The Patriot Report – December 7th, 2018

I sometimes have the distinct pleasure of observing classrooms. One recent visit to a Kindergarten Daily Physical Activity class in the gym taught by Mrs. Wong brought much joy to my day. The students had formed two lines in the gym and volunteer students were choosing different fitness activities to do as a class. Jumping Jacks and pretend dribbling were some of the chosen activities. One student had initially called out “1000 push ups.” Without realizing the enormity of the challenge, Mrs. Wong wisely negotiated the number down to 10 push ups. Watching the students attempting to do a push up was a sight to behold. But the highlight was the student who requested “29 Dabs.” Suddenly the enthusiasm of the students reached a new height as they began a series of dabs (a dance move) and Mrs. Wong was dabbing right along side them. And to top if off, the next student requested that students do the floss, also a popular dance move, and the laughter and joy of the students and staff increased. It is moments such as these that I come to treasure. 

We are very excited to share with you news of the upcoming Christmas Concert. On Monday, December 17th, St. Jude School will be performing their concert “The Nativity Story.”

Please note that there will be TWO performances on that day. The first performance will be at 2:00 p.m. The evening performance will be at 7:00 p.m. If at all possible, we encourage you and extended family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc) to attend the afternoon performance. The PEC will issue two tickets per family for the evening show so that we do not become overcrowded and in violation of the fire regulations. Tickets will be sent home with the oldest in the family next week. Tickets will be required in order to enter the gym for the evening performance.

Each class is representing a different part of the Nativity Story. Please find listed below the items needed by each grade. If you have any questions, please contact your child’s teacher. We ask that you send your child’s costume to school for our dress rehearsal scheduled for Wednesday, December 12th, 2018.

Yours in Christ,
The Christmas Concert Committee

Kindergarten – all black clothing.
Grade 1 – all white, tan or cream coloured clothing.  Khaki coloured pants is acceptable.
Grade 2 – all black clothing.
Grade 3 – either all black, all brown or all white clothing. Your child has been assigned a specific colour.  Please check your child’s agenda book.
Grade 4 – Sunday best or party clothes.
Grade 5 – Formal concert wear: black top and black bottom. Colourful scarves to be used as sashes – red, green, blue or orange colours.
Grade 6 – Formal concert wear: black top and black bottom
Grade 7 – Formal concert wear: black top and black bottom

St. Jude School is starting to field registration questions from interested new families. In order for us to know how many spots we have available we need to hear from our existing families that have children who will be entering kindergarten. Some families have already contacted Ms. Goh at the office with this information. We ask that if you have a child who will be entering Kindergarten in September 2019, please email Ms. Goh at office@stjude.ca. Please also include the child’s name and date of birth in the email.

St. Jude School is asking for your donations of canned and packaged food. The Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society provides food to more than 30,000 people in need each week. Many of these are women and children. They are especially most grateful for donations made during the Christmas season. Starting next week until Friday, December 21st, please kindly donate food items in the boxes provided at the school’s front entrance under the Christmas tree. (Please send unexpired packaged or canned food only.) Thank you in advance for your generosity.

As an administrator it is my desire to always have school be in session. However, I cannot put students and staff at risk in the event that road conditions become treacherous. Our school is a commuter school in that the majority of our students are driven to the school and our staff comes from various neighbourhoods.  This presents unique conditions for our school that must be considered when discerning  whether to close the school due to weather.
The school will communicate a closure due to weather through the school website and through email using our mailchimp service as well as Remind. Please understand that the decision to close is never an easy decision and numerous factors are taken into consideration. 

We will begin to use the Remind messaging app. The purpose of this messaging service is to quickly and effectively message the community when important information needs to be disseminated right away. Please follow the instructions shown below:

We hope all families and students will bring in items for the food bank. We would love to see these boxes overflowing with food items. Let’s show our local community how generous we are!

While the picture may not do it justice, we are pleased with the installation of our new stage curtains. The staff is especially excited as the previous curtains were damaged. Purchases such as these is only made possible by the fundraising efforts of our school community. Thank you!