Important Parent/Guardian Updates

Each year Alberta Education requires our parents to review their student’s contact information including address, email, phone numbers, emergency contacts and health information to ensure that it is up to date. In order to be better stewards of our environment, this form are now digital.

The Student Information Update form is available through the Parent Portal on PowerSchool. If you have a PowerSchool account, you will receive an email notification that the Student Information Update form is now available.

**Please note: Review of this form is mandatory by each family in our division.

Parent Council

Join us to chat about how to make our school the best we can.

  We meet the second Wednesday of the month. 

Next meeting: Wednesday, November 13 @ 6:30-8:00. 

Discussion items:

-Parent Teacher Potluck

-A Family Night of Advent

-Tastes From Around the World Event

october - ExtraOrdinary Mission Month

October 2019 has been declared Extraordinary Mission Month.  Pope Francis provided the following theme for the Extraordinary Missionary Month: “Baptized and sent: The Church of Christ on mission in the world”. It is about placing “the mission of Jesus at the heart of the Church, making it the criterion for measuring the effectiveness of her structures, the results of her labours, the fruitfulness of her ministers, and the joy they awaken. For without joy, we attract no one”.

There are four dimensions, specified by the Pope:
1. A personal encounter with Jesus Christ living in his Church: in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, and in personal and communal prayer.
2. Testimony: missionary saints, martyrs, and confessors of the faith as an expression of the Church scattered throughout the world.
3. Missionary formation: biblical, catechetical, spiritual, and theological.
4. Missionary charity.

Full details can be found online http://www.october2019.va/en.html

Living Nativity – invitation!

Please join us for a fundraising dinner at St James Parish on Saturday, October 26,2019.
In addition to the delicious dinner, there will be a silent auction, a live auction, and lots of laughter and fun. The funds raised will be used to support the Living Nativity to be held on December 14, 2019.

Don’t delay! Purchase your tickets today! Tickets are available at the Parish office and in the narthex after all masses the weekend of October  5^th and 6^th.

Coffee Sunday at St. James Church

We welcome all families regardless of background to join us for several important Masses at St. James:

November 2-3 - Catholic Education Sunday – an annual celebration of our Catholic Schools! Any Mass on the November 2-3^rd weekend Saturday @ 5:30pm or Sunday 7:30am, 11:00am 5:30pm

November 17 – After the 11am Mass our Parent Council will be serving snacks and coffee.  As well we will be selling our student-created Christmas cards. Let us know if you would be able to volunteer to set up coffee or if you can donate baking.

We Scare Hunger!

The Grade 6 ME 2 WE students are organizing the We Scare Hunger Food Drive.  Each class will be collecting food items from October 21-31 that will be donated to our local Okotoks Food Bank.  The food Bank is in most need of the following items:

• Tea
• Hot Chocolate
• Dried Soup
• Shampoo/Conditioner
• Women’s Deodorant
• Shave Cream/Razors
• Cleaning Supplies
• Toilet Paper

Please help ME 2 WE leaders reach our goal and Scare Hunger!

Catholic View of Halloween

Halloween is short for All Hallow’s Eve. It is the vigil of All Saints (All Hallows) Day. In Canada, All Saints Day is a Solemnity, and thus a major feast on the Catholic Church’s liturgical calendar. CTR recognizes the good fun associated with dressing up, but discourages costumes promoting violence, the occult, or other inappropriate themes. The true joy of Halloween is Christ’s victory over death, his triumph over evil, and the invitation He offers us to share in that victory and in that triumph.

On November 1^st, the Church celebrates all the saints: canonized or beatified, and the multitude of those who are in heaven enjoying the beatific vision that are only known to God. All Souls' Day (November 2^nd ) is a holy day observed to commemorate the faithfully departed.  Through the prayers of the faithful on Earth, the dead are cleansed of their sins so they may enter into heaven.

ABOUT OUR SCHOOL

St. Mary’s School is a faith-filled environment where students recognize they are a gift from God.  They develop meaningful prayer lives and serve others with generosity and love.  We are a literacy school where students are encouraged to read a lot and explore multiple genres.  Students are able to self-select books from the library or from their classroom library and share their reading and writing with others!  Our school has high-expectations for all students while ensuring mastery of foundational skills and designing lessons that are engaging and meaningful.  We understand the value of multiple dimensions of learning and address this through specialist-instructed programs in Music, French, Physical Education and Outdoor learning. 

Upcoming dates