St. Patrick's Blog Week of June 23rd 2014

St. Patrick's Blog

Week of June 23rd 2014

Closing Ceremonies at St. Patrick’s Intermediate

We are looking forward to celebrating our many achievements this week as we close out our academic and co-curricular year.  On Wednesday morning, we honour the hard work of our Grade 7 students during their Awards Ceremony.  Subject based recognition and overall academic achievement will be celebrated at that time.  On Wednesday afternoon, we continue with a very fitting tradition of honouring our Grade 8 students who will be moving on to Grade 9 at our Closing Ceremonies at Notre Dame Basilica.  Parents who are joining us are asked to arrive with their son/daughter for 1:00 pm for a 1:30 start.  Students are reminded of the proper dress expectations we have been sharing with them since March.  Families are then invited to come back to St. Pat’s where we will host a reception in our cafeteria from 3:00 to 4:15 pm.

On Thursday, June 26th, we will be recognizing the many students who have made co-curricular involvement a priority this year.  Students who have excelled in our many athletic and club activities will be celebrated that morning.  Students will then be invited to a BBQ (purchase tickets in homebase this week) and an athletic tournament in the afternoon.  

Student Voice Project

St. Patrick’s has been fortunate to have been involved in a number of student voice activities this year.  These activities provide students with a chance to shape their learning experiences while interacting with others outside the classroom environment.  One group of our students has been involved in a “Newcomer Project” where students at St. Patrick’s High School who are new to the community mentored newcomers at St. Pat’s Intermediate.  The collaboration produced some exciting results with students sharing experiential learning opportunities that they said augmented their engagement level.  A group of educators at the provincial level heard about this project and were anxious to learn more about the activity.  They came to St. Patrick’s Intermediate to record the students’ reactions and feedback on the experience.  

Stand Up Award Winners Attend YMCA Camp

St. Patrick’s has a long honoured tradition of honouring our students throughout the year based on their progress toward our “Stand up” encouragements.  The students at St. Pat’s stand up for Respect, Honesty, Forgiveness and Peace.  Throughout the year we take time to recognize students who have embodied these characteristics and who truly exemplify what it means to be a St. Pat’s Shamrock.  

Some of these individuals were rewarded for their hard work this past week as we welcomed our recipients to the YMCA camp in Dunrobin.  Students were involved in a host of collaborative games and activities, and all came away having had a great day.  

Year End Thank You’s

I would like to take this opportunity to thank St. Patrick’s students, staff and parent community for the support and commitment that they have shown to our school this year.  A special thank you to our School Council group for the support that they have demonstrated, always getting behind the activities going on at the school.  We look forward to welcoming our incoming Grade 6 students who will become “Grade 7ers” next September.  I hope all members of our community enjoy a summer holiday full of rest and peace.  

Have a great summer!

Sean Kelly

Principal

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

Healthy Schools 2020 E-bulletin

Please see link below for Issue 14 (May 2014) of our Healthy Schools 2020 E-bulletin.

In this issue...

* Active living in nature - resources to help you reap the rewards of outdoor learning

* Minimize physical activity risks for students

* Your students are watching & listening!

* A success from our region - physical activity

The e-bulletin is designed to provide you and your school communities with fun, practical ways to keep healthy nutrition and physical activity top of mind.

Current and past issues are available on the Healthy Schools 2020 website at http://www.healthyschools2020.ca/en_healthy_schools_2020_newsletters.php 

St. Patrick's Blog Week of May 20th 2014

St. Patrick's Blog

Week of May 20th 2014

Student Activities this Week

Congratulations to Mr. Kennedy and our Chess team after they captured GOLD at the Board tournament this past week.  A number of our special education students were involved with the Board’s Swim Meet this past Wednesday.  The students enjoyed a great time with great competition engaging students from across the Board.  Our dedicated readers were involved in a trip to the “Festival of Trees” author presentation last Friday.  The activity took place at the Nepean Sportsplex and the students were involved in a number of literacy activities.

School Improvement Plan for Student Success

A number of St. Pat’s staff were involved in the Board sponsored school improvement plan this past Thursday.  Representatives from intermediate and secondary schools across the board come together to review best practices and innovative approaches at different schools as we set our goals for the coming academic year.  Schools are charged with developing goals in the areas of Numeracy and Literacy, as well as Pathways for students and Community, Culture and Caring.  These goals set the learning for students for the upcoming year, as well as the professional development plans for staff.  The SIP is shared with our School Council every year at one of our meetings.  If you have any questions about our goals, please contact us at the school.

Student Success Visit to St. Patrick’s Intermediate

Individuals from the school board will be visiting St. Patrick’s next Monday, May 26th as they take part in classroom walk-throughs and discussion around school initiatives.  While board representatives used to concentrate on staff descriptions of the learning that is going on, they now concentrate on what students have to say.  We have been encouraging our students to reflect upon their learning so that they can engage in meaningful dialogue with our visitors as they tour classrooms next week.

“We Remember” wall of memory

St. Patrick’s is establishing a Remembrance Wall which will depict family members from among our school community who have passed away.  The Wall will be a prayerful space where we will celebrate the lives of those in our families who have died through pictures and words.  We have encouraged students to bring ideas for the wall, as well as the names and pictures of departed loved ones to our student services department, or to see our Chaplain Mr. Kozak.  Thank you go Mr. Kozak, Ms. Paniccia and Ms. Sweeney for the hard work that went into the creation of our “We Remember” Wall.  

St. Patrick’s School Council Funding Support

A special thank you to the St. Patrick’s School Council who have been financially supporting a number of initiatives over the past few weeks and heading to the end of the year.  Our School Council has purchased a number of Chrome laptops for the classroom, and will be contributing to the purchase of exercise bikes for our new aerobic/weight room that was completed this year.  The Council also provides financial support to our year-end activities including the Grade 8 Closing Ceremonies and our “Stand Up” Award Winners’ trip to the YMCA camp.  We appreciate the Council’s ongoing support of our student and staff initiatives!

Have a great week!

Sean Kelly

Principal

St. Patrick's Blog Week of May 12th 2014

St. Patrick's Blog

Week of May 12th 2014

Catholic Education Week

Thank you to all of our St. Patrick’s Community for supporting our Education Week activities this past week.  I was very proud of our student group as they displayed their talents musically, in dance, in rhythm drumming as well as competing in our board swim meet and showing our board eco-team around the school.  It is encouraging to see our students challenging themselves outside of the regular classroom environment.  

We also celebrated as a staff community at our Ottawa Catholic Education Week Mass this past Tuesday evening.  The celebration was extra special as one of our own - Mr. Patrick McKinnon, received the prestigious Director of Education Commendation (see photo).  Well deserved Mr. McKinnon!

St. Patrick’s Open House

The culmination of our Education week was a fantastic Arts Performance in our newly utilized Theatre.  We had the St. Pat’s band, Stage Band and the Glee Club perform.  Our Dance Team, recently back from the board Dance Showcase, performed a couple of numbers as well as our Boys African Dance group.  It was great to see our students demonstrating their talents in a very warm setting.

Community News - Soap Box Derby

On your mark! Get set! Go! Come and join us at the 8th Annual Orléans Soapbox Derby on Saturday, June 7th , 2014 on Orléans Blvd. in Orléans. The races will begin at 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Spectators are welcome! For more information, please contact Julie at (613) 834-4416 or juliebeauchamp-conde@hotmail.com. Looking forward to seeing you there! Please visit our website at www.orleanssoapbox.com !

Have a great week!

Sean Kelly

Principal

St. Patrick's Blog Week of May 5th 2014 - CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK

St. Patrick's Blog

Week of May 5th 2014

Catholic Education Week

Catholic Education Week takes place from May 5th to 9th in all of our Catholic schools in Ontario.  Our Board theme for this occasion is Serving in the Love of Christ.  This week provides us with an opportunity to open our doors to our community and invite them to share in some of the activities that make St. Patrick’s Intermediate a unique learning environment.  There are a number of things planned for the students and staff at the school this week including our traditional International Lunch and Culture show on Tuesday.  We have some Science classes that are contributing to the Clean up the Capital campaign throughout the week, and our grade 8’s will be making an informative trip to St. Pat’s high school in the journey of preparation for next year.  Our parent/guardian community is welcome to join us for the following activities:  

At St. Patrick’s Intermediate:

Wednesday, May 7th: Province-wide Mass being celebrated at our school with Fr. Greg

Thursday, May 8th:

• 2:30 to 4:30 - classroom based displays and information at the school
• 4:30 to 6:00 - join us outside the cafeteria for a BBQ (proceeds to support school teams)
• 6:00 to 7:15 - join us in the new auditorium adjacent to our school for a dance and music presentation

While we are always proud of our approach at St. Pat’s, this week provides us with an opportunity to share our successes with our community.  Please make a point of joining us for some of these activities!

For a detailed listing of all of the Education Week activities in the Board, please click on the following link:

https://bboard.ocsb.ca/bbcswebdav/institution/OCSB%20Corporate/Board%20Departments/Directorate%20and%20Corporate%20Services/Communications/Webmaster%20Files/Other/Catholic%20Education%20Week/CEW%202014%20Activities.pdf

School Council News:

Our School Council has been busy with a number of projects so far this year.  Currently we are looking at funding support decisions around school activities toward the end of the year.  We traditionally count on the support of School Council for our Grade 8 Closing Ceremony.  Please join us for some relaxed discussion about the activities happening at your son/daughter’s school - we meet this Monday, May 5th at 7:00 in the learning commons (enter at front door).

Quebec City Trip:

A number of our French Immersion students took part in a trip to Quebec City this past week.  Accompanied by our Vice-Principal Ms. Burgoyne, Ms. Baril and Mr. Kennedy, the students explored the culture and language of this unique setting.  Students combined learning activities with some informal time to assist in developing their French Language.  A great time was had by all!

Shamrock Basketball Tournament:

Our boys basketball tournament was held this past Friday and Saturday at the school with a number of local schools taking part.  The St. Patrick’s boys did a great job getting to the finals, however, we were unable to triumph over a very tight Henry Munro team.  While the final score was close, the Shamrock boys came away with Silver Medals.  Congratulations to the boys on a great season.  The boys would like to say thank you to Coach McKinnon for a great run, and special thanks to Mr. Card and his family for organizing the tournament over the weekend.

Adobe Computer Celebration:

Ms. Sweeney brought a number of students to our Adobe Software Celebration of student product this past Friday.  Students were able to see the images and videos produced by students from around the region that promoted specific themes.  Ms. Sweeney indicated that our students spoke very eloquently about their work, and the creative process.

Senior Community Project:

Some of Ms. Sweeney’s classes have been participating in a joint project with 2 different partners.  The students have worked with seniors at the local Billings Lodge to produce a media project that includes videos, as well as a giant art mural that will be shared by the Lodge and St. Patrick’s Intermediate.  Our students have also been sharing their thoughts and ideas regarding working with seniors with a school in Oaxaca Mexico.  A great deal of effort went into the project, and likewise, a great deal of learning came out.  Thank you to the students for their dedication to this activity, and a special thanks to Ms. Sweeney for her continued creative vision.

See the video culmination here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2H8qNaL-BE

Again, please join us for our Catholic Education Week activities at the school this week, and we look forward to sharing stories and pictures from the events shortly.

Have a great week!

Sean Kelly

Principal

St. Patrick's Blog Week of April 22nd 2014

St. Patrick's Blog

Week of April 22nd 2014

Easter Celebration

Our Holy Week observance at St. Patrick’s culminated in a very moving Holy Thursday presentation on the theme of Jesus’s last supper with his disciples.  Students presented each of the dinner participants with thoughts from their own perspective on this very meaningful event.  We witnessed the worry of Jesus, the misguided approach of Judas, and the conflict exhibited by Peter.  A big thank you to the students who gave of their time preparing and presenting, as well as Mr. Kozak and Mr. Leury who put in a great deal of time setting up the presentation.  The event was extra special in that we were able to access the theatre in what we are calling “building 3” that is owned by the Federal Government.  Through a partnership, the custodians of the government buildings have been very accommodating in allowing us to borrow the theatre space as well as the second gym in the area.  The theatre setting provides a very professional setting for our dramatic productions, and we look forward to using it more in the future.  Parents and Guardians will have a chance to see the space during Education Week activities (May 5th to 9th).

Me to We day

A group of approximately 50 students traded the classroom for the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata on April 9th to celebrate the National Me to We Day - a celebration of the charity work that students engage in both locally and internationally at St. Patrick’s School.  Many schools in the greater Ottawa region joined a large group from St. Pat’s to hear a number of guest speakers thank students for their participation, but also to encouarge them to find further challenges where help is needed.  We heard from Martin Luther King III as he encouraged us to take a stand as his father had.  Craig and Marc Kielburger, the co-founders of We Day celebrated the youth movement and challenged us to continue working hard.  We listened to Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan and National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo – National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations who both provided inspirational messages of participation and further work.  Our students left feeling exhausted but further enagaged, and brought back the idea for our “We are Silent” day which we observed on April 16th where students were silent in between classes and at lunch to honour different issues such as poverty, rights of women, etc.  We are proud of the work our students do!

Grad Photos

Grade 8 students brought home information sheets regarding our “graduation” photos that will be taking place this week.  All students will have their picture taken for our grad composite picture - there is no initial fee for students to have their picture taken.  Additional information will be made available for parents/guardians to purchase pictures later in the spring.  Please review the sheet for clothing expectation information for students on the day they will be having their pictures taken.

Grade 8 Trip to St. Brigid’s

On May 28th, 29th and 30th, all grade 8 students will be travelling to St. Brigid’s for our annual school trip.  The format for the St. Brigid’s camp experience has changed somewhat - we are making this activity our year end celebration as a group of grade 8 students.  Information sheets will be going home this week outlining further information for parents/guardians.  The camp is subsidized by the Catholic Education Foundation of Ottawa, which allows us to provide the 3 day experience at a greatly reduced price of $75 per student which includes activities, accommodation and all meals.  If you have further questions about the camp please contact Mr. Walman at the school.

Shamrock Boys’ Basketball team goes to finals

Our St. Pat’s boys played in a hard fought final basketball game on Thursday, April 17th against a tough Notre Dame team.  The boys worked hard against a much bigger Notre Dame group, however, weren’t able to come out on top.  Congratulations on a great season boys, and I know you’ll be back challenging next season!  Special thanks to Coaches McKinnon and Card - great work!

Have a great week;

Sean Kelly