All Saints Blog Week of March 18th, 2019

Grade 9-12 Letters of Progress and Parent-Teacher interviews
Letters of concern for students in grades 9-12 were sent out as part of a message the week before the March Break. All Saints wishes to remind parents of high school students (grades 9-12) that parent/teacher interviews will be held on Thursday, March 21st. There will be an early dismissal at 1:30 pm that day for all students in grades 7-12. The scheduled times for interviews are from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm and again from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. Parents/guardians are reminded that if they are unable to schedule an interview with a particular teacher, they are welcome to contact the teacher at the school to have a telephone discussion. Please note interviews are 10 minutes in length and parents are asked to request a maximum of one interview slot per teacher.

40 Hours of Community Service
Since 1999, the Ministry of Education has required all students to complete a minimum of 40 hours of community involvement activities as part of the requirements for an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) (As stated in Ontario Secondary Schools, Grades 9 to 12: Program and Diploma Requirements, 1999). The purpose of the community involvement requirement is to encourage students to develop awareness and understanding of civic responsibility and of the role they can play and the contributions they can make in supporting and strengthening their communities. The Ottawa Catholic School Board has always encouraged this community service to take place in the Parish, School, or the wider community. There is a list on the back of the Community Service form that all students complete that highlights many of the eligible activities that students may complete to fulfill this graduation requirement. When the expectation around community service was introduced by the Ministry of Education, they developed a list of activities that may not be chosen as community involvement activities and that are therefore ineligible activities. Included as part of that list of those expectations outlined by the Ministry is an activity “that would normally be performed for wages by a person in the workplace”. As your son/daughter works toward this graduation activity, we would encourage them to review the list of accepted activities to ensure they are meeting the proper requirements. You will find a link (below) to the All Saints community service hours form, with a list of appropriate activities on page 2. Hard copies of this form are available in our student services department.
Community Service Hours Form - All Saints

Chronic Absenteeism
One of the topics at our last school council meeting was a review of a CBC video and article that covered the issue of chronic absenteeism at schools. I have included the links to this information below. We would encourage parents to contact the school if they have questions regarding our attendance policies or need support with issues related to student attendance.
Chronic absenteeism - http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1442336323638/
article on absenteeism:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/school-absenteeism-pediatrics-1.5005670

Community Expectations Reminder
We have asked our staff to review some basic reminders with students over the next few days. This is an opportunity to reinforce some general expectations that have been reviewed by our student council as well as our school council this year. We will emphasize the following with students:

• Attendance - Students should understand the importance of regular attendance in their classes.  We recognize that sometimes appointments or health issues affect school attendance, however, we encourage a diligent approach to attending on a daily basis.
• Hats/hoods - should not be worn in class, nor in hallways unless students are making their way toward exits at the end of the day.
• Bags / coats not permitted in classes - Students have been given a locker, and bags and coats should be left there.  This is a safety consideration that keeps classroom aisles clean.

Approach to Rich Summative Tasks / Exams
Our School Leadership Team has provided the following explanation for students and parents regarding summative tasks in High School. For Grades 9 to 12, a final grade (percentage mark) is recorded for every course. The final grade will be determined as follows (based on Growing Success document, p. 41):

• Seventy percent of the grade will be based on evaluation conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade reflects the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration is given to more recent evidence of achievement.
• Thirty percent of the grade will be based on a final evaluation administered at or towards the end of the course. This formal evaluation typically includes a Rich Summative Task (RST) and an exam that translates into a total of 30% of the student’s final mark and can take a few days up to 2 weeks depending upon the subject of study. For this reason, we ask families NOT to schedule trips, appointments, or other activities where a student would miss class time during the months of January or June. The final evaluation allows the student an opportunity to demonstrate comprehensive achievement of the overall expectations for the course. Given these expectations, an incomplete summative evaluation will result in a “no mark” as a student’s final evaluation on their transcript.

There is a great deal of information on the CSPA website regarding information for parents and upcoming sessions. You can visit the website here.

Communications:
Check out our blog – allsaintschs.blogspot.ca and our twitter @AllSaintsOCSB (Mr. Kelly’s - @seankellyottawa) as well as our website ash.ocsb.ca for all that is happening at All Saints!