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AUTUMN 2018 NEWSLETTER “ALL GOD’S CHILDREN”

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AUTUMN PRAYER We see signs of summer's passing in golden leaves, shortening days, misty mornings, au-

tumn glow.

We sense its passing in rain that dampens,

winds that chill, Harvest's bounty placed on show. Creator God, who brings forth

both green shoot and hoar frost,

sunrise and sunset,

we bring our thanks

for seeds that have grown,

harvests gathered,

storehouses filled,

mouths fed.

And, as your good earth rests

through winter's cold embrace,

we look forward to its re-awakening

when kissed by Spring's first touch.

. We BELONG We BELIEVE We BECOME Inspired by St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (“Live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith…abounding in thanksgiving”), our new pastoral plan strengthens our sense of belonging to God and one another, expresses our belief in God through our vision and mission, and works to achieve our goals as people on a common mission.

R. Di Domizio, Principal C. Fazzini, Vice Principal M. Caccamo, Superintendent (416) 222-8282 Ext:2267 M. Rizzo,Trustee Fr.Paolos Beraki, Pastor D. Real, A. Aviles CSPC (CO Chairs)

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STUDENT SAFETY REMINDERS 1.In the morning, parents are asked to take their children directly to the school yard. Teachers will pick up their lines from the yard following the bell. In the interest of student safety, parents are not to accompany their children into the schoolyard or building. At dismissal time, teachers escort the chil-dren outside. Please meet your children outside the doors they normally use. Do not arrange to meet your child outside the main doors. When many adults are in the schoolyard, students have a difficult time properly identifying school staff. 2.Our school bus loading zone is directly in front of the school. This is a no parking/no stopping zone; especially between 8:00am and 8:40am and 3:00pm and 4:00pm. Students should not be dropped off/picked up in the school parking lot. The school parking lot is for staff only during regular school hours. 3.During inclement weather and upon the Principal’s discretion, students will remain indoors. Howev-er, if a student is well enough to be at school, then they are well enough to be outside for recess. 4. Call if your child is late or absent. 6. Parents who drop off their children each morning are asked to use extreme caution while driving. The area in front of the school should be a quick drop off of children. The safest place to stop is Dovehouse Ave. 7. Please ensure the office has your updated cell and home telephone numbers. Safety before convenience.

BUSSING Our bussing system works with a number system. Each child who takes the bus is assigned a number at the beginning of the school year. That number is attached to their knap sacks so the staff on bus duty know who is boarding on and off of the bus. Please ensure the following for the safety of all of our students: Parents: are responsible to notify the school if your child must be met at the school bus drop-off. Please en-sure that you are at the stop on time to meet your child or to notify school staff that you will not be able to pick up your child, in which case the child will remain at the school for parental pick-up. The Student: is responsible to keep their number tag on their backpack and report a missing tag to their par-ents or school. They are responsible to know who is to meet them at the bus stop. If the person who normal-ly meets them is not there, they need to inform the driver. The School: is responsible for numbering all students and to replace tags if necessary.

CSPC CORNER The Catholic School Parent Council (CSPC) would like to thank all of you for your continued

support and contributions. Thanks to our collective efforts, we were able to purchase new

sports jerseys for our various teams, subsidize school trips, bring back “Scientists in School”

and support various events such as our annual dances and celebrations.

We are especially excited to share that our 2018 Fun Fair was a huge success and we were very close to our fundraising

goal of $5,000. Thanks to those funds and the help of our School Board, we were able to purchase new and much needed

technology for our school! Our staff and students are excited to start using their new tech! We look forward to another suc-

cessful Fun Fair in June of 2019! CSPC’s goal for this year is to install water bottle filling stations on all 3 floors of our school.

Proper hydration is important, especially during the warmer months. This project is currently in the works and we will be

sharing updates on upcoming school flyers. Fall is officially here and CSPC is excited to continue to bring more fun events

this school year, such as Bingo Night, Movie Night and our annual Fun Fair, check our school calendar for dates!

Furthermore, we would like to thank and acknowledge the efforts of all of those who participate on our council. Your commit-

ment to our school community is very much appreciated! We are always happy to welcome new parents/caregivers to our

monthly meetings. Our next meeting will be held on Nov 21,2018 at 6:30pm.

Hope to see you there! You can also reach us via email at cspc.stjerome@tcdsb.org

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @stjeromestcdsb.

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SCHOOL LIFE-GO JAGUARS!

It gives Mr. Astorino and Ms. Nangini great pleasure to announce that St.Jerome has the ULTIMATE ultimate frisbee team! The students had an incredible day, playing with great preci-sion and agility. The team finished in first place in round robin play easily clinching a champion-ship berth. They played St. Conrad in the cham-pionship game and had a nail biting first half. It wasn’t until the second half that they opened it up and dominated play! While all players were amazing, a special shout out to Sidney and Alex who really stepped it up! In the end Jaguars walked away with a 7-3 victory! Congratulations!

GRATITUDE PRAYERS Dear God, I am thankful for my family because they provide food for me and they are always there for me. They never ever put me last and they help me with my homework. They tell me what’s right and wrong and protect me from people who are not nice. Love, Jubril (gr. 3) Dear God, I am thankful for my teacher because she teaches me stuff I don’t know. I am thankful for my mommy because she cooks me my favourite foods. I am thankful for my daddy because he takes care of me when I am sick. I am thankful for the sun because it makes me warm when I am cold. I am thankful for the trees because they give everyone air. I am thankful for the park because I play with my family and friends there. I am thankful for the ocean because it has a lot of interesting ani-mals. I am thankful for God because He created us all. Love, Liz (gr.3)

New Flat Screen TV’s with Apple-TV have arrived!

St. Jerome is very excited to an-nounce that the 6 new Flat Screen TVs and Apple-TVs have arrived and are in use by staff to enhance student learning. The new “technology” allows staff and stu-dents to view current videos on any subject, take part in online interac-tive activities,lessons, apps and in-corporate current ipads and laptops into a more coherent and meaning-ful way. Thank you to the St. Jerome CSPC for helping to fund this project. We greatly appreciate the continued support and encouragement in providing the best possible educa-tional experience for the students.

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THANKSGIVING FOOD DRIVE In October, the St. Jerome Leader-ship Committee held a canned food drive entitled We Scare Hunger. We are very happy to announce that the very charitable community at St. Je-rome donated over 1000 canned goods. (over 40 boxes of food) These canned goods were delivered to St. Wilfrid Parish and will go to-wards supporting those less fortunate in our community.

“You pray for the hungry and then you feed them. That is how prayer works.”

(Pope Francis)

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MUSIC BY MARKUS On October 2nd, Markus came to our school and he sang songs. Markus sings on YTV and Tree-house. His songs made us get us get up and sing and dance. It was a great concert! By: Ageen Gunaseelan ,Grade 3

International Languages Elementary (ILE) Program: November Update

IL Survey to Be Conducted in All TCDSB Elementary Schools

On July 12th, the Board of Trustees of the TCDSB approved a motion to survey parents in all TCDSB Elementary Schools to determine whether parents wish to continue or initiative an International Languages program at their child’s school.

Process and Timelines:

One survey will be sent to each family with the Progress Report card with the oldest or only child in each fam-ily.

All surveys must be completed and returned in the sealed envelope provided, to the school principal no later than November 27, 2018.

No survey will be accepted after November 27th.

Should parents wish to have a translated version to assist with the completion of the English survey, they can request a translated copy from the school principal or download a copy of the target language from: https://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/SchoolProgramsK12/InternationalLanguages/International-Language-Survey/Pages/Default.aspx. Translations are available in Spanish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Arabic, Filipino, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) Tamil, and Italian.

All parents are encouraged to participate to ensure that results reflect the individual and collective voice of the school community. Surveys from 67% of all families in the school must be completed and returned in order for the results to be considered viable. In order to determine if the program is to be continued, using the Board approved model or to move the IL program to an alternative model, the majority of 51% should be attained for the preferred selection. In January, a report will be submitted to the Board of Trustees. This report will include a list of results by school, including the re-sponse rates for each school. However, only schools with the required 67% response rate will receive a detailed sum-mary of parent responses.

SAFETY BEFORE CONVENIENCE Our trained student safety patrollers work diligently to help maintain student safety throughout the school year. Parents and visitors are reminded that the roundabout in front of the school is for school bus use only between 8am and 840 am and again from 230 pm to 330pm.

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PARENT/TEACHER CONFERENCES Progress Reports come home to families on November 13th and each student will receive an interview time for the upcoming conferences. Parent Teacher Conferences are one way for parents to participate in the school system. It is an important opportunity to find out about your child’s progress. Interviews are not just for parents of students who are struggling. Great Questions to Ask

What skills does my child need to work on? What activities can we do at home to strengthen those skills? Does my child do his/her homework and assignments efficiently and conscientiously? Is my child facing any struggles in class not related to her/his schoolwork?

Interview Tips

Talk to your child about school before the interview. Ask how they think they are doing and how the teacher can help them meet their goals.

Go over their homework. Get an idea of what the curriculum is like, the level your child is working at, and areas where they are struggling.

Decide what you want to know. Make a list of what you want to know before you go into the interview. You can even prepare questions ahead of time if it will make you feel more at ease. Knowing what you want to know and writ-ing it down ensures that you don’t forget anything, and that you get the information you need.

Be open and honest. Feel free to add your own observations around your child’s behaviour, strengths and weak-nesses.

Find out what they’re learning. Ask curriculum questions, find out what your child has learned and what is coming up in the term ahead. Know the skills your child will need to be successful in the term ahead (i.e. knowing how to multiply and divide fractions)

Ask about strengths and weaknesses and possible problems. Find out about problems before they hap-pen. Building on weaknesses allows students to get help before they fall behind.

Ask about homework policies. Find out how often and how much homework is being assigned. Also ask if your child is completing his/her homework regularly, how long the work assigned should take to complete and does the teacher correct the homework regularly. The answers to these questions will help you better monitor your child’s homework habits.

How can you work together. Ask what you can do at home to help your child. Make a commitment to support your child by monitoring their homework, and helping them learn specific skills.

VOLLEYBALL CHAMPS On Friday, October 19, our intermediate boys volley-ball team competed in an invitational volleyball tour-nament at St. Francis De Sales. Our team demon-strated determination, sportsmanship and great skill. We played against St. Francis De Sales, St. Wilfrid, Our Lady of Wisdom and St. Norbert school in the round robin. We were undefeated which led us to the semi finals against St. Norbert's. With great success we made it into the finals. Our final game was against St. Wifrid's School. During the final set, our hard serves, consistent sets and outstanding spikes led us to be the CHAMPIONS!!! We would like to thank Mrs. Michielli and Mr. Cavaliere for committing their time to all our practices and preparing us for the upcoming divisional tournament on November 6th at St. Conrad School. GO Jaguars GO!! Thank you to our team: Joven, Rylee, JP, Marvellous, Aaron, David, Jasiah, Alex, Rafael, Massimo, Dante, Tyson, Bruk, Chris, Nick (by: Joven)

(Pizza Lunch) Many thanks to families who support our Pizza Lunch Days. Kindly remember the following:

1) Slices are $2.00 each 2) Toonies are due the day before our Pizza Lunch Dates. (which are usually on a Friday) 3) If a student is absent on Pizza Lunch. Please consider the toonie a donation to our fundraising efforts.

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FAITH AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT Congratulations to all students who intrinsically displayed and exuded the virtues of Hospitality and Gratitude in September and October respectively. November’s theme is Peacemaking.

PRIDE AWARDS Each month we gather as a community to celebrate student success. Part of this celebration is our Pride Assembly. Here students are recognized for successfully and consistently contributing to one of their Learning Skills. Congratulations to those students who worked diligently and received awards in the areas of Positive Attitude (Sept.) and Organization (Oct.). (Parents and caregivers are always welcome at our monthly Pride Assemblies. (Check the calendar).

THANK YOU GOOD PEOPLE! Each year the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care invites school boards to recognize the many professionals who work in the child care centres in our schools. Tuesday, October 16th was set aside for this purpose. We are pleased to join school boards across the province to salute the Child Care Workers and Early Childhood Educators who work with our youngest children, in partnership with teachers and other staff in our schools, to ensure that these young learners get off to the best start possible. Let’s not forget our Educational Assistants for all the support they offer our students on a dai-ly basis. They will be officially recognized later in the school year.

A CANADIAN HERO

Our Terry Fox Walk/Run was a success once again. On Thursday, October 4th, stu-dents, staff and parents par-ticipated in this very worth-while cause. We are proud to announce that we raised awareness and close to $3500 for cancer research. Thank you everyone!