St. Patrick's Blog Week of May 26th 2014

St. Patrick's Blog

Week of May 26th 2014

Mrs. Sweeney - Capital Educator Award Recipient!

Congratulations to Mrs. Joan Sweeney who was honoured as a winner of the 2014 Capital Educator’s Award at last week’s Edugala Celebration.  65 finalists were chosen from over 380 nominations with only 18 successful winners.  We are very proud of the work that Mrs. Sweeney does in the areas of Arts and Technology instruction as well as her contributions to our Religious studies program.  Families can watch (or record) the gala when it is presented on Rogers TV (channel 22 or 510) on Sunday, June 8th at 10pm.  

We invite all of our parents and guardians to view the work of art that Mrs. Sweeney’s English students created in collaboration with our partners - the senior residents from Billings Lodge in our community.  The piece speaks to the many levels of diversity that we celebrate in our school and with the wider community.  The art work has been given a place of prominence on the wall as you enter St. Patrick’s.

Wall of Remembrance

We are inviting all within our St. Pat’s community to contribute to our Wall of Remembrance that is taking shape adjacent to our main office area in the school.  This will be a place of prayer where students, staff and families can honour a departed loved one by providing a written celebration of their life with a photo to share.  This initiative came about when we recognized a large number of students were sharing some difficult times following the passing of a close relative in their families.  This is an opportunity to provide witness to these people’s lives, and to mark their passing in a shared way.  Remembrance material will be rotated throughout the school year to allow everyone to take part.  Please contact Mrs. Paniccia or Mr. Kozak if you would like to share a relative’s story and picture.

St. Patrick’s Alumni Academic Wall of Fame

We are celebrating the academic success of a number of former St. Patrick’s Intermediate students who attended our school.  This is an opportunity to share the challenging vocations that some previous students have attained in building upon the excellent academic foundation that was fostered at St. Pat’s.  While our display will be up shortly, some of these former students include Chris Lee (following distinguished post-secondary studies - currently working in the aerospace industry), Mark Kennedy (award winning journalist for the Ottawa Citizen - studied Journalism at Carleton University following St. Pat’s), Shelby Spirak (recent student who is now head chef at the Shipwright Inn in Charlottetown, PEI), Dr. Taylor McGuire (expert in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery).  Please contact us if you have information regarding the academic pursuits of any former students.

Elementary School Transition Visits

Mrs. Paniccia, Mr. McKinnon and a group of our Ambassadors made a splash as the “Welcome to St. Pat’s” tour made its way to all of our elementary schools last week.  Our teachers provided last minute transition advice to our incoming grade 7 students, while our Ambassadors shared their experiences for success.  The grade 6 students had some excellent questions for our group and they seem to be very excited to make the jump to St. Patrick’s in September.  Thank you to all involved!

Blog Support

I noticed this week that we are close to hitting the 1000 mark for visits to the St. Pat’s Blog!  I am encouraged that many of you come to this site for information on the school.  A few reminders about us:

• The calendar of student activities is listed at the end of the full blog.  This provides a picture of the many student activities that are taking place during the week.
• Enjoy our twitter feed on the right sidebar of the Blog.  Students are always excited to share their learning experiences through pictures.
• Our Blog can be translated into over 80 languages!  Please spread the word that our community information is readily accessible to all of our families.

Have a great week!

Sean Kelly

Principal