All Saints Blog Week of October 31st, 2016

Some very exciting opportunities for our school community regarding technology purchases through Best Buy, and a chance to buy Ottawa Senators Hockey tickets at a discount while supporting your All Saints School council.

Best Buy Technology Specials for All Saints Parents and Students

At our “Meet the Staff” afternoon earlier in the year, I explained that All Saints was developing a partnership with Best Buy to provide technological devices (chromebooks, laptops, and other devices) at a discount to our school community.  To be most effective in today’s learning environments, students benefit significantly from access to technology at school and home, as technology is a vital tool for their learning and productivity. The school board invests heavily to support access to technology for students and staff across our schools. Devices are made available to students in our school; however, we have received many requests from students and parents asking for advice on what device they should purchase if they wish to bring their own device to school.

We have established an optional purchase program with Best Buy for those who are interested in purchasing their own device.  Parents and students may purchase any brand of device from any company as all devices will work on school network. Some of these devices are exclusive to our Best Buy partnership and not available to others through Best Buy.

The technologies listed on the Best Buy portal are only recommendations. Best Buy is offering discounts on protection plans and other supplies and peripherals, but parents may choose to purchase from any vendor.  As you will see on the Portal, we are recommending Chromebooks as a simple, safe, efficient and cost effective device. We also help equip these with Board purchased software through the student Google accounts and the use of the student portal.  You can access the letter home describing the program in greater detail here.

You can access the information/instruction poster here.  Please contact the school if you have any questions.

Ottawa Senators Ticket Discount for All Saints Families

Again this year, All Saints has partnered with the Ottawa Senators Hockey Team to provide discounted tickets to a number of games this season.  The All Saints School Council directly benefits from all purchases, and money raised goes back to supporting initiatives at the school level.  When purchasing tickets, families are able to choose from 5 different games, with 8 different price points for seats.  We will be launching our fundraiser at the All Saints Craft Fair on November 5th, however, families will have an opportunity to purchase tickets until the end of November.

Careers Awareness Week

October 31st to November 4th is Careers Awareness week throughout our school board, and we will be observing some special opportunities at All Saints this week:

 

Monday October 31st - Student Survey about careers in homeroom

Tuesday November 1st - Grade 12 students to Algonquin College Open House day

Wednesday November 2nd -

• Take Your Kid To Work Day
• Laura King from The Ontario College of Trades presentation to the Gr. ⅞ classes

Thursday November 3rd - Skills Work, Skills Play-Apprenticeship Game (in the cafeteria at lunch)

Friday November 4th - Skills Ontario Presentation in the Learning Commons

9th Annual Richcraft Kanata Race Day - June 11th

Councillor Wilkinson & the Kanata Race Day Committee are inviting the Kanata North community and surrounding area to participtate in the upcoming 9th Annual Richcraft Kanata Race Day.

At this time, details include the following:

Event: 9th Annual Richcraft Kanata Race Day

Date: Sunday, June 11, 2017

Time: 8:30am

Location: Richcraft Recreation Complex-Kanata, 4101 Innovation Drive.

For Parents and Guardians:

Intro to Self-Regulation - Stress Behaviour versus Misbehaviour

Dr. Stuart Shanker will look at why children and youth are so overstressed today, with particular attention to the nature of hidden stressors and the distinction between misbehaviour and stress behaviour. He will look at explaining the 5 steps of self-regulation, not just in a way for parents to apply these with their children, but also for themselves.

Register Now:  http://bit.ly/CSPA_selfreg

Thursday, November 3, 2016

7:00 PM – 8:45 PM

Saint Paul Catholic High School

2675 Draper Ave, Ottawa

Boot Camp for School Councils offers a fun opportunity for parents and school council members to come together and learn more about the role of school councils, share best practices, ask questions and to network with other council members. Everyone is most welcome to attend!

Register Now: http://bit.ly/CSPAbootcamp16

Monday, November 7, 2016

7:00 PM – 8:45 PM

Thomas Darcy McGee Catholic School

635 La Vérendrye Dr, Gloucester

Communications:

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

Coming Up:

November 5th: All Saints Annual Craft Fair

November 10th: 7&8 parent-teacher interviews

Difficulty with Online Literacy Test

All grade 10 students across the province originally had an opportunity to write the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test this morning.  This was the Educational Quality and Accountability Office’s (EQAO) attempt to move the test to an online format.  Unfortunately, after waiting for 90 minutes, we were not able to access the test at All Saints, and we had to cancel the opportunity.  EQAO identified that this was a technical difficulty at their end - the internet and bandwidth access at All Saints was not the problem.  We understand that this was the result at many other schools across the province.  I appreciate the work of the staff who prepared for our various testing environments and readied our students and technical resources.  I personally got around to each of our classes where students were writing, and apologized for the inconvenience as I thanked them for their patience.  I reminded students that we will have another opportunity to fulfill the literacy test requirement on March 30th, 2017

All Saints Blog Week of October 17th, 2016

Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

Grade 10 students will be writing the online OSSLT literacy test this Thursday, October 20th.  All Saints staff have been working on preparation activities for several weeks.  Parents are encouraged to review the information on the Ministry website with their students ahead of the test.

Grades 9-12 Letters of progress / Parent-Teacher Interviews

Letters of concern for students in grades 9-12 were sent out as part of a message this past Friday from school.  Unfortunately, there was an issue where teacher names were left off the final version.  This has been corrected, and new letters outlining the name of the teacher will be delivered this Monday.  

All Saints wishes to remind parents of high school students that parent/teacher interviews will be held on Wednesday, October 19th. There will be an early dismissal at 1:30 pm that day for all students grades 7-12. The times for interviews are 2 pm to 4 pm and again 5 pm until 7 pm.

Booking interviews will be done on-line through the You Can Book Me program. The link can be accessed on our website as well as here: https://allsaintshigh.youcanbook.me/. 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. Report card distribution will be on November 11th at the end of the school day.

For Parents and Guardians:

Intro to Self-Regulation - Stress Behaviour versus Misbehaviour

Dr. Stuart Shanker will look at why children and youth are so overstressed today, with particular attention to the nature of hidden stressors and the distinction between misbehaviour and stress behaviour. He will look at explaining the 5 steps of self-regulation, not just in a way for parents to apply these with their children, but also for themselves.

Register Now:  http://bit.ly/CSPA_selfreg

Thursday, November 3, 2016

7:00 PM – 8:45 PM

Saint Paul Catholic High School

2675 Draper Ave, Ottawa

Boot Camp for School Councils offers a fun opportunity for parents and school council members to come together and learn more about the role of school councils, share best practices, ask questions and to network with other council members. Everyone is most welcome to attend!

Register Now: http://bit.ly/CSPAbootcamp16

Monday, November 7, 2016

7:00 PM – 8:45 PM

Thomas Darcy McGee Catholic School

635 La Vérendrye Dr, Gloucester

Communications:

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

Coming Up:

October 17th (7:00pm): School council meeting in the learning commons

October 19th: 9-12 parent-teacher interviews

All Saints Blog Week of October 11th, 2016

Eva Olsson Presentation

This week, grade 7, 8 and 9 students had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Eva Olsson.  She is a survivor of the Holocaust who has dedicated her life to communicating a message of joy, hope and racial acceptance to young people of today's generation.  The focus of her talk is about the effects of bullying and the importance of not being  bystander to injustice.   

High School Dance

A big congratulations to our senior student council for organizing a very well attended dance last Wednesday evening.  The students chose the theme of “homecoming” in keeping with the spirit week they had developed the week before.  The atrium and gym were decorated beautifully, and the students had a great opportunity to socialize and dance the night away!  A special thank you to our students in grades 11 and 12 who came out in big numbers to support the evening.  Thanks to our many staff who volunteered to supervise for the night.

Math Homework Help

Homework Help is a valuable math resource for students in grades 7 to 10, as it allows them to access live, anonymous tutor chat sessions with certified Ontario teachers. In these sessions, the tutors will guide students to solve math questions after school hours. The live Homework Help chat room service is available for students from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM Sundays to Thursdays.
https://homeworkhelp.ilc.org/about/index.php

For Parents and Guardians:

Intro to Self-Regulation - Stress Behaviour versus Misbehaviour

Dr. Stuart Shanker will look at why children and youth are so overstressed today, with particular attention to the nature of hidden stressors and the distinction between misbehaviour and stress behaviour. He will look at explaining the 5 steps of self-regulation, not just in a way for parents to apply these with their children, but also for themselves.

Register Now:  http://bit.ly/CSPA_selfreg

Thursday, November 3, 2016

7:00 PM – 8:45 PM

Saint Paul Catholic High School

2675 Draper Ave, Ottawa

Communications:

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

Coming Up:

October 14th : Letters of Concern sent home for students in grades 9-12 requiring additional support

All Saints Blog Week of October 3rd, 2016

New All Saints School Council for 2016-2017

All Saints School Council met this past week and elected the new Council for the 2016-2017 school year.  Thank you to the following individuals who put forth their names as members:

Chairperson: Laurie Chatigny

Vice-Chairperson: Cathy Stone-Brooks

Secretary: Cathy Deogrades

Treasurer: Trudy Rink

CSPA representative: Helen Tremblay

Parish representative: Carolyn Crummer

Communications representative: O’Neil Brooke

Parent representatives: Juanita Balaraj, Kelly Filoso, Sukh Kaur, Cindy Lee, Cathy Motz, Kelly Roper

Teacher representative: Erin Stokes

You are welcome to check out the School Council section of our School Website.

Terry Fox Run

On Monday of last week, all students and staff at All Saints High School participated in our Terry Fox Run.  Students did a circuit around the school community, bringing awareness to this worthy initiative.  Students have been raising money for the cause for a week now, and individuals are still able to donate online or through their homeroom teachers until Tuesday, October 4th.

Welcome Masses at All Saints

Last week, Fathers Virgil and Daryold joined us to open our school year with Masses for all students and staff.  The themes for the Masses were based around our Board Spiritual Theme: Sent to Be the Good News.  Students were encouraged to make this year an opportunity to share with others and to get involved.  We appreciate the company of Father Virgil and Father Daryold, and appreciate the team of staff and students who worked to put the Masses together.  A special thank you to Vito Michienzi who handled the organizing

Christian Community Day

This Friday, October 7th, the entire staff at the Ottawa Catholic School Board comes together to celebrate Christian Community Day.  This is an opportunity to set academic and spiritual direction for the school year.  Friday is a Professional Development day in all OCSB schools.

 

Student Council Dance

This Wednesday, October 5th, our student council is organizing a dance for students in grades 9-12 (6:30 to 9:30 pm).  Congratulations as well to our 7-12 student council for organizing a spirited activity week last week (check out our Twitter feed for theme pictures!).

Math Homework Help

Homework Help is a valuable math resource for students in grades 7 to 10, as it allows them to access live, anonymous tutor chat sessions with certified Ontario teachers. In these sessions, the tutors will guide students to solve math questions after school hours. The live Homework Help chat room service is available for students from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM Sundays to Thursdays.
https://homeworkhelp.ilc.org/about/index.php

Communications:

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

Coming Up:

Monday, October 10th : Thanksgiving

Thursday, October 13th : Letters of Concern sent home for students in grades 9-12 requiring additional support

All Saints Blog Week of September 26th, 2016

All Saints Meet the Staff Evening

Thank you to all of our parent/guardian community for supporting our Meet the Staff evening last Thursday.  The session gave us an opportunity to share our direction for the year, introduce some of our teachers, and provide classroom information going forward.  Our session for parents of grade 12 students put on by our student services department was extremely well attended, and provided information and timelines regarding this year’s graduates.  Our parents appreciated the literacy session as well, learning about the Ministry of Education’s plan for our online test (for grade 10’s) this October.  Thank you to Ms. Hopewell for organizing our BBQ, and some of our students and Ms. MacConnell for the bake sale.  
See the presentation from our Meet the Staff evening at this link.

Forest of Reading Book Clubs

Students will have the opportunity to join the Red Maple (7&8) and White Pine (9-12) Book Clubs.  Each book club consists of 10 recent, Canadian written books selected by the Ontario Library Association.  Students can qualify to participate in our school vote by reading at least 5 of the 10 selections.  In May, school results across Ontario are tallied and the winning Author/book title receives an Award from the students.  All Saints Staff members look forward to chairing book talks with our book club members at lunch in the Learning Commons during February, March and April.  

Goals of the Reading Club:

• to promote reading for enjoyment among high school students
• to make students aware of quality Canadian young adult books
• to provide opportunities for students to discuss the nominated titles in an authentic manner

 Kanata Pedal Play

Councillor Wilkinson invites parents and students to attend the first annual Kanata North Mobile Bike Rodeo – Pedal Play, being held on October 1st. Pedal Play is a great forum to learn safe cycling routes and practices in your community.

When: October 1st, 2016 from 10am to 1pm

Where: Beaverbrook Community Centre, 2 Beaverbrook Rd.

Who: All ages

Registration required: https://pedalplay.wordpress.com/

Pedal Play is a mobile bike rodeo where participants of all ages; children, teens and adults, will cycle a pre-determined route and participate in a number of interactive ‘safety activity’ stations located along the way. The interactive activity stations will enable participants to learn and practice basic bike safety practices, such as simple bike maintenance, checking helmets for correct fit, how and when to signal, and navigating turns and round-abouts.

All Saints Catholic School Council

The first general meeting of the All Saints School Council will take place on Monday, September 26th at 7:00pm in the school learning commons (library).  We hope to see many new parents at our meeting.

Ottawa Catholic School Parents' Association (CSPA)

Helping Keep Families Informed

Welcome back to another school year!  We hope that you have enjoyed a fun and restful summer with your family!

The CSPA meeting is scheduled for 7:30 PM on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, in the OCSB Boardroom, 570 West Hunt Club Road. All school council members, parents/guardians of OCSB students are invited to attend. We encourage all schools to send a representative, even if aCSPA rep has not yet been elected.

This month's presenter will be Nicki Dunlop who will be speaking about

Parent Engagement: How councils can help to welcome newcomers to their school and encourage their involvement.   

Click here to view the meeting agenda

During the Construction Zone we will discuss ways parents and councils can welcome and encourage new families to become involved in your school. What are the barriers and what can we do differently? Let's talk!

There are many other events scheduled by CSPA - please visit their website for additional information

Math Homework Help

Homework Help is a valuable math resource for students in grades 7 to 10, as it allows them to access live, anonymous tutor chat sessions with certified Ontario teachers. In these sessions, the tutors will guide students to solve math questions after school hours. The live Homework Help chat room service is available for students from 5:30 PM to 9:30 PM Sundays to Thursdays.
https://homeworkhelp.ilc.org/about/index.php

Communications:

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

Coming Up:

Friday, October 7th: Professional Activity Day (all Ottawa Catholic Schools) - Christian Community Gathering