All Saints Blog Week of March 25th, 2019

Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

Our Grade 10 students will be writing the 2019 Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT) this Wednesday, March 27th. The Ontario Literacy Test measures whether students are meeting the minimum standard for literacy across all subjects up to the end of Grade 9. Successful completion of the literacy test is one of the requirements to earn an Ontario Secondary School Diploma. The staff at All Saints has been preparing your son/daughter for this test since they arrived in grade 7. Our students complete activities in grades 7&8 that provide some foundational background for the skills assessed by the test. We continue that support and growth in grades 9 and 10. Literacy development continues beyond the test until students graduate from All Saints. We are confident that students are well prepared for the upcoming test. I would encourage you to review the Ministry’s website http://www.eqao.com/en/assessments/OSSLT which provides additional information.

Grade 12 Prom Tickets
We recognize that our grade 12 students are looking forward to end of year activities such as our graduation ceremony, retreat activity and evening prom. Students are reminded that they must have submitted verification of their 40 hours of Community Service and have had these approved by the school, as well as having paid their $85 Grad fee (submitted online) before they can purchase their PROM TICKET.
Prom Tickets go on sale the week of April 8th to 12th; this means that the paperwork verifying 40 hours of Community Service must be submitted prior to April 3rd so that these hours can be approved by the school. Please ensure that if you child is graduating that these two items have been completed prior to April 3rd. Thank you for your attention to this and your ongoing support.

Fake News Workshop
Ms. MacKinnon, one of our Teacher Librarians, prepared the following information for students that was part of an activity around “Fake News” in our Learning Commons in February. We would invite you to take a look at the information below.
Fake news workshop

Waupoos Foundation Family Summer Vacation

The Waupoos Foundation (Waupoos Family Farm) offers affordable vacation opportunities for low income families with children 16 years and under. There will be sports, crafts, swimming lessons, camp fires, tractor rides, story times and most importantly, opportunities for shared connection with their family members and others.  Our summer application deadline is May 1st and we give priority to families who have not yet vacationed at Waupoos Farm.
Please consider referring a family today!
Our summer vacation application downloaded and printed at: http://bit.ly/Waupoos2019summer
Learn all about summer vacations at www.waupoos.com

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



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!