Monthly Archives: November 2023

Hello St. Margaret Parents / Guardians,

Nutrition for Learning is available to ALL students every day at St. Margaret!

Nutrition for Learning has partnered up with Produce Express and they have together created an amazing fundraising opportunity!

Produce express is a local organization who provides fresh food right to your door

Here is how it works:

Go to https://www.fresherproduce.ca

Once you are finished shopping, use promo code “N4L1123” when you are ready to checkout

5% of each purchase will go back to our Nutrition for Learning program where we will be able to continue purchasing all the wholesome food that is available to all students each day.

Please note that this fundraising opportunity is only available to Cambridge residents as produce express does not yet deliver outside of Cambridge.

All support is appreciated!

If anyone has any questions or needs support with purchasing, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Burns at ryan.burns@wcdsb.ca

Thank you Scotties!!

St. Margaret Families. The links below share supervision on our schoolyard, communication protocols, student expectations etc.

These are reviewed in class regularly and included in our daily announcements!

Snow Safety Plan Highlighting Safety, Student Behaviour and Communication St. Margaret Nov 21 2023

Snow Safety Plan

St. Margaret Families:

Bully Awareness and Prevention Week is November 20 -24^th, 2023

The focus for the WCDSB Pastoral Plan is to be ‘STRENGTHENED’ to bring Awareness and Healing to Anti-Bullying Efforts.

As a Catholic School this week we will:

-review and model the messages shared by our SAIDAT guest speaker

-participate in classroom activities and discussions to understand what Bullying is and is not

-celebrate student progress though Progress Reports sent home November 20^th

-meet parents and talk about goals for improvement in the classroom and socially on Thursday November 23^rd

-highlight our monthly theme of ‘Communication’ and Grandfather Teaching of ‘Humility’

-Highlight Safety, Student Behaviour and Communication for St. Margaret students and staff and share with families on Newswire

Progress Reports

Today a letter will be sent with each student reviewing the Progress Report Conferences process. My apology for the short turnaround time.

Progress Reports are sent home Monday November 20^th. Conferences for students/parents/teachers are held on Thursday November 23^rd.

Please complete one Conference letter for each family ONLY and return it to the school by this Friday November 17^th. If you are unable to meet on November 23^rd, a phone call or rescheduled time to meet would be appreciated.

A confirmation of meeting time (s) will be sent home with the Progress Report Monday November 20^th.

If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to the classroom teacher, or call the office.

Mr. Schnarr

Parents/Guardians,

Starting for the month of November,  new vendors have been added including Domino’s Pizza. Tuesday Pizza days will be alternating between Gino’s and Dominos. If you have not purchased pizza for Dominos, please go into the lunchbox orders and check that you have purchased for those specific dates.

If you haven’t signed up for D2L please do! It is a communication tool between the Teacher and Parent as to what is going on in the classroom. Here is a link for a helpful video to help you navigate creating an account and its features.

https://youtu.be/exbOrU6vnCc

November 2023 News at-a-glance

Please continue to watch for Newswire Reminders from the Office or D2L messages in classrooms!

A

Athletics: Boys’ Volleyball tryouts for grades 7 and 8 are happening now.

B

Bully Awareness and Prevention Week is Nov. 20^th-24^th. Stay tuned for more information.

St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School Grade 8 Parent and Student Night is December 7^th from 6-7:30 p.m.

C

Catholic School Council met Monday November 6^th. Welcome Mrs. Bogias as our NEW Chair, Mrs. Pendergast and Mrs. Brochu as Assistants to the Chair, and Mrs. Sullivan Names-Petra as our Secretary.

We still require a Treasurer. Please contact the Office if you are interested. Meeting dates are the first Wednesday of each month. Our next meeting is December 6^th

D

Dogs on the yard after hours. Please ‘scoop when your dog poops’ so students aren’t stepping in it!

F

Our Forest is off-limits and ‘out of bounds’ for staff and students for safety reasons.

Fire Drills were completed, and students evacuate in a very safe and timely manner!

Faith:

-Our Feast Day mass is November 16^th at the church. All students will be bussed to St. Patrick Church for 10:00 a.m.

-Grade 4 Bible Celebration is November 14^th at 9:15 a.m. in the Learning Commons.

-Christmas Program from St. Vincent DePaul is running again. Families living within the parish boundaries can request Christmas assistance by leaving a message on their voice mail at 519-623-0173 from Nov 1 to Nov 30. A volunteer will return the call and collect the required information. Families will receive a grocery store voucher and Walmart gift cards for children under 18.

G

Grade 8 students are selling Poinsettias to raise money for their Mount Mary Trip. (They have already had the retreat and are now covering the costs due to the early date).

Guest Speaker Saidat presenting on November 15^th Grades JK-3 form 9-10 a.m. / Grades 4-8 from 10:30 -11:30 a.m.

H

Hot lunches are organized by our Catholic School Council. New vendors are being added, so keep watching for changes. Orders are found on SchoolCash online. Orders need to be in the previous Sunday by 12:00 p.m.

I

Inclement Weather protocol: A bell will ring at 8:35 p.m. when our supervision starts. Students will enter at the gym ramp and stay in the gym, supervised until the bell rings at 8:50 a.m.

Indigenous Veteran Day was November 8^th. Flags were flown at half-mast.

M

Monthly Themes and Student Recognition has begun. For November we focus on them of COMMUNICATION and the Grandfather Teachings theme of Humility.

N

Nutrition for Learning is available to all our students every day!

P

Pegasus Picture retake day Wednesday November 1^st.

Parking Lot Safety! Our parking lot is ONLY for staff, approved transportation vehicles and parents contacting the Office for a specific need. PLEASE find drop off and parking areas safely in the community!

PD / Faith Day for WCDSB staff is Monday November 13^th– No School for students! Note the correction from our Student Agendas.

Progress Reports will be sent home Monday November 20^th Parent/Student/ Teacher Conferences will be scheduled for November 23^rd after school. Watch for the schedule forms to be sent home soon.

R

Remembrance Week: Wed. Nov. 8^th we welcomed Winslow Taylor from the Canadian Armed Forces to talk to our grade 4to 7 students about the importance of Remembrance Day and Veterans week.

School Remembrance Day Celebration is November 1oth beginning at 10:30 a.m. Please wear RED and Black. Poppies will be distributed. Please consider a small donation for the Galt Legion and Poppy Fund.

S

Student Leadership Team consists of 25 grade 7 and 8 students. Regular activities are planned for the school community.

T

Trips with families are common. Please contact the school Office if the student (s) will be away for any period. Please continue to contact the classroom teacher for absences and copy the office to ensure safety.

Tiny Homes ‘Sheltering Hearts; A Home for Everyone’. We encourage St. Margaret Families to consider donating. This will replace our fundraiser for Monica’s House done in the past.

V

Volunteers will be welcomed back into the school this year. Stay tuned for the opportunities we offer! All volunteers (classroom, drivers, trips etc.) will need a Vulnerable Sector Criminal Record Check. Call the Office for the ‘paperwork’ and procedure to follow.

Mr. J. Schnarr

Principal

Monday November 13th is our WCDSB Faith Day – NO School for students

This is a correction from our student agenda that stated November 14th was the PD Day. Students return to school November 14th.

From November 1, 2023 – November 30, 2023, all schools within the Waterloo Catholic District
are invited to raise funds to help battle homelessness in the region, as part of our Sheltering
Hearts: A Home for Everyone fundraiser. Tiny homes have been placed on each of our
secondary school properties, giving students the opportunity to visualize the cause that they are
raising money for.
Proceeds from the fundraiser will go directly to A Better Tent City (Kitchener-Waterloo) and The
Bridges (Cambridge). Donations are made easy through a QR code, which will be placed
directly on the tiny homes. The poster (in the link below) will also feature the QR code.
Those interested in donating will scan the QR code and be taken directly to SchoolCash Online, here
they can select which of the two organizations they wish to donate to and can request a tax
receipt for donations over $50.00.
Aside from working to provide shelter for underhoused members of our communities, these
fundraising efforts will also align with our Catholic Social Teachings, which speak to charitable
giving and help foster a society that reflects the principles of justice, compassion, and love for
all, particularly the least fortunate among us.
Sheltering-Hearts-Tiny-Home-Fundraiser

We are please to have our first formal Catholic School Council meeting tonight at 6:15 p.m. in the school Conference Room.

We will establish our executive roles and pick future meeting dates.

Thank you to our previous Council members for all they have done to help us start the 2023-2024 school year!

More information will be shared via Newswire after the meeting!