Have you ever had events happen and then, when you reflect back on them, you realize that God was working in your life and things turned out the way they were meant to be? I have experienced this numerous times in my life; the most recent being with this message. I had great intentions of being early and having it ready to start the week, but that did not happen. As I sit down to write it on the last day of May, I think that God intended it to be that way so I could talk about World Catholic Education Day which we celebrated on the 30th. Each Thursday in May we have been praying together as a division for Catholic Education which culminated with a staff led Liturgy of the Word where the whole division was praying together around 11:00 am. As I walked through the halls yesterday, I saw a bulletin board celebrating World Catholic Education Day where the students shared their thoughts about the blessings inherent in Catholic Education. In the words of our students, I love my Catholic school because
- I can talk about how much I love God and Jesus at school and at home.
- We learn about God almost every day.
- Our relationship with God can grow.
- We can talk about God.
- We can pray and able to talk about God.
- We get to learn about Jesus and his many miracles.
- We go to Church, have Religion and we learn about all of the saints.
- We get to learn about God and strengthen my Catholic skills.
- I am able to pray.
On World Catholic Education day, the school division and the ATA local premiered a video that they worked together to create that celebrates Catholic Education. If you have not already seen the video Public Education: The Catholic Way I do recommend watching it. The video is approximately twenty minutes in length and was a great way to cap off the month long celebrations.
Now that May is finished we are looking ahead to June and it is a busy nineteen days. Teachers have been busy planning year end field trips and I am sure that the students are sure to enjoy the wide range of activities that fit in the science, social and physical education curriculum. On the 6th at 6:30 we have a parent meeting to discuss preparations for grade six camp in September. Our Kindergarten students will celebrate their accomplishments with a family celebration on the 12th at 5:30. We are also celebrating First Nations, Metis and Inuit culture with our Division Pow Wow at CCH West on the 5th at 5:30pm. All families are invited to attend. Our school celebration will be on the 21st where we are lining up story tellers, traditional games, dancing and smudge activities. The last week is jam packed as we go to Henderson Pool on Monday, have sports day on Tuesday, celebrate our grade sixes at our year end Mass on Wednesday and finish the week with an assembly, slide show and talent show.
In addition to all these activities, we will be planning for next year. We are currently working on our class configurations and teaching assignments for the fall. Once we have this information confirmed, we will communicate it to parents and then we will start working on class lists. I will be meeting with the teachers to place students in classrooms this month. Much deliberation goes into these assignments, such as, student needs, male/female ratio, academic balance, behaviour needs, class size, student relationships, educational assistant assignments and students new to OLA. Parents have a wealth of knowledge about their children and if there is any information you would like to share with me about your child that will help the staff to place him or her in the best education environment possible, please contact me, stop in at the office to make an appointment or just drop in as my door is always open. Thank you for trusting us in making sound educational decisions in the placement of your child.
To our families that are leaving us at the end of the year and to those who we are welcoming in the fall, we wish God’s blessings on you. We pray that our school community has a blessed summer vacation, and we look forward to seeing you in September.
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