We are very pleased to present the Director of Education’s Annual Report for the 2021-2022 school year.
We thank our Board of Trustees, Senior Administration, staff, students, families, volunteers, community partners, and our parishes for their continued support and commitment to Sudbury Catholic. Together we are providing a caring, progressive, high quality Catholic school system that is nurturing our students – mind, body, and spirit.
Students at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School in Chelmsford had the opportunity to admire a commemorative door that arrived at their school. This symbolic door contains beautifully laser-etched panels representing every school in the Sudbury Catholic District School Board. The door unites all of our schools with this year’s Catholic Education Week theme “Opening Doors of Mercy”, which aligns with Pope Francis’s declaration that this be a Holy Year.
This stunning piece of woodcraft has students, parents and visitors stopping in their tracks to marvel in it’s beauty. Several students shared what they thought of the door. Emma Carpenter, Grade 6, said “this door shows us that each school is different in their own way”.
Nicole Walker, Grade 8 explained, “I like how the door represents our Catholic school communities and how much we love each other through God by showing each other mercy”.
Andrew O’Brien, Grade 5 shared that “this door reminds us that the door to God is always open”.
Delia Ross-Arseneault, Grade 6, stated “I like how the door shows us all of the Catholic schools around Sudbury that come together to pray to God”.
Students gathered in the gymnasium for a brief introduction and prayer service. The door was then sent to St. Alexander’s Parish for a school mass and shared with the parishioners on the weekend and will return to St. Charles for another week before moving on.
In Mme Wissell and Mme Huneault’s FDK FI class, St. Charles Catholic Elementary School students have been doing an inquiry about pizza for the last few weeks. They have been writing menus, ordering sizes from small, medium and large and counting slices. At the art centre, students painted pizzas and decorated pizza boxes. In the dramatic play centre, students created their own pizzeria, where they took orders and filled the order by building pizzas using ‘dough’.
To culminate this inquiry, students went on a field trip to Topper’s Pizza in Chelmsford, where they learned how real pizza is made! Students made their own pizzas and were fascinated as they watched the pizzas they created go into the oven on one side and come out ‘amazingly delicious’ on the other side!
Students at St. Charles Elementary tried a new way to solve math problems recently. As a part of the school goals, students in all grades got together for Math Buddies.
Principal David Soehner explained that “as one of the SIPSA (school improvement plan for student achievement) goals for this year, St. Charles Elementary teachers identified that they wanted to focus learning in mathematics around the math processes of communication and problem solving. To improve how students communicate in mathematics, a problem solving template was developed to guide students through answering all the parts of a question. The concept of ‘math buddies’ was created, where older students get together with younger students to work through a math problem every week, using the template and math manipulatives”.
Students in the older grades helped their younger buddies identify what they already know from the question, what they still need to know, how they are going to represent it in pictures and an equation as well as formulating the response in a sentence. Student Achievement Officer, Michelle Walton, with the Ministry of Education explained that “It was great to see how the older students really had the younger students work through the math problem”.
Brent Peplinski, a grade 7/8 teacher at the school said that his students also benefitted from the buddies by sharing in the younger students enthusiasm to do math, and his students came back all smiles!
“We are going to measure the results of Math Buddies using a pre and post task at the end of a 9 week cycle. We expect that students will improve in their ability to problem solve and communicate in mathematics.” explained Soehner.
With Christmas just around the corner, families at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School came together to generously support people in their community who are less fortunate. Donations of canned goods were collected over the 3 weeks of Advent to support the local food bank, Friendship House. Last year, the school collected 3014 cans and the goal this year was to beat that number by 1 can. With true school spirit, RAMS collected 3200 cans!! Way to Go RAMS!
Showing true RAM spirit, students at St. Charles Catholic Elementary outdid themselves again! Under the direction of teachers Holly-Anne Swain and Emily Maxwell, the Sock and Mitt Crew, made up of Intermediate students, created posters and announcements to encourage students to bring in new socks and mitts to be donated to the Salvation Army. The crew collected over 800 pairs of socks and mitts to be donated to the Salvation Army this Christmas.
Way to go RAMS!
During Bullying Prevention and Awareness Week (November 16-20), students at St. Charles have been engaged many activities to raise awareness around the topic of bullying.
Students in all three FDK classes, with help from their teacher, Ms. Posso, have taken a pledge to stop bullying! They have read books and talked about what bullying means and together made this pledge:
I am a kid againstt bullying! And I will…
– Speak up when I see bullying
– Reach out to others who are bullied
– Be a friend whenever I see bullying.
Students in Grades 2-8 have each created a pink shirt with a message about bullying on them, and these shirts have been strung up down the halls to show they are “Hanging Bullying Out to Dry”. On Wednesday November 18, there was a flourish of pink throughout the school as staff and students wore their pink shirts.
Other activities include a visit from Sergent Randy Hosken from the GSPS, a MADD presentation for students in grades 6-8 and students in grades 4-8 gave their input into our Safe School Survey called OurSchool (formerly Tell Them From Me). Also, Amanda Lantheir, a SCDSB child and youth worker continued to share with groups about the FRIENDS program and Kelso’s Choices, and students learned Chris D’Souza’s new song “I Want You to be Nice to Me”.
Staff and students at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School have been on a mission to raise money for a good cause. On October 16th, students attended a presentation by Tammy Pomroy, a former Sudbury resident who now lives in Cambodia. The presentation was about a school that Mrs. Pomroy founded called ABCs and Rice. This school is a reverse tuition school where some of the poorest students in the area are not able to attend because they must stay at home to help earn money. At ABCs and Rice, students get paid in rice at the end of each month for their attendance.
Students and staff were moved by the presentation and chose to do a fundraiser to help the students at ABCs and Rice out. Students and staff had a hat day, and brought in donations of a toonie to wear a hat in class. The staff decided to set a goal of $600, and if the school met that goal, Ms. Neuts, an EA would get a pie thrown in her face. Then Ms. Swain joined in and raised the goal to $1000 and she would get pied as well. Next, Mr. Peplinski agreed for $1100 and finally, Mr. Belanger for $1200. Vice Principal Laura Stirrett said she was very proud of how staff and students joined together to support ABCs and Rice, and a big part of that success was due to the enthusiasm of staff in helping us reach those goals along with the generosity of the families at St. Charles Elementary. In all, showing true RAM spirit, staff and students raised over $1400 for ABCs and RIce!!
Mrs. Pomroy was excited to get the news, stating that “With a donation of $1400, St. Charles Elementary has sponsored every child in the school to have rice for the next 2 months!”
Way to go RAMS!
For more information about ABCs and Rice, please go to: www.abcrice.org
The St. Charles Catholic Elementary School RAMS showed their spirit as they cheered on the Jays! As the Toronto Blue Jays entered game 5 of the division series on Wednesday, October 14th, staff and students wore their Jays gear for a Jays Day. Since this is the first time in 22 years a Canadian team has won in the MLB playoffs, Jays fever is spreading!
“It was great to see the school’s support as they came together to cheer for the Toronto Blue Jays” says principal Dave Soehner. “Now that the Jays have won game 5 and have moved on to the American League finals againstt Kansas City, our support for the Jays will continue! Stay tuned for more school spirit throughout the playoffs.”
O-K, O-K. Blue Jays! Blue Jays! Let’s-Play-Ball!
This year’s students and staff at St. Charles Catholic Elementary School may not have had the opportunity to meet Johnathan Hetu, a student who passed away in 2004 after a two year battle with leukemia, however his memory continues to live on each year as the school holds its annual Johnathan Hetu walk. Teacher David Nicholls felt compelled to do something to honour Johnathan’s memory and so he started the Johathan Hetu walk 11 years ago, and has continued it every year. Funds are collected and donated to the Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer. Principal David Soehner was overwhelmed with the support that his school brings forward. “Johnathan’s spirit is our inspiration each and every year,” explained Soehner. “We are so proud of our students and staff for their outstanding efforts once again in fundraising for such an important group, as well as honouring Johnathan and his family. We are overwhelmed with gratitude as our school community has once again showed its tremendous Ram spirit, and allowed us to give back to an outstanding organization that is the N.O.F.C.C. as well as remember and celebrate Johnathan.” This year’s the school collected over $6200 bringing the grand total to over $65,000 in eleven years.
