On September 26th, 2013, over 800 students from across Greater Sudbury elementary schools participated in the Laurentian X-C Running Challenge at Laurentian University. St.John’s student, Shane Poitras, brought home the gold in the Senior Elementary Boys Division with a record time of 12:07, placing him 1st among 223 grade 7 & 8 boys. Shane has proven to be an exceptional athlete and we are overwhelmingly proud of his admirable victory! As well, Hannah Whyte placed 4th in the Junior Elementary Girls Division and Colin Burrell placed 3rd in the Junior Elementary Boys Division. Overall, St. John’s team ranked 2nd for Junior Girls, 3rd for Junior Boys, and 6th for Senior Boys of over 20 schools! Coaches Cori Walker and Tania Vaillancourt are tremendously proud of all of their athletes for their dedication, positive attitudes, and perseverance!
St. John Fights Back Against Cancer
Despite the rain that poured down on May 10th, the students and staff of St. John Catholic Elementary School remained committed to their walk for their 5th annual relay for life with just one tweak – instead of walking outside, they decided to walk inside the school’s gym. Event organizer and teacher Irene Raymond didn’t miss a beat when the weather decided to be uncooperative and quickly made arrangements for each of the classes to rotate their walks in the school gym.
The day’s event was kicked off with a presentation of a banner from the Sudbury chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Cathy Burns who wanted to publically acknowledge the school’s outstanding efforts in supporting their organization. Raymond received the banner on the school’s behalf and spoke to the students before the relay began. “Every single person in this room has been or will be affected by cancer,” Raymond explained. “Today we are honoured to have a group of survivors who will be joining us on our walk and we celebrate their strength and courage to fight back!” The students echoed Raymond’s message “Fight back” and it was the phrase that was shouted throughout the event. The students walked with the survivors as well as family and community members.
The school was visited by the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Cancer Society (Ontario Division) – Martin Kabat a few weeks earlier to kick of the school’s fundraising efforts for their event and he encouraged the students to continue in their support for such an important cause. As well, he thanked them for their fundraising efforts from previous years as they have contributed well over $15,000 to the Sudbury branch.
This year’s efforts have surpassed all other years for the school as the grand total to date is well over $7200 with more pledge money still coming in. According to Raymond, the students really outdid themselves this year and were completely focused on raising the most amount of money they have ever raised with one student raising close to $1000 all on her own. “I am so proud and thankful that the students, staff and parent community of St. John Catholic Elementary School are such giving and generous group,” Raymond stated. “We have shown once again that we care about each other and that we are committed to continuing to fight back againstt cancer.”
The event finished with the entire group gathering in the school’s gymnasium for the annual luminary ceremony.
FULL DAY Kindergarten Information/Registration Night -TODAY – Tuesday, February 5, 2013
There will be an information/registration night TODAY – Tuesday, February 5, 2013 for all parents interested in registering their child(ren) at one of the Sudbury Catholic elementary schools for FULL DAY Kindergarten beginning September, 2013.
The information/registration night will start at 6:00 p.m. For more information about this event, please contact your local Catholic elementary school. For contact information about each school, go to http://www.scdsb.edu.on.ca/schools/schools.php, or contact the board office at (705)673-5620.
Creative Recycling at St. John
St. John Catholic Elementary School Secretary, Tara Large and Lunchroom Supervisor, Pat Burell show off some crafted recycled bags. Pat Burell likes to recycle, and sewed up Jammer cooler bags & pencil cases. She explains that the process is quite simple from cutting the bags to sewing them up. It teaches children that many everyday items can be recycled into a useful products. At St. John, staff teach that recycling is fun and every morning the announcements provide the students with useful tips.
Gifts of Hope are Real Gifts for Real Projects that Change Real Lives
Mrs. Roque’s Gr.2/3 class, at St. John Catholic Elementary School, have been discussing how fortunate they are to live iin a country like Canada, where they have a home, warm clothes, clean water and healthy food, while others in the world suffer. They have decided to set a goal for themselves for Christmas. They collected enough money to purchase a goat and 2 pigs for $165.00, for a family in a developing country.
A goat provides milk for a family: protein, nourishment and health. This gift also provides the possibility of a livelihood, which means an income and the ability to make choices about the future for parents and their children.
POSITIVE LIVING SKILLS with Terry Orlick Ph.D – November 13, 2012
POSITIVE LIVING SKILLS with Terry Orlick Ph.D., presentation at St. Raphael School, Nov.13th, 6:30-7:30 pm
Promoting PEACEFUL SCHOOLS: Enjoy the ‘simple joys of life’
As part of Peaceful Schools and building healthy relationships, living a life of joy and happiness can be achieved when we learn to think positive and embrace the simple joys and happy highlights in our lives. This allows us to live life to our true potential.
Charlie Large, SK student at St. John, is holding a Spaghetti Toes CD and a Highlight clicker. These are tools that Terry Orlick PhD, has developed for children. St. John School will be introducing a special evening, with guest speaker, Terry Orlick, PhD. on Nov.13th, from 6:30-7:30 pm. at St. Raphael School. The evening session is meant for parents/guardian, educators, coaches, any adult who works with children.
The CD allows children to learn how to relax during stressful times in their lives whether at home or at school.
The highlight clicker is a great way to help children and youth feel happier, less stressed and more confident within themselves when they CLICK happy moments in their lives. The clicker keeps track of all the happy moments, such as being thankful for the sunshine, enjoying time with a friend, having fun in a game, learning at school etc….
Research demonstrates that Highlight Clickers helps children and adults of all ages become more positive, more relaxed, more joyful, and more focused on the good things in themselves, in others and the contexts they are in.
When you begin to look for, find, embrace and appreciate the simplest Highlight or simplest joys in every day, not only do you feel better, you also reduce the unnecessary stress, worry and negativity in your life.
St. John Student Poster Contest Winner
Students at St. John Catholic Elementary School gathered recently to celebrate with Grade 4 student Zoe Martin. Zoe created a poster last year that won the Legion Remembrance Day poster contest at both the regional and district levels. As well, it received an honourable mention at the provincial level. Legion representative Jim Young visited the school for the celebration to award Zoe with certificates and a cash prize.
Cardinals Share Their ‘Goodness’ with the Sudbury Food Bank
The line ‘Teach me goodness’ is an integral part of the St. Charles College motto. This week, the students at the school learned about goodness and shared the fruits of their labour.
The secondary school students, coupled with children in the feeder schools canvassed together for the largest school food drive in the city. The goal was to raise 60 000 cans for the Sudbury Food Bank and the Cardinals surpassed that goal with a new all-time total of 125 080 cans. This is the single biggest contribution in history to the Sudbury Food Bank.
The secondary school has hosted a food drive for twenty-seven years. It is supported by students at St. Bernadette, St. Raphael, Pius XII, St. Andrew, St. David and St Paul and St. John.
St. John Catholic School Celebrates “World Day of the Sick”
In keeping with the spirit of the “World Day of the Sick” (Saturday, February 11th), a celebration was held at St. John Catholic Elementary School on Wednesday, February 8th,at which time students, staff, and invited guests joined together to take part in a prayer service honouring their community. Reverend Jim Ketzler from St. John the Evangelist Church led the service in which statues and crucifixes that were donated by the Sisters of St. Joseph from the former St. Joseph Health Centre (General Hospital) were blessed and then distributed around the school. As well, there were special blessings for all health care providers and the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick for all those who were present and in need. “At the beginning of the school year, all of the principals gathered together with Bishop Simard, Senior Administration and our parish partners, to put together pastoral plans for our schools,” Tricia Dowdall-Cerilli, Principal of St. John stated. “We had discussed many options, but we knew that this was definitely something we wanted to celebrate as we were so honoured to be gifted these crucifixes and statues from the hospital. Seeing as in the month of February, we celebrate the virtue of empathy – we knew that the timing was perfect for us to bring our community together, and take part in such a wonderful, meaningful celebration.”
St. John’s Families E.A.T.!
On February 1st, the Sudbury and District Health Unit and St. John Catholic Elementary School came together to offer an informative and tasty evening for families called E.A.T. (Eat Healthy, Anaphylaxis Awareness and Take and Taste). The SDHU began the evening with a presentation on allergies and anaphylaxis awareness. Families then sampled a variety of tasty, nutritious and nut-free lunch items such as egg salad pitas, veggie wraps, snack mix, fennel salad and black bean brownies. Students and their families explored new fruits such as papaya, mango, star fruit and grapples. There were interactive games for the children and recipes for the parents!