St. Edmunds Newsletter – February 2020
Educating Hearts, Minds, and Spirits
We are proud that our school provides opportunities for personal excellence in educational academic and extra-curricular activities. Programs include: Leadership, Athletics, Fine Arts, Technology, Enrichment and Student Support. With our philosophy of educating the whole child, the spiritual development of the children is integrated into all areas of the curriculum. We look forward to sharing this with our community during our Student Led Conferences & Open House on February 12th!
This month, we will also be focusing on the virtues of love & friendship. “Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love”. (1 John 4:8) The week of February 10th to February 14th is Catholic Schools’ Week in the Vancouver Archdiocese. We thank you for your commitment to Catholic education and for your continued support of our school.
Traffic Safety
Just another reminder: Pedestrians, please use the designated crosswalk to cross 6th Street into the backyard of the school. We would also like to remind all drivers to respect the posted “no stopping signs” near our 6th Street entrance gate and encourage drivers to drop-off in the designated area on Mahon Avenue. Children can enter using the gate between the school and Church.
We continue to work with the City of North Vancouver to discuss road & personal safety improvements so that we can increase the number of children walking, rolling and cycling to school. We are grateful for the new “drop-off” signage on Mahon as well as very thankful for our crossing guards who are at our intersections helping out with pedestrian safety!
Thanks to all of you who responded to the travel survey that was emailed out in December and January.
Catholic Schools Week February 10-14
This annual event was started as a means of recognizing the importance of Catholic Education. Our CISVA schools offer our children many opportunities to explore their talents – spiritually and academically, as well as in the fine arts and athletics.
To begin our focus on our appreciation of Catholic Education we will be partnering with our feeder school STA to have student representatives attend masses on February 8th & 9th to thank our parish for their continued support of our schools. We ask that all students who attend Catholic schools (including high schools) come to Mass dressed in their uniforms as a sign to our parishioners that we are proud of our schools. Let’s have great participation in this event and show everyone how proud we are of our wonderful school, St. Edmund’s!
Student Led Conferences
Prior to reports cards being sent home on March 14th, your child will have the opportunity to communicate their learning to you at the Student Led-Conferences on Wednesday, February 12th from 9:00am – 3:00 pm. Thank you for setting up your appointment times. (A reminder that if you have not already done so, please return report card folders (signed) and envelopes back to the school so they may be used for second term reports. You may keep the actual student report.)
Student benefits in leading their learning conference:
- Accountability for their learning
- Students learn to evaluate their own progress
- Students gain greater commitment to schoolwork and learning
- Builds self-confidence and self-esteem
- Encourages student/parent communication
- Builds communication and critical thinking skills
- Allows students to become actively involved
Basketball Season
Our fabulous T-birds are working hard to develop and refine their basketball skills while sharing a love of the game with our other CISVA schools. Win or lose, we are proud to play our best and show respect to teammates, other players, coaches, scorekeepers, and officials. Many thanks to our parent drivers who transport our players, making these opportunities possible. Please refer to our school website calendar for upcoming games and stop by the gym to cheer for our teams!
Parent Support Meeting – Thank you!
Thank you again to all of you who were able to come out to last month’s presentation of “Screenagers”. As children get older and are more exposed to technology and social media, it is important that we continue to work together to help them become responsible digital citizens. Your role in supporting this development cannot be overstated.
As a follow-up to the parental screening of the film, the grade 6 & 7 classes viewed the student version and our school liaison officer Cst. Peter will also be speaking with our intermediate students later this month. I am sure many of you have had conversations with your children regarding on-screen time; however, it is important to keep the discussion going and checking in with your kids regularly. For some extra tools and tips for discussions you can visit the website www.screenagersmovie.com/tech-talk-tuesdays/ “It’s never too late to start a conversation about technology but often doing it in baby steps is more effective.” —Delaney Ruston, MD, filmmaker of Screenagers
Outside Fun!
Please be sure to send your children to school with warm jackets, gloves and hats as they will be spending time outdoors. “Playing outside is one of the greatest joys of childhood, but it serves a larger purpose than just being a way to have a good time. Spending time outdoors is a crucial part of healthy growth and development”, according to the National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play.