym from July 4th – 8th, 10am – 1pm. Registration is $65.00 and includes a daily snack, reversible Roundball jersey, and a basketball for use at the camp and to take home. Registration forms went home with your child on Monday. More forms are available at the office.
REMINDERS
ABSENTEE NOTES
St. Bernadette School will be having their yearly attendance audit THIS month. Students who have been absent must have an absent note on file with the days & reason of absenteeism along with the parent signature. It is not the school’s responsibility to ensure that a note is on hand. Failure in not having an absent note for the days absence could result in families having to pay a portion of the provincial funding. So if you are aware of any absent note(s) that has not been handed in to the office, please send it in at your earliest convenience.
PARENT PARTICIPATION OPPORTUNITIES
It is that time of the year where we all need to make sure our volunteer hours are complete. There are many opportunities for you to complete your hours in a variety of ways. Below are some opportunities to help you complete your hours
School Maintenance
There are various maintenance projects that need to be completed around the school. If you are short time please feel free to call or text Marc Fournier (PEC representative for maintenance) at 778-877-9548 and he can discuss with you some projects that need some attention.
St. Bernadette Gala The Gala committee is looking for volunteers for the clean up at the end of the evening, please contact the school office if you can help.
APPLICATION FOR NEW FAMILIES
We are currently accepting applications for new families. The response from new families that have already applied has been extremely positive. Many of the families have applied due to the positive and affirming feedback they have received. All of the families we have interviewed are very excited to join our community and are eager to get involved.
We are very thankful to have such amazing families in our school. Thank you for sharing your experiences with your families, friends, co-workers, and neighbours. It makes us stronger as a community and it ultimately benefits the education of your child and the new families that join us.
If you know of someone who would benefit from having their child(ren) at our school, please have them contact us or direct them to our website to download an application form.
Links
School Calendar
Absentee Forms
Stingers Club
St. Bernadette Elementary Catholic School
13130 65B Ave
Surrey, BC V3W 9M1
phone: (604) 596-1101
fax: (604) 596-1550
stbernadette@telus.net
