June, 2016

St. Cecilia C.S. School News

Principal’s Message

Now, as the summer approaches and the 2015-2016 school year comes

to an end, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of

the whole staff for your ongoing support and commitment to the values

and goals of Catholic Education. Each of us—parents, teachers, support

staff and administration—are called to work together as a community

and each of us has had a vital role to play in building the St. Cecilia

Community to be the best community it can be! Your hard work,

dedication and generous contributions have made our jobs at the school

much easier. You have really made our school a better place. This year

we were able to truly live by our motto of: Learning with Hands, Hearts

and Mind in Harmony! This is clearly due to the partnership we have

forged with the home—together we can really be that spark that ignites

greatness in our children.

Please make a special effort to become involved with our Catholic

School Parent Council (CSPC) during the next school year. A special

thank you to all of those parents who have been actively involved in the

CSPC and the committees needed to make great things happen at the

school. Our volunteers have been so instrumental in making our

initiatives come to fruition. How blessed we are at St. Cecilia to have

such a dedicated parent community!

Finally we welcome all new full Day Kindergarten students and their

parents to our community.

What a pleasure it has been to have served the St. Cecilia’s community

this year and I look forward to many more.

Have a safe and restful summer and may God bless you all!

Nick P. Biagini,

Principal

St. Cecilia

Catholic School

355 Annette Street Toronto, Ontario, M6P 1R3

Phone# (416) 393-5218

Fax # (416) 397-6045

Principal: Nick Biagini Vice-Principal: Victoria Purri Superintendent: John Shanahan (416) 222-8282 x 5371 Trustee: Barb Poplowski (416) 512-3410

Parish: St. Cecilia C.S. 161 Annette St. (416) 769-8163 CSPC Chairs: Marisa Cicero

Olga Geryluk

CPIC (Parent Engagement--TCDSB) www.tcdsb.org/cpic OAPCE Toronto (Provincial Voice for Parents) www.tcdsb.org/oapce-toronto Enrollment: 654 Hours of Operation: 8:30am -3:00pm Lunch Hour: 11:15am -12:15pm _______________________________

NEW REGISTRANTS WELCOME: Call 416-393-5218 or the TCDSB Admissions Department at

416-222-8282, ext. 2383.

For general information about the Toronto Catholic District

School Board, please visit the website at www.tcdsb.org.

Stay in touch with the latest news throughout the school year:

Follow @TCDSB on Twitter

School Hours 8:30 a.m. Morning Entry

9:55 – 10:10 Morning Recess

11:15 -12:15 Lunch 1:25 - 1:40 Afternoon Recess

3:00 p.m. Dismissal

School Masses & Celebrations

2015-16

Monday, June 27 Graduation Mass

Tuesday, June 28 Mass: End of Year

Virtue of the Month: Faithfulness

St. Cecilia Catholic Church Annual Strawberry Festival

Sunday, June 26: 9:00 am to 2:00 pm

-raffle

-delicious homemade strawberry desserts

-BBQ

-jams

Rosary Celebration

I am the secret Fire in everything, And everything smells like Me. The living breathe in my sweet perfume And they breathe out praise of Me. They never die Because I am their Life. I flame out Intense Godly life Over the shining fields of corn. I glow in the shimmer of the fire’s embers. I burn in the sun and the mood and the stars. My secret life breathes in the wind And holds all things together soulfully. This is God’s voice.

-Mary Malone

My Madonna Artist: Nick Biagini

Sign up sheets for...

Strawberry picking (June 25th)

Bake sale donations

General assistance

...can be found at the back of the

church! Please sign up and help us have a successful event!

St. Cecilia Parent Advisory

Committee (CSPC) Another year in the books!

We wanted to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of our amazing

families for your contributions this year. Your financial support has

funded so many 'extras' and the countless volunteer hours so many of you

have selflessly logged throughout the year brought even more initiatives to

life.

Special thanks goes to all of the parent council Committee Chairs and

members for all of their time and hard work all year!

Here are some highlights of this year’s parent council accomplishments:

Amazingly well attended Welcome Back BBQ in September

(despite the downpour)

Hosted fun Fall Festival in October to celebrate the “Year of the

Family” with pumpkin decorating, family pics, hot chocolate & a

costume parade

Santa pictures – 40% of funds raised were donated to Project

Hope and SickKids Foundation

New, totally online pizza order system, Munchalunch, was

launched by our parent Pizza Lunch Program Chair, Tara Ritchie,

in September and Booster Juice was added as a menu option.

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive! We have also been

able to use the online ordering/payment platform for many other

programs & initiatives (including the Activity Fee).

In addition to our Facebook page, our parent Communications

Committee launched a St Cecilia Parent Community blog to

further share information and resources with parents: http://stceciliaparentcouncil.weebly.com/

Kleen Kanteen – St Cecilia water bottle sales campaign organized

by CSPC Green Committee and school Eco-club to raise funds in

support of school “green” initiatives

Funded stationary bicycles for the classrooms

Funded student supplies for the spring art show

Funded Chromebooks for classroom use

Provided & served hot chocolate at Carnival celebration in

February

Parent Green Committee planned and executed an amazing

landscaping project for the school’s front gardens

exciting Fun Fair planned for June 9th

**All of the fundraising this year enabled us to financially support:

bussing for field trips; special science programs for all grades; special art

programs for all grades; school sports teams; music programs; anti-bullying

presentations; grade 8 Graduation, Gr 7 & 8 Confirmation lunches; First

Communion lunch; school birthday boxThank you to the staff for

supporting our children both in and outside of the classroom and for

supporting the work of CSPC.

By far one of the best bits of this role is seeing the adage 'it takes a village

to raise a child' enlivened!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy summer. See you at Fun Fair on the

9th and then in September!

Olga and Marisa

CSPC Chairs

St. Cecilia’s Achieves GOLD

Ophea’s Healthy Schools (HS) Certification recognizes and celebrates school communities for promoting and enhancing the health and well-being of students, school staff and the broader

community. For the 2015-2016 year, St. Cecilia continued to work collaboratively with staff, parents, students, and community partners to achieve GOLD level Certification.

We achieved this prestigious status by continuing with many activities (Eco-Club, chess club, sport teams, choir, etc.) and adding additional activities that continue to promote physical and mental health well-being like whole school DPA, Running Club, Young Gems, Cheer Tigers, Art Club, Ukulele Club, relationship building workshops with grade 7 students led by Toronto Public Health Nurses, and many more. Please look out for our banner that will arrive shortly. For additional information about this program, please visit: https://www.ophea.net/healthy-schools-certification.

Together everyone achieves more! Thank you all!

Photo Credit: Mr. Caverhill

up”)

SPORTS CORNER

.

On May 18 the grade 5 and 7 students welcomed Voyageur Jay who shared his knowledge and expertise on the Voyageur way of life. With interactive activities, our students were able to experience what it was like to be a voyageur. Kudos to those students who dressed up for the occasion. The 2 best dressed voyageurs were Thomas F. and Allyana C. We really like the beards guys!!! Enjoy your pea soup and pork jerky!

Voyageur Errant

St. Cecilia received a visit from Joel Dembe who is a Canadian Wheelchair Tennis Athlete. Joel has travelled the world and represented Canada in a number of national and international events. He is a Canadian National Wheelchair Tennis Champion and has also competed at the London 2012 Paralympic Games! Joel met with students to share a little bit about his life and what it's like to be a wheelchair athlete. He discussed some of the challenges that he has had to overcome, and engaged students in a conversation about the power of sport! Thanks for a great visit, Joel!

Paralympian Athlete Visits St. Cecilia’s

Œ

The Square Metre Challenge!

Hello parents and caregivers!

With the summer fast approaching some of you might be

wondering about activities you can do with your child which will

help them retain their learning. Here’s a simple one that the

members of St. Cecilia’s math club; “The Math Pros” did to better

understand measurement. All you’ll need are the following things:

1. Side walk chalk

2. Items (approximately the same size if possible)

3. A metre stick or measuring tape

Next you and your child will need to draw a square metre on the

ground. Once this is done, see how many items can fit into a

square metre. (The Math Pros were able to fit twelve grade ones,

twos, and one teacher inside one of their square metre).

This activity is useful to help remind primary children of area, and

capacity. A follow up activity is to have your child estimate the

area in square metres of a park, soccer field, back yard etc. Feel

free to post some of your pictures onto the school Twitter account,

so we can all see what you could fit into a square metre.

Have a great summer and keep practising those times tables!

The Math Pros

Guidance Corner Grade 8 Students

As the graduates prepare for their next big step to secondary

school, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Summer School: If you were not offered the Transition Course at

your high school and would like other opportunities to reach

ahead or to help you prepare for that big transition, visit the

Continuing Education website for further opportunities. Just

follow this link:

https://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/ContinuingEducation/a

ages/Default.aspx

Or go to www.tcdsb.org and go to “Programs and Services” =>

“Continuing Education” for more information.

Community Involvement: As you all know, you are required to

earn 40 hours of community involvement. For a clear description

of guidelines, suggestions and forms, please visit the following

link:

https://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/SchoolProgramsK12/G

uidanceCoopEd/Communityservice40hours/Pages/default.aspx

Or go to www.tcdsb.org and go to “Programs and Services” =>

“School Programs K-12” => “Guidance and Career Education”

=> “Transition to High School” => and “Community Service”.

Individual Pathways Plan: Continue to develop Individual

Pathways Plans. Just remember the site is

www.myblueprint.ca/tcdsb and follow the link to Log In With

School Account. You will need your TCDSB log in information

to do so from home.

Junior Division Students Ask your child to take you to their All About Me portfolio on

www.myBlueprint.ca/tcdsb. You child simply needs to know

their TCDSB log in information.

Have a wonderful and safe summer!

Mr. F. Amato

Entrepreneurial Adventures: BMO Showcase

TCDSB Monthly Update

June, 2016

Job Action by Elementary Teachers Elementary teachers initiated a Work to Rule on May 17th. Stay up

to date on any news and information relating to the job action and

status of negotiations here:

https://www.tcdsb.org/FORPARENTS/News/Pages/Elementary-

Teachers-Job-Action.aspx

Changes to Health and Physical Education

Curriculum Resources and information can be found on the website here:

https://www.tcdsb.org/programsservices/schoolprogramsk12/health

outdoorphysed/pages/ontario-health-and-physed-curriculum.aspx

Summer School Registration Continues Course options and registration info for secondary school students:

https://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/ContinuingEducati

on/SecondaryCreditCourses/SummerSchool/Pages/Default.a

spx

Information about Reach Ahead Credits and Summer

Enrichment Camps for elementary students:

https://www.tcdsb.org/ProgramsServices/ContinuingEducati

on/SecondaryCreditCourses/SummerSchool/elementaryss/Pa

ges/default.aspx

Introducing the Year of the Parish Plans are already underway for the celebration of the Year of

the Parish, the second year of our three year pastoral plan

focusing on Family, Parish and School (Together With One

Voice). Schools and parishes are encouraged to explore their

collective vision for how they can work more closely

together during the Year of Parish and beyond, to nurture the

relationships that already exist, and work towards making all

our schools and parishes feel more connected in the mission

of Catholic education. Find all the information and resources

for the Year of the Parish here: https://www.tcdsb.org/Board/NurturingOurCatholicCommunity/Ye

aroftheParish/Pages/default.aspx

2016 Canada day Celebrations This year’s Canada Day celebrations will take place June

29th, 2016. Schools and offices across the Board are invited

to participate in the Canada Day Spirit Day and show our

Canadian pride by wearing the Canadian flag colours red

and white. Schools and offices are invited to sing

O’ Canada together at 9:30 a.m. For more information, visit

www.tcdsb.org/canadaday

Canada Day Family Photo Contest Coming

Soon Check here for details www.tcdsb.org/canadaday.

Staff Arts Presents Mary Poppins June 11-18,

2016

https://www.tcdsb.org/affiliates/StaffArts/PastSeasons/2015

2016/Pages/Musical.aspx

June is… Aboriginal Heritage Month

https://www.tcdsb.org/FORCOMMUNITY/Heritag

eCelebration/AboriginalCanadianHeritage/Pages/de

fault.aspx

Italian Heritage Month

https://www.tcdsb.org/FORCOMMUNITY/Heritag

eCelebration/ItalianCanadianHeritage/Pages/default

.aspx

Portuguese Heritage Month

https://www.tcdsb.org/FORCOMMUNITY/Heritag

eCelebration/PortugueseCanadianHeritage/Pages/d

efault.aspx

Reminders: June 30th is a PA day for all elementary schools. Last day of

classes is June 29th.

June 28th to 30th are PA days for most secondary schools.

When in doubt, check with your local school for details.

Scholarships, Bursaries, Awards and Contests Information for students:

https://www.tcdsb.org/FORSTUDENTS/AwardsScholarship

sBursariesContests/Pages/default.aspx

Summer Volunteer Opportunities for Students Earn community service hours this summer with Parks

Canada by helping out at a number of events throughout the

summer. The events take place between mid-June and

Labour Day weekend. Here is a list of the dates and

locations where the Urban Outreach division of Parks

Canada will be hosting events and looking for student

support:

June 18-19 – International Dragon Boat Festival

June 24-26 – Pickering Jam Fest

July 1-3 – Redpath Waterfront Festival

July 15-17 – Franco Fête at Yonge-Dundas Square

July 22-24 – Beaches Jazz Festival

August 19 - September 5 – Canadian National

Exhibition (CNE)

How to register as a volunteer--Contact Daneel Cha-Blake

daneel.cha-blake@pc.gc.ca or volunteer.benevolat@pc.gc.ca

Get all the latest news and information: Visit the Board’s website www.tcdsb.org

Subscribe to ENews to receive updates via email

every week

https://web1.tcdsb.org/InterestSubscription/subscrip

tion.aspx

Or Follow @TCDSB on twitter to get updates

throughout the day