Catholic S. S.
| Mary Ward Catholic S. S. |
V A R I A |
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Volume 25--Issue 1 |
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Happy Week 2 and thanks to all for a wonderful beginning to the new school year. It is hard to believe we have only completed our first week of school as so much has happened already and everyone is excited and eager to grow and learn together in true Mary Ward spirit.
Along with welcoming Violet and Derek, we greeted our newest members to the Ward community on August 31 with a New Staff Orientation. Thanks to Kathy Saran, Paulette and Josie for the assistance you provided in making our new staff feel welcomed. If you have not had an opportunity to introduce yourself to the new staff, please make a point of doing so. Tawnee Collymore, who is filling in for Lisa Bailey, can be found in Family Studies; Anne Marie Davies, Christa Hall and Patrick McAlpine can be found in the English department; Sal Furnari can be found in Special Education; Mark Morra in Religion and Pamela Spearns in either the Religion or Canada & World Studies departments. We also extend a big welcome back to Keith Harrison who is in a supply EA position in the Fitness and Construction areas until Matt Spadafora’s IA vacancy is advertised by the Board. I say welcome back because Keith is a Mary Ward grad and very familiar with our school environment.
On September 1, we hosted our Grade 9 Student and Parent Orientation. The event was well attended and we received much praise and thanks for delivering such a comprehensive overview of what it means to be a student and parent at Mary Ward. Thanks to Kara and her staff and student team who did a great job organizing this afternoon.
Although our summer holidays were cut short with the September 2 and 3rd P.A. Days, we all pulled together and made the most of the two days. A special thanks to Mary Lou and Peter who did a great job preparing us for our Faith Day at Annunciation, our social committee who organized the delicious lunch on Sept. 3 and Maureen Collie for connecting us with Todd Cunningham who helped expand our repertoire of tools to assist with student success.
Our appreciation is also extended to the Secretarial staff, Custodial staff and our good friends in Student Services who ensured our opening day packages were prepared, our work areas were clean and our schedules were finalized. Thanks also to JP DeRose and the ladies in the cafeteria for treating us to a delicious lunch last Tuesday.
We heard many positive comments from the WARD activities that occurred in Extended TA on Thursday and Friday. Thank you to Jen Hayes who did a superb job of preparing us for the delivery and follow-up to LASSI. I am sure further individualized discussion will occur when you have the opportunity to chat with your advisees during TA interviews.
Thanks to John Notten for getting the ball rolling for our Adopt-a-Hall initiative. Department Heads are asked to record their “adopted” hall on the chart posted on the mailroom door. A reminder that daily signs need to identify the accurate schedule at all times and we need your extra vigilance in your adopted area to ensure students “walk with a purpose” and show respect for our building by cleaning up after themselves.
A group of senior students had the opportunity to hear Mr. Preston Manning last Thursday when he was hosted by the Empire Club. Thanks to Cathy Schwan for facilitating this visit on such short notice (Violet received the invite for our school at 5 p.m. on Wednesday!!).
We continue with our Schedule A and B days this week, with the exception of Wednesday, hoping to have all students complete Unit 1 by the Sept. 18 target date. The plan is that this will set students on a good pace to meet future target dates.
I owe a huge thanks to Santo Visconti who gave of his time to assist me in learning how to post Varia on the website and for updating the Teacher and Student Seminar Schedule to reflect the changes in daily schedules. The appropriate week number and day will need to be entered but the remainder of the information is identical to last year’s template. Please ensure all seminar entries are input by 6 p.m. Thursday.
On Monday, we invite all new staff to join the administration team for lunch in the Office Conference Room. After school, Nicole Powell will lead a Webmarks in-service in the computer lab. The in-service will be geared for new staff but anyone needing a refresher is most welcomed. All Fall Coaches will be attending a 7 p.m. mandatory meeting at Msgr. Percy Johnson. Please refer to Fred Dever’s “DOA” emails for further info.
All teaching staff interested in being on the LSSAC Committee are asked to inform Patricia by Tuesday.
Wednesday is our first Community Day to facilitate OASIS Leader Training and to give our grade nines the opportunity to meet with their OASIS leaders. We will follow a Schedule II allowing for an extended TA. Please assist your grade nine students in planning their day. Kara, Dana and Mary Louise will accompany all our OASIS Leaders to Camp Robin Hood to prepare for next week’s Gr. 9 OASIS events. Upon their return, we will call upon the Grade 9 students to meet with their OASIS leaders from 1:50 until 2:50. Your support and co-operation with these important events is most appreciated as we aim to set a positive tone with the Gr. 9 students. What better way to encourage our Gr. 9 students to get involved than allowing them to meet with our student leaders! There will be a meeting for all staff involved in OASIS Friday at lunch.
Our first Department Head Meeting will also take place on Wednesday September 16th at 2 p.m. in the Library Conference Room. Please email agenda items to Patricia.
Derek is out at a Trillium training session on Monday, September 14 and Patricia is at an Area 9 Principal Meeting on Tuesday, September 15 and a Secondary School Principal meeting on Wednesday, September 16.
Before signing off, I would like to ask all TAs to read Kathy Saran’s email outlining the Mary Ward 101 after school sessions. Kathy and Patrick have agreed to offer these sessions to assist Grade 9 students in getting accustomed to the Mary Ward system. Thank you Kathy and Patrick! A more in-depth course was piloted at summer school by Karen Heisz, Marissa Largo, Sal Valvo, Patrick and Kathy and was well-received with over half of our incoming grade nine students enrolled. These sessions are open to all grade nine students but we are especially targeting those students that were unable to attend the summer school course.
Thank you for all you continue to do in order to make Mary Ward the wonderful community it is. Have a great week!
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| This Week At Ward (Week 2) | |||
