St Vincent de Paul CS

116 FERMANAGH AVENUE • TORONTO, ON • M6R 1M2 • 416 393-5227 http://www.tcdsb.org/schools/stvincentdepaul/Pages/default.aspx

Parent Connect (weekly email reminders for parents): Get connected by sending an email to stvdp227@yahoo.ca

Principal: K. Schneider Trustee: Barbara Poplawski

Superintendent: Dr. Saraco

June 2014 IMPORTANT SCHOOL

CALENDAR

DATES TO

REMEMBER

Masses: June 18 @ 1:10 pm School

Mass

Graduation Mass:

June 23 @6:30 pm

Jun 6: PD Assessment & Educa-

tion Day – No School

June 10-13: Gr 7&8 Quebec City

Jun 17: School Picnic- High Park

Jun 19: Teacher Appreciation

Luncheon by CSAC

Jun 23: FDK Graduation

/Graduation Night Mass 6:30 pm

Jun 25: Report cards go home

Jun 27 Last Day of School &

Civvies Day

CSAC Co-chairs: A. Matthews/

C. Purificati

Upcoming CSAC

meetings:

Wed, June 4 @ 7.p.m. & Social

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri

2

EQAO testing

Gr 3-6

3

EQAO testing

Gr 3-6

4

EQAO test-

ing Gr 3-6

5

EQAO testing

Gr 3-6

6

9 Field Trip

Martin/Rajca

Harbourfront

Centre

10 11 Music Cham-

pion Celebra-

tion at the

Royal Conser-

12 13

16 Field Trip

Martin/Rajca

Harbourfront

Centre

17 18 Mass @ 1:10

pm

19 20

23 SK & Grade 8

Graduation

24 25 26 27 Civvies Day

LAST DAY OF

SCHOOL

30 School Starts:

Sept 2/14

Principal’s Message June 2014

Krystyna Schneider

The warmer Spring weather has finally arrived and everyone is enjoying the sunshine. St. Vin-

cent de Paul School has received a new fresh look. This past Saturday, Ms. Strong, Ms. Walker, Ms.

Temor, Ms. S. Vieira together with parent/student volunteers gathered to make over our front school

garden. It has been looking rather neglected and forlorn for the last several years and now it has blos-

somed and come alive. Bushes and trees were pruned or cut down. Flowers were planted in the front

yard and along the fence and we are hoping to erect our play storage shed in the kindergarten yard in

the north/west corner. The purchase of the shed was made possible by the $1,000.00 dollar Speak Up

grant we received. Thank you to everyone for dedicating your time and several volunteer hours to

make our school garden look splendid. We ask that the parents and students keep an eye on our land-

scaping efforts when the school is closed and direct children away from the plants and bushes.

We had our first ever Spring concert at Bishop Marrocco School and we hope to continue to build

bridges and share the facilities with our feeder high school for future events. The ticket sales will go

towards the purchase of computers for the school.

During the month of May, Cat 4 was administered to our grade 2, 5, and 7 students and our grade 3

and 6 students are presently writing EQAO from May 30- June 5. The results of these tests will be

known in early fall. Please assure your child that these tests are only one tool in assessing student

knowledge and achievement.

With warmer weather we wish to remind students and families to please respect our school’s Dress

Code. Midriff exposure, halter-tops, spaghetti straps, exposure of undergarments and makeup is inap-

propriate school wear. Shorts are to be worn above the knee level from grades 4-8. If students are

dressed inappropriately, parents will be notified and students may be required to go home and change.

May is the month of Mary and we wish to keep the importance of Mary in salvation history close to

our hearts. All the Gr. 1-8 students prayed the rosary in the gym on Wed. May 7. Thank you to Ms.

Ciampa, Ms. Vanderlinden and Ms. Tingle for organizing this event. Please join us for our last school

mass on June 18 at 1:10 pm.

NEWS…… Guidance Corner Intermediate Division Summer School Options There are several options offered by the TCDSB to intermediate students for the summer. Grade 7 students are offered the numeracy and literacy enrichment camps and the grade 8’s have several options available to them.

1. Summer 2014 Grade 7 & 8 Enrichment Camp: This non-credit is program geared toward current grade 7 & 8 students achieving levels 1 and 2, who require additional support to help them achieve success in the upcoming school year. These forms are available at your child’s current school and should be returned there. 2. Reach Ahead Transition Credit Courses: Schools that offer the reach ahead course would have offered it to grade 8 students when they received their acceptance packages in March. If you are unsure whether your child’s September school offers this course, then please contact the high school directly. 3. Reach Ahead Summer School Courses: A handful of full-credit grade 9 courses (including e-courses) are available to grade 8 students this summer. Forms can be picked up at the students’ current school but must be dropped off at the guidance department of their future TCDSB high school. More information can be obtained on the Continuing Ed. website at www.tcdsb.org/continuinged. Information about options 1 and 3 will be sent home with your child as they become available. Laugh Therapy Having attended a seminar by Nancy Weil (Certified Grief Management Specialist) recently, I came to learn the benefits of therapeutic laughter as a tool to reduce stress and cope with loss. Here are the top ten reasons to laugh. Top 10 Reasons to Laugh

1. Activates your immune system

2. Decreases the harmful effects of stress

3. Aerobically exercises your heart and lungs

4. Relaxes muscle tension, which often means less pain

5. Stabilizes mood swings

6. Relieves depression

7. Improves alertness and mental processing

8. Inspires creativity

9. Improves communication Improves your general outlook on life Make the time each day to do something that makes you laugh, even when you might not feel like it. For more information, visit Nancy Weil’s website www.thelaughacademy.com. Mr. F. Amato TCDSB Elementary Teacher-Guidance Counsellor – Area 5 D’Arcy McGee, St. Nicholas of Bari, St. John Bosco, Senhor Santo Cristo, St. Luigi, St. Rita, St. Mat-thew, St. Luke, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Cecilia, St. Helen & Holy Family

NEWS Cont’d…… Guidance Corner - Attention parents of grade 8 students: Let’s make this summer count! Our grade 8 students are preparing for their transition to high school. While some are taking the summer transition course at their chosen high school, and others are taking enrichment courses, let’s remember that our summer months present a wonderful op-portunity for them to discover their gifts and talents as they explore ways to contribute to their community. Hopefully, all students are aware that they must complete a minimum of 40 hours of community involvement as part of the requirements for an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). As TCDSB students, they are encouraged by our TCDSB vision to “transform the world through witness, faith, innovation and action.” Grade 8 students can begin to accumulate community service hours this summer, before starting high school in September. The purpose of the student com-munity involvement requirement is to encourage students to:

• grow in the Christian calling to service and reflection, developing a gener-ous and compassionate response to the local community and to the world • foster an awareness and understanding of social and civic responsibility • experience and celebrate the contributions they can make in supporting and strengthening their communities.

You and your child can access the TCDSB Community Involvement booklet, Activity Form and Parent Brochures on the TCDSB Portal. The parent brochures are available in 15 languages. For your convenience, the following link will take you directly to the information you will need: https://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/SchoolProgramsK12/GuidanceCoopEd/Communityservice40hours/Pages/default.aspx Although the guidelines in the booklet are clear, if you have questions, please contact the guidance counsellor at the secondary school. The Community Involvement Activity Form must be printed, completed, signed and submitted to the Guidance Department at your child’s secondary school in September to ensure that the hours are credited towards your child’s Ontario Secondary School Diploma requirements.

NEWS Cont’d……

LEARNING THROUGH THE ARTS SUMMER CAMP GR 7&8 STUDENTS Once again the Royal Conservatory is offering Summer Camps scholarships through our LTTA association to St. Vincent de Paul CS students. They are as fol-lows:

1. SUMMER VIDEO CAMP JULY 21-25, 2014 2. ROCK AND ROLL SUMMER CAMP July 21-25, 2014 3. ROCK AND ROLL SUMMER CAMP LEVEL 2, July 28-Aug 1, 2014 Please contact Mrs. Krol for registration forms. Spaces are limited, so get your regis-tration forms in before the June 11/14 deadline.

LEARNING THROUGH THE ARTS IS…. Fantastic. It is a great experience. Everyone joins in, has fun and gets excited. All educators are also amazing and artistic. I LOVE IT!!!! Learning about music and art is awesome at SVDP. By Julia P, Gr 3 - Ms. Hewitt’s Gr 2/3 class

JUMP ROPE FOR HEART On May 16th we jumped rope, hoola hooped and played soccer & basketball at all the vari-ous stations and fundraised for the Heart & Stroke Foundation. Thank you to all the students who participated and who brought back envelopes for the Heart & Stroke foundation. St. Vin-cent de Paul CS raised $3,584.96. This event promotes Canada's Physical Activity Guide-lines of a minimum of 60 mins of physical activity in a day to keep our "Hearts Healthy".

MESSAGE FROM FREE THE CHILDREN - WE ARE LOVE CAMPAIGN I was just informed that SVDP’s donation for $272.00 from your We Are Love campaign was received into our office! Your donation will be going towards Alternative Income in Ec-uador! Thank you very much for working so hard, and please thank all your students for their hard work and commitment! I can’t thank you enough for all that you do in going above and beyond in your role! Also please thank all staff members at St. Vincent de Paul! I know that the donation will be going to a great cause! Please find more information, videos, pictures, updates and blogs from Ecuador here: http://reports.freethechildren.com/country/ecuador/

NEWS Cont’d……

CHANGES IN IMMUNIZATION NEXT YEAR I have included a flyer outlining the new requirements to the Immunization of School Pupils Act. Below is a link to the provincial website which talks about this change. http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/public/programs/immunization/ispa.aspx 1) Vaccines to protect against 3 diseases will now be required to attend school. This begins July 1, 2014. They are: Pertussis (Whooping Cough) Meningococcal Varicella (chickenpox) ONLY for children coming into JK/born in 2010 2) Meningococcal vaccine ( called Menactra) has been given in school to grade 7's since 2009. It was voluntary but will be mandatory next school year 3) To be proactive, in April, the Vaccine Preventable Disease branch of Toronto Public Health mailed letters home to families of grade 7 and 8 students to tell them of this change and to offer another chance for their children to be immunized with Menactra in this year's school clinic. The parent was asked to return the consent to the school. If the school clinic had already happened, staff were asked to give a flyer to stu-dents so they could be immunized at a community clinic. The principals/school staff can also tell the par-

ents of students who received the letter to call the TPH Immunization Information Centre @ 416-392-1250 to make an appointment to receive this vaccine at a community clinic.

AUTOMATED EXTERNAL DEFIBRILLATION (AED) Thank you to all the teachers and support staff who dedicated their time and energy to learning how to defi-brillate and quite possibly help save a life! St.Vincent de Paul is now the proud owner of this life-saving device. It's location in the school is TBA, but likely close to the office. "The survival rate of casualties who have been treated with CPR alone is 3-5% while the survival rate of casualties who have been treated with both AED and CPR is between 50-80%." AED's now play a very important role in our society and are accessible by everyone who is willing to jump in and help, in addition to delivering CPR. They can now be found in any location with more than 10 employ-ees, so not to worry if you find yourself in need of one, and are not close to a school...you can send an indi-vidual to fetch you one at the nearest street corner or streetcar.

NEWS

Cont’d……

TRACK & FIELD We had an amazing Track and Field season this year! On Thursday, May 15

th, 61 superb ath-

letes hit the field at the state of the art Varsity Stadium on the U of T campus in downtown To-ronto. Our school placed 3rd in our division. Of those, 22 outstanding athletes qualified in their respective events- be it in relay, 100m, 200m, 400m, 1500m, high jump, shot put and long jump. The regional meet on Wednesday May 21

st was again held at Varsity Stadium and our

qualifiers put forth a valiant effort. The Gr. 3 boys relay team (Angus, Henry, Simun and Newkko), Matteo in Gr. 4 and Liam in Gr. 8 attended the City Finals on Tuesday, May 27

th. The Gr. 3 boys came in 4

th, Angus and Matteo came in 6

th in the 200m race and

Liam finished 11th in the 800m race. Furthermore, Angelina Pham from the LI class par-

ticipated in the 60m Special Olympics race. The whole LI class were there to support and cheer her on. Once again our students have represented St.Vincent de Paul with honour and we, as a community, are extremely proud of them. Thank you to the coaches, Ms. Racja, Ms. McInerney, Ms. Follett, Ms. Strong and Mr. Caverhill. A special thanks goes out to all the parents who showed their support by attending the meets and especially our EA volun-teers, Mrs.Viera and Mrs.Walker. **The underlined names went on to compete in the Regional Track and Field Meet. Gr. 8 – Theresa, Rita, Mya, Christiana, Jennifer, Liam, Jonathan, Miles G., Miles E., Gr. 7 – Ava, Ethan, Kasper, Jakub, Daniel, Kuba Gr. 6 – Emma, Jenelle, Olivia, Mikaela, Chelsea, Lucas, Noah, Allan, Michael Anthony, Kaz, Justin, Bennett, John B. Gr. 5 – Kasia, Alexandra, Sophie, Hilary, Alejandra, Kaitlyn, Dominique, Aidan M., Nigel, Alexs, Elliot, Luke, Aidan T. Gr. 4 – Molly, Gaia, Clare, Krista, Andrea, Matteo, Joshua, Matthew S., Robert, Luke Gr. 3 – Finnia, Julia, Elicia, Nora, Carina, Angus, Newkko, Simun, Henry, Peter H.

!!CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OF OUR EXTRAORDINARY ATHLETES AT SVDP!!

Congratulations

Oscar O graduated from St. Casimir’s Polish School Gr 8 with first class honours and distinction

in academics and learning skills!

NEWS Cont’d……

Monthly Update from the Board June 2014

Sickle Cell Awareness Day--June 19, 2014 The Toronto Catholic District School Board, at a meeting in April, proclaimed June 19th as Sickle Cell

Awareness Day, in recognition of the United Nations declaration that this date be set aside to raise aware-

ness about the global health concern.

As a Catholic community dedicated to student achievement and well-being, the Board is currently working

on an overarching policy related to medical conditions, including Sickle Cell Disease, and further supportive

strategies will be developed. See www.tcdsb.org for more information.

June is…. Aboriginal Education Month

June 21, 2014 is National Aboriginal Day

Italian Canadian Heritage Month

Portuguese Canadian Heritage Month

http://www.tcdsb.org/FORCOMMUNITY/HeritageCelebration/Pages/default.aspx

Canada Day Celebration June 26, 2014 in all TCDSB elementary schools—In honour of Canada Day all schools and offices are encouraged to gather

in the gymnasium or outdoors and join in singing the National Anthem at the same time in the morning – 9:30 a.m. More

details to come.

Summer School Reminder

Registration continues through to June 27th. Visit our website for information about elementary summer school opportunities including Reach Ahead Credits for grade 8

students; enrichment programs in literacy and numeracy for grades 7 and 8 students; summer community service hours pro-

gram; and secondary school credit courses including eClass.

http://www.tcdsb.org/programsservices/continuingeducation/secondarycreditcourses/summerschool/ssregistration/pages/

default.aspx

Quick Reminders: The last day of classes for elementary students is Friday, June 27th.

The new school year will begin on Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Students Who Are New to the Province Are Welcome

At TCDSB Orientation Centre Throughout the Summer The Toronto Catholic District School Board reminds newcomers to the Province that the Orientation Centre for

secondary school students will remain open for most of the summer. The Orientation Centre will be open from

June 30 to July 18, and again from August 11 to August 29. The offices will be closed from July 19 to August 10.

The centre is conveniently located close to the Bloor and Bathurst subway station (at 700 Markham Street) and

remains open Monday to Friday throughout the regular school year from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. To receive more information or to book an appointment, contact the Orientation Centre at marita.mccormick@tcdsb.org, or

416-393-5500. Info is also available on the website:

http://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/BoardServices/OrientationCentre/Pages/Default.aspx.