From the Principal

Volume 2, Issue 3

News from St. Sylvester

Principal

Mr. R. Fernandes

Secretary

Mrs. J. Palmeri

CSAC Chair

Ms. Ewing Chow

Pastor

Fr. J. Sultana

November 2015

““Peace. What does it mean to you? We’ll be asking our stu-

dents to consider this question throughout the month of No-

vember. Peace can be so many different things to different

people. At its most basic, it refers to a sense of calm that can

surround each of us. Finding that calm however can be elu-

sive. Our day to day lives are filled with so many things –

meetings, family responsibilities, after school commitments,

making dinner, homework, the list goes on. In the midst of all

this, it’s sometimes difficult to find that all important sense of

peace. But it’s precisely because of the hectic nature of our

lives that we need to find Peace, and it’s something we hope

you’ll be able to find this month.

Sometimes it’s the simplest ideas that hold the most value.

Remembrance day is a natural focus for the month of

November. And the simple idea is that peace among nations

starts with us. As adults, our every action takes on im-

portance, as children so clearly learn as much and more from

what we do and say, rather than what we preach. With that

in mind, we are all encouraged to constantly remember that

peaceful words and peaceful interactions are always the way

to go.

As always, our virtue of the month guides our mission for the

month of November. If you haven’t already guessed it yet, this

month’s virtue is PEACE. We will share with our students that

peace consists of the way we act, speak and think, and we will

also discuss how the most important way to achieve peace

within and without is through the grace of God. There is no

greater peace than that which comes from God, and as we

move forward into the month of November, we wish you all

the peace of Christ. So take a moment to breathe in…. breathe

out, and feel that peace of Christ … (and once you’re finished

doing that, jump in and read the rest of the newsletter – a

guaranteed USEFUL way to spend your next five minutes!)

Have an excellent month of November.

Sincerely, Mr. R. Fernandes

416–393-5373

School Information

School Enrolment

180 students

School Hours

8:30—3:00

Lunch Hour

11:15—12:15

School Parish

St .Aidan Catholic

Church

(416-494-2704)

Home, School, and Church

Page 2 News from St. Sylvester

It starts with communication

Our Safe Schools Meeting took place on Oct 8th. We

had a full ranging and excellent discussion. A summary

of the meeting will be posted online soon. Two key ele-

ments we’d like you know about are as follows: 1. All

visitors to our school need to check in with the office,

and are then given a badge to wear if they will be staying

in the school. 2. Schools move forward when we are all

on the same page on key elements. Our school of

conduct (also online) is one of those key elements. We

ask parents to review our code and discuss key points

with your children.

Church News

Volunteers with the Rosary Apostolate visited our school

on Oct 5 to pray the rosary with all grades. We are fortu-

nate to be visited by the Rosary Apostolate once a month.

Our school Mass took place on Oct 29th in our school

gym.

Information about student preparation for Communion and Confirmation will be provided by St. Aidan Church. If you have any questions about sacramental preparation, or anything else related to St. Aidan parish, please feel free to contact the Church office directly - 416-494-2704

Peace - Peace I leave you, my peace I give to you .

John 14:27

November is Peace month and we encourage everyone to try and

follow the points below. Those who do it best will become our

virtues stars for November.

1. By opening ourselves to God, we will feel peace within us.

2. Every person can work for peace by carefully considering how

their words and actions make others feel.

3. Be guided by the words of Paul to the Colossians

“The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in the

decisions that you make.”

4. Peace among Nations starts with peace among us.

Faith and Character Development

October Virtues Stars (Gratitude)

Ms. Semple Martin Dolorico

Ms. Chen Ethan Woodcock

Mrs. Ricetto Jacob Quiros

Ms. Ironside Althea Abuel

Ms. D’Amico Aleena Tomy

Ms. Harrietha Cristian Mondaca

Ms. Stoner Erika Manipol

Mrs. Povo Romeo Agatep

Congratulations to all these students for demonstrating our

Virtue of the month. They have been awarded a certificate

for remembering that God welcomes us all and that we

should try to welcome others as well.

Parent involvement Catholic Parent Involvement Committee (CPIC): www.tcdsb.org/cpic

Our next CSPC (Parent council) meeting is on Tuesday, November 17th at 6:15. Please remember that you can visit

our website for updated CSAC news and minutes.

Parent teacher interviews take place on Thursday, Nov 12 and Friday, Nov 13 A letter has been sent home to book

interview times. Please find the time to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss progress being made and areas for

improvement.

Page 3

Cross Country Champs

Consistency leads to success. Well it should be no sur-

prise that with the consistency our students showed

with our roadrunners program that we reached success

at our Divisional Cross Country meet. St. Sylvester

was the smallest school in our pool of schools (we com-

peted against schools with as many as 60 more stu-

dents than us. It didn’t matter, we captured the Finalist

pennant with a score of 1558 point.

Congratulations to our runners and

thanks to the coaches Ms. Ironside,

Ms. D’Amico and Ms. Stoner.

Special congratulations to our City runners—Japheth,

Amelia, Adejah, Melissa, Sumaya and Nilayah.

Happening at a School Near You

Remember we’re online at www.tcdsb.org

Click on schools, alphabetical school directory,

St. Sylvester. From here you can surf our home

page . It’s worthwhile to book mark it.

You are also encouraged to let us know if there is

information you are not finding on the school

website that you’d like to see and we’ll do our

best to get it on there.

Knowledge is power so we strongly encourage

you to read and learn on our school website.

Nutrition Program In many ways, the recipe for success at school and life is simple. Eat well, get plenty of sleep, drink large

amounts of water and exercise. With these simple foundations in place, the building blocks for learning are

there. At St. Sylvester school, we take pride in our holistic approach to learning, and we are well aware that it

is only in partnership with you the parents that we can help our students and children achieve success. You’ll

notice our emphasis on healthy living through our roadrunner and DPA program. Another key component to

our health action plan is the nutrition program. ALL students are offered our nutrition program. This is the ex-

pectation from the school board and Ministry of Education, and more importantly, it makes sense as

followers of Christ (Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, so you do unto me).

We are blessed to have seven committed parents helping feed our students every day. Thanks to Mrs.

Coutinho, Mrs. Deir, Mrs. Mondaca, Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Lidington, Mrs. Mendoza and Mrs. D’Souza. More

parents volunteers are needed and welcome. Students are given a daily snack that contains items from the

grain group, fruits and vegetables group, and dairy group. Contributions from the Angel Foundation and parent

contributions help keep our program running. For those who have already contributed to our nutrition program,

we thank you for helping the sustainability of this program. For those who have not yet contributed, we ask you

to consider the tasty snacks your children are being given such as banana pancakes, salsa wraps, fruit

yogourt (on Wednesday). In a word….YUM!

Sad Goodbyes

Mr. Santos our caretaker has left for Msgr Fraser

and Mrs. Palmeri our beloved secretary will be

retiring at the end of December. We wish them both well

and will celebrate Mrs. Palmeri at our December Mass.

Student Corner (Favourite Memories of October) Our trip to Whittamore’s Farm Ms. Chen’s SK/1 class

Cross Country running - it got us active, I got to run with friends, last year I quit, this year I didn't, showed how much I try, I got to Regionals!

Blue Jays trivia - it was fun for the whole school, it was fun competing against other classes, learned about the Blue Jays, love baseball, got to follow up the trivia by watching the game in the gym!

Our nature walks - got to see a Great Blue heron and a hawk, learned so much from a simple walk out back, got to identify different plants, got to see and experience the different wonders of nature!

Hana's Suitcase (both book and play) - got to learn about the life of a young girl cut way too short just because she was Jewish, got to learn about this part of our sad

history! Mrs. Stoner’s Gr 5/6 class

And a few other important things

School improvement plan

Every school is asked to have a school learning and improvement plan. After our staff discussed our main needs at the school, we have come up with the plan of engaging our students in the curriculum through the Catholic Graduate Expectations.

As a staff we are looking at finding ways to making the curriculum something that draws our students into the world of life long learning. Our belief is that this starts with students asking questions on what they are interested in learning about—grounded of course in the Curriculum expectations for their grade on on the unit of study their class is undertaking.

Our goal is to immerse students in the big ideas of the curriculum by focusing on the Catholic Graduate Expectations of a Responsible Citizen, Life Long Learner and Effective communicator.

Parent input and support of our school learning plan are both essential for there to be progress in our goals. We respectfully ask for you to share any thoughts you may have. Our December newsletter will offer points on how you can help at home as we work together towards reaching these goals.

Save the Date

On Wednesday, Dec 16—our JK—Gr. 3 students will

be performing a Christmas Play—Keeping the Christ

in Christmas. More information on costuming will be

coming home before Parent Teacher Interviews.

Please plan to join us on Dec 16—you will be im-

pressed with the work your children have done.

Skating

Students from Gr. 2-8 will be going skating three times

this year (a permission letter to follow at the start of the

November. Our first skating date is on Nov 18 We

encourage parents to invest in inexpensive skates for your

child, and if you have old skates to donate, we will gladly

take them as well.