The Patriot Report – December 2, 2022

“Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.” – Luke 6:38

With the start of December our school has a new Virtue of the Month: Generosity. It is an appropriate virtue to focus our energies on during the Advent season in anticipation of Christmas. 

At our school assembly, we spoke about the importance of being generous with our time, talent, and treasure. While many tend to focus on material generosity, it is also important that we practice generosity with our actions towards others. Be generous in your words towards others. Be generous in your kindness towards strangers. Be generous in your home by helping one another. 

As a school we are going to be highlighting some of our acts of generosity for this month. Our Gr. 6 and 7 students are making toques for Covenant House. We will also be collecting socks this year for homeless shelters. And we will be donating funds that we collected at the start of the school year to charity. 

At home, talk with your child about the importance of generosity. Help them see what they can do at home to practice being generous. Model it for them and in turn they will model it for others. 

Members of the Gr. 7 Boys Volleyball Team competed at the CISVA Elementary School Volleyball Championships. The boys battled hard and represented our school well. We should all be very proud of their efforts. 

This week, the primary teachers and their students led our school in our second Advent assembly.  The second advent candle represents faith. Faith requires  belief to let go and trust in God. Let our prayer be to always place our trust in the ways of the Lord. 

We are practicing generosity this month from our heads (Grade 6 toque making) to our feet with a sock drive! 

Please bring your new, unused socks to the school from December 5-15. They will be donated to a local shelter. 

This year we are dreaming of a tropical Christmas for our Christmas Concert, “Away in a Mango.” We would like students to come to school on the 13th with summer/vacation/tropical wear. Break out your bright colours and fun patterns. Don’t forget to wear a warm jacket overtop and pants are recommended since it will be chilly. Beach hats, sunglasses, flip flops, etc. are encouraged! (You can leave these accessories at school and change into them right before the performance.) We’re bringing a bit of summertime fun to this chilly and drab winter. 

Looking forward to seeing everyone! 

~Mrs. de Sousa and Ms. Smillie

The Christmas Concert will have two showings on December 13, 2022. 

Matinee Performance

Doors open at 1:30pm with show starting at 1:45pm

Evening Performance

Doors open at 6:00pm with show starting at 6:30pm

**We will be holding a canned food drive for our local food shelters, please bring canned/dry food as an entrance fee.**

*Due to limited seating capacity, we are recommending that external family members such as grandparents, aunts and uncles, consider coming to the Matinee Performance. Outside doors will not open before the time indicated above. 

There will be no After School Club operating on December 15 & 16, 2022. Please make the necessary arrangements for your child.

The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing aloud for all to hear!

On Wednesday, Grades 2 and 3 performed Christmas favourites at the Renfrew Community Centre Seniors’ Luncheon to a room of happy and enthusiastic seniors. Thank you Miss Handy, Mrs. Abela, Miss Smillie and parent volunteers for helping our students bring their joy out to the community!

The Gr. 7 class is doing a Krispy Kreme fundraiser.  Please click here to order.  

Deadline:  Wed, Dec 7

Pick up:  Fri, Dec 16

Cost: $12 / box of 12. 

We are now accepting new applications for the 2023-24 school year.  Please get an application form from here or email the school office for one.  

A big thank you to the St. Jude Parent Community. We had severe winter weather Tuesday night which delayed our snow removal company on Wednesday morning. Thankfully we had helpful and cheerful parents working alongside our teachers to remove the snow (some even bringing their own personal snow shovels!). The spirit of service and generosity embodied in our parent community is really special and one of the biggest strengths of St. Jude School. 

With more winter in the forecast the school has one request: PLEASE DRESS YOUR CHILDREN FOR THE WEATHER! Snow boots, hats, mittens, warm jackets, and scarves are all recommended for our outdoor recesses. Help us keep them warm, dry, and attentive in class. 

Inclement Weather Decision Making Process

The decision making process for closing the school due to snow includes:

• assessment of sidewalks & stairways
• assessment of parking lots
• assessment of staff driving routes
• assessment of general driving conditions
• assessment of weather, current & projections
• consultation with neighbouring schools and principals – especially Notre Dame Secondary School
• consultation with PEC and staff that live in the area
• prayer

Some of the factors which make St. Jude School unique when considering these decisions include the following:

• we’re not a neighbourhood school, but nearly exclusively a commuter school
  students travel from different parts of Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, and Richmond
• staff travel from Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, North Van, Coquitlam, and Maple Ridge
• we live in a region that does not get much snow and many drivers are ill prepared (no snow tires) to drive in snow yet do so anyway
  the risk of car accidents greatly increases in such conditions and commute times become exceptionally long with many arriving very late.

Other factors all schools must consider:

• are we able to provide a quality learning experience if we have 1/3 or 1/2 of our students in the building?
• if some teachers aren’t able to make it to school, do we have the support from our Teacher On Call pool to handle the sudden demand?
  are we able to provide adequate supervision if staff cannot make it to work?
• can we confidently say that we made the best decision to open if an injury or fatality occurs?

When the school is closed due to inclement weather, communication will be through Facebook and Twitter first, then the school website by 7am at the latest. Lastly an email will be sent out through mailchimp. It is the responsibility of the parents to check our Facebook or Twitter feed, the website and their email when snow is in the forecast.

In difficult weather, our hope is to open our schools as soon as it is possible while considering all educational and safety perspectives. We thank you for your prayers and support!

Our Gr. 7 Student Ambassadors will be available to provide tours of our school to prospective families. If you know of someone who might be interested in attending St. Jude School, I encourage you to tell them to sign up for a tour. Any interested family can email registrar@stjude.ca to schedule a tour. 

St. Jude Parish is looking for 10-12 children to participate in the performance of a Christmas Nativity scene prior to the Christmas Eve mass at 6pm on December 24. Please email cglsussey@yahoo.com if you are interested. There are many different roles and speaking parts are typically 1-3 short lines. Costumes are provided. On December 24, the participating children will gather at 4pm at St. Jude Parish to get into costume and do a short rehearsal. The play is only about 15 minutes in length. This is a great way to be involved with parish at this time of year.  

Please subscribe to our school calendar for a list of important dates. 

To subscribe to our calendar feed copy the link below and paste it into your calendar app:
https://stjude.ca/events/?ical=1&tribe_display=month

This past year we handed out $1200 in rewards to parents that referred students to our school. Every student that is referred and enrolls in our school for the year results in a reward of $200 for the the referring family. 

To learn more about the referral program, please click here.