St. Edmunds Newsletter – September 2022

On behalf of all the staff at St. Edmund’s School, as well as Fr. Steny and Fr. Cannio, we welcome all our returning and new families to an exciting new school year! We will continue to work in partnership with our students, parents and parish community members in teaching our students to follow the ways of Jesus through thoughts, words and actions.

We warmly welcome back Ms. Dy to the library as well as our newlywed teachers, Ms. Singer and Mr. Grossi. A warm welcome as well to our newest staff members, Educational Assistants, Ms. Lemos, Ms. Perez, Ms. DeBeer and Ms. Moric.

This year our Archdiocesan theme is “Seeking Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation”. On his July visit to Canada, Our Holy Father Pope Francis pledged that, “We want to walk together, to pray together, and to work together , so that the sufferings of the past can lead to a future of justice, healing, and reconciliation.” Together with our CISVA schools, St. Edmund’s is committed to learning about the events of the past, creating bonds of understanding with our brothers and sisters, and ensuring that the society we are creating for our children treats all its members with dignity, compassion and love. We ask that in your families, you reinforce this message with your children to strengthen our community.

First Day of School & Kindergarten Gradual Entry

Tuesday, September 6th is our first day of school for students in Grades 1-7 starting at 8:45 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Beginning Wednesday, September 7th, students will be in session from 8:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The Kindergarten gradual entry schedule which begins on Sept. 7th to 16th was sent out via email to parents in June. Please refer to the schedule for the exact times your child will attend.

School Bell Schedule/Hours of Instruction

8:30 a.m. Supervision begins: Students enter school grounds through Mahon Street gate entrance

8:45 a.m. School begins with morning assembly and prayer

10:30 to 10:45 a.m. Morning Recess for all students

12:00 to 12:30 p.m. Lunch Recess for all Students

12:30 -12:45 p.m. Eating Lunch in Classroom for all Students

3:00 p.m. All Students Dismissed

Regular attendance and prompt arrival at school is important if your child is to gain full benefit from the school program. Please ensure your child arrives on time each day. If your child is going to be late or absent for any reason, please email the school office at office@stemunds.ca. If we do not

receive a call, email or notification and your child is not at school, we will call parents to ensure his/her safe arrival.

Health and Safety Updates

A reminder that the following Health & Safety Protocols continue to be in place for all staff & students:

Daily Health Check – Stay home if sick
Mask wearing is a personal choice
Continued emphasis on diligent hand & respiratory hygiene
Frequently touched surfaces to be cleaned daily
Vaccines – “It is important to get all recommended vaccine doses to get the most effective protection against serious cases of COVID-19.” Please note, the school does not collect or keep any COVID vaccination records.

Please be sure to do the Daily Health Screening every day for your child before leaving for school. The BC Daily Health Check tool can be accessed at this link https://www.k12dailycheck.gov.bc.ca/healthcheck?execution=e1s1. Please follow the suggestions after completing the health check assessment or those of another health care professional.

Communication

In order to assist with the communication between home and school, a monthly newsletter will be published and other school updates will be emailed home as events arise. It is important that you read these communications to be informed about school policies and procedures as well as notable accomplishments and upcoming events. In keeping with our environmental goals, the newsletter and bulletins will be emailed to you. Please ensure we have your correct email address as well as updated contact information for all correspondence. You may contact the office at office@stedmunds.ca

School Lunches

Please ensure that your child brings a healthy recess snack and healthy lunch to school each day. Reusable water bottles should also be brought daily and should be labelled with your child’s name. In the interest of being stewards of the Earth as well as not having the ability to handle large amounts of food waste in our garbage, we will continue to ask students to bring all leftover food back home so that it can be put into the compost. Please send school lunches in reusable plastic (no glass) containers, helping to reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill.

For parents who are interested in ordering lunch, please see the Hot Lunch Link on our school website.

School Lunch Program

The school lunch menu is now ready and you can start to order your children’s lunches. Hot Lunch will begin on Monday September 12^th. Please order for the full month and submit payments before Wednesday, September 7th as menus will close.

We have updated the menu items for healthy options, and many suppliers have increased their pricing to keep with freshness and quality ingredients. The BC School Food Guidelines are moving towards whole foods, non-processed, ingredients plant-based nutrition, and fewer sugar options to be sold at schools and therefore; we are moving towards these recommendations.

You must register online at: https://stedmunds.hotlunches.net/admin/?action=register-form
Any questions please contact Ms. Dente at secretary@stedmunds.ca

Thank you for supporting our school lunch program

Medical Alerts & Allergies

Ensuring a safe and healthy school environment is a responsibility shared by students, parents and staff. We have a number of students in our school who have serious, life-threatening allergies to peanuts and nut products. This means that any contact with peanuts, nuts or nut products, in even trace amounts, may endanger life. We are requesting the assistance of all families to keep our school a peanut and nut aware environment. Please do not send snacks and lunch items that contain nuts or nut oils. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

All students who are required to have an up-to-date Epipen and emergency plan filled out by your family doctor and brought to the school office. This is an annual requirement whether or not there are any changes to your child’s emergency plan.

Parent Participation Program (PPP)

Parent participation jobs and instructions for the 2022-2023 school year were sent out to all families via email communication. Parent assignments and jobs are now posted on the portal. Please remember families are required to complete a minimum of 25 hours of volunteer hours for the school to avoid any non-participation fees.

Access the Portal at: https://www.stedmunds.ca/parentparticipationlogin.

If you have any questions regarding your participation job, email Ms. Dente at secretary@stedmunds.ca

Note: All volunteer positions that are directly involved with students require a Criminal Record Check. If you have previously applied for a CRC, it is valid for 5 years. If you are unsure or are new to the school and would like to volunteer, please see Mrs. deFreitas in the office. Thank you for helping making our students’ safety a priority.

St. Edmund School Uniform

As we begin the school year, it is appropriate to be reminded that the school uniform is worn with pride and with attention to detail:

Sweaters should be in good condition. Holes should be repaired or patched, or the sweater should be replaced.
Footwear: all black, non-marking Navy blue dress socks should be worn with dress shoes.
Hair should not be dyed or coloured in any way. Hair accessories that tie back long hair should be subdued in nature. (Plain black, blue or tartan pattern)
Jewelry must be subdued in nature. Only stud earrings are permitted.
Nails should be clear(no colour polish) and make-up is not to be worn.
PE uniforms can be purchased from the school (see further info below). Other uniform pieces are to be purchased at Cambridge Uniforms. Please ensure all uniform pieces are labelled with your child’s name.

Uniform Purchases

We will be holding a Gym Strip sale on Monday and Wednesday, Sept 12, and 14th from 2:30-3:30 in the school parking lot.

For those looking to donate gently used, cleaned Cambridge uniforms, kindly bring them at this time. Used apparel can be purchased for a donation.

Thank you for supporting our uniform policy and keeping our students looking their best.

With Appreciation & Gratitude

Thank you to all our parents and parishioners who volunteered their time over the summer to water, weed and take care of our front courtyard garden as well as our custodian Mr. Dodds and parent volunteers who took care of a variety of maintenance tasks in the school.
We are also grateful to Fr. Steny, Mr. Racchi (Racchi Landscaping), Mr. Vignone (BA Blacktop), Mr. LeBreche, and our parish donors and volunteers who worked so hard to resurface our parking lot playground.
To the entire St. Ed’s Staff for all their hard work in the office and in the classrooms to prepare for the start of school!
We are also very excited to reveal our resurfaced gym floor that was done over the summer!

Important Dates for the 2022/23 School Year:

Please remember to check the online calendar and emails for the latest info/changes.