The Patriot Report – March 10, 2023

“The interesting thing about coaching is that you have to trouble the comfortable, and comfort the troubled.”
– Ric Charlesworth

I have always viewed Jesus as the coach par excellence. The aim of a coach is to get his or her team to perform to the best of their ability. If we look at the Gospel stories we can see that Jesus does trouble those who are comfortable and he brings comfort to the marginalized, to the outcast, to the sinner, and to those afflicted with pain. 

The Gospel story of the rich young man entering heaven is a great of example of Jesus making those who are comfortable troubled. In this passage, a young rich man approaches Jesus to ask what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the commandments and the young man presses him further by asking which ones. Jesus in turn lists the main commandments ending with the command to love others. The young man again presses him further stating that he has observed those commandments but wants to know what else he must do. At this point, Jesus tells him to sell everything, give it to the poor, and follow him. We are told, “When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions” (Mt 19.22). Jesus troubled the comfortable with his teaching here. 

But in another instance we see that Jesus goes out of his way to have dinner with sinners and tax collectors. To many in the time of Jesus this was unacceptable. The Pharisees ask his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Mt 9.11) because they found his actions to be counter to what was expected. However, Jesus responds to the Pharisees by explaining, “Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of these words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9.12-13). Here Jesus is making the troubled comfortable. 

Over the remaining time in Lent, let us turn to Jesus and invite him to be our coach. In listening to his teaching we will be better off. 

At the start of the school year the Provincial government announced that there would special grant given to schools under the Student and Family Affordability Fund (SFAF). In total, 60 million went to the public sector and $3.8 million came to the Federation of Independent School Associations (FISA) to support families struggling with increasing costs and that access education through independent school authorities. CISVA, our school authority, received funds and distributed them to the schools. 

Our school is now in the position to be able to distribute these funds. There are restrictions however to what the funds can be spent on and the most notable restriction is that it cannot be used as tuition credit. 

We understand that the rise of inflation has impacted all families. However, we also know that most of our families are financially secure and are able to weather such times. However, we do have families that are making tremendous sacrifices to be able to send their children to a Catholic school and we are able to use the SFAF to offer some support.

If your family is need of assistance please contact the school principal at cvanderpauw@stjude.ca by March 31, 2023. Please be assured that confidentiality will be maintained.   

Thank you to all our parent volunteers who helped supervise students in making the field trip a success. This was the first time in a long time that we have done a school wide field trip. Based on the feedback from students, we will look to do this again next year. There were some logistical lessons learned, so I am confident that next year’s experience will be even better.  

I am excited to launch Chess Club after Spring Break. Students can prepare for Chess Club by watching this video:

Everything You Need to Know About Chess

Students can also start practicing by playing games against computers at easier levels through Chess.com

Please be mindful of the following criteria for our Chess Club:

Rankings help us to ensure that students play against players of similar ability levels. Chess Club at St. Jude School exists to promote social experiences for students and to encourage important life skills such as: thinking before acting, learning from mistakes, accepting loses with grace, accepting victories with grace, strategizing, visualizing, and analyzing. Sportsmanship is expected at all times.

Chess Club Ranked Matches – each player will start at 500 points. We use our own internal rankings point system. 
+20 for a victory over player of equal or greater ranking
+10 for a victory over player of lower ranking
+5 for a loss to a player of greater ranking
0 for a loss to a player of lesser ranking
+5 to defender for a forced stalemate – 0 for the player put into a forced stalemate
0 for a draw with a player of equal or lesser ranking
+5 for a draw with a player of greater ranking

Chess Club Friendlies
These matches exist for beginners and there will be no points awarded or lost. Timers are optional and based on availability. Rated matches get priority for timers.

Chess Club Ranked Matches Requirements
1. Know how to correctly set up a board.
2. Know how each piece moves and how each piece can capture.
3. Know how to castle and the rules around castling.
4. Know and be able to recognize a checkmate.
5. Be prepared to play with a Timer.
6. You touch it you move it rule.

Miss 3 In a Row
Any players that fails to show up to Chess Club for 3 consecutive times will be removed from Chess Club.

Follow this link to complete your hot lunch orders in support of Gr. 7 fundraising. 

http://bit.ly/3YGZhFu

Follow the link to get your Samosa orders in. Order by March 24, 2023. 

http://bit.ly/3xCq76t

Just a reminder that there will be no newsletter over Spring Break. May all families have a restful Spring Break!

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. 

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.