The Patrioteer – December 6, 2024

Happy second week of Advent! This week has long been associated with Peace, though that sentiment is hard to find during this oftentimes busy and chaotic season. Peace is needed for all of us during this time. It’s those situations where Peace is a long way off that Jesus can be closer to us than before. Advent is about waiting for that which we lack so we can wait and pray for Peace during this busy time. 

At the school, we hope to help instill some Peace into your children’s lives by including multiple opportunities for prayer and mindfulness activities during the day. Don’t forget to carve some time in your busy day to practice some similar self-care activities! Here’s some helpful tips if you find yourself stressed during this fun, but busy, season: https://huckleberrycare.com/blog/mindfulness-for-parents,

St. Jude, Pray for us!  

Wednesday was our second Advent Assembly as we journey to Christmas. Our delightful Primary students led the school prayerfully in an Advent reflection and taught us about Jesus’ lineage. Thank you to the Primary team for preparing their students to celebrate this special time of year. Our Advent Assemblies are every Wednesday in December, beginning at 11:30am. Parents are welcome to join.

The Grade 2 and Grade 5 classes had a wonderful time ice skating at Trout Lake Ice Rink on Tuesday. Thank you to Mrs. Urquhart, Ms. Ramirez, and Mrs. Chao for facilitating this fun event!

We are very excited to invite the community to our 2024 St. Jude Christmas Concert on December 12. This is always a fun evening of song and fellowship. We will have two shows, one at 1:30pm and one at 7:00 pm. We are requesting that all students arrive back at the school at 6:30 through the front door of the school and to go to their classrooms to prepare for the concert. We also encourage all extended family – grandparents, godparents, aunts, uncles, and loved ones – to attend the 1:30 performance if possible as the evening performance can get quite crowded.

Please see the image below to see what your child should be wearing for his/her performance

We will be collecting monetary donations for our Christmas concert. All proceeds will go towards supporting the food bank. Thank you for your generosity and support.

Be advised that After School Club will end early this day at 5:00 to make sure students and teachers have time to prepare for the evening concert.   

St. Jude’s parish needs students to participate in the St. Jude Christmas Pageant on December 24th!   Your child would be assigned a part (Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, angels, shepherds, 3 kings, etc.) and given a copy of the play so they can learn their lines (1-3 short lines typically).  Costumes will be provided.    Please bring your child at 3pm on the 24th so that they can get into costume and do a practice.  The pageant is approximately 15mins in length, followed  by Mass at 5pm.   Contact Carolyn Sussey at cglsussey@yahoo.com by December 16 to have your child be part of the play and let her know if your child would like a speaking part or not.  As well, if you are interested in shadowing her this year to take on this initiative for next year, please let her know. Thank you!

Check out the website for the current schedule: https://stjude.ca/extracurricular/athletics/basketball/

We are excited to welcome kindergarten sibling registration for children born in 2020, turning 5 in 2025. These children will begin kindergarten in September 2025.  Please pre-register by completing a google form found here:  https://forms.gle/6JxxNYkuWZV2pZGJ9

We are now accepting new applications for the 2025-2026 school year.  If you know of anyone who would like to attend St Jude’s, please have them contact the office or visit our website for an application form.    They can also contact our office to schedule a school tour, led by a couple of our Grade 7 Student Ambassadors.

A reminder to our families that our referral program is operational. 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. 

We will have three days this month that After School Club will end early. 

Dec 12– This is the concert night and teachers need to help set up for the night performance of the Christmas Concert so After School Club will end at 5pm.

Dec 19–This is the Holiday Party night for the Staff. In order for the staff to attend the party, After School Club will end at 4:30pm. 

Dec 20–This is the last day before Christmas Break, so After School Club will end at 5pm. 

Have a great month!  

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

– consultation with 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, 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 Government of BC has not mandated that winter tires must be used on lower mainland roads during the winter season. As such, the risk of car accidents greatly increases in such conditions and commute times become exceptionally long with many arriving very late or not at all, which reduces our ability to properly staff the school.

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 the Remind App first, Facebook, and the school website by 7am at the latest. It is the responsibility of the parents to sign up for Remind, to check our website, or our Facebook feed, when snow is in the forecast.

If the school is closed due to Snow, there will be no clubs, sports, or after school clubs running that day. 

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!

Monday – Saturday: 9 am morning Masses
Novena Mass on Wednesdays: 7:30 pm
Saturday anticipated Mass: 5 pm
Sunday Mass: 9 am, 11 am, 5 pm