Students and staff at St. Charles College had their throats blessed today to celebrate Saint Blaise’s feast day.
Blaise was a bishop and is the patron saint of wild animals and those with throat maladies.
Deacon Steve Callaghan also visited the vocals music class to bless the throats of those who have share their gift of singing.
Each year the students in Mme Perrin’s Grade 1 class at St. Bernadette Catholic School reflect upon the miracle of the coming of our saviour, Jesus. Together with friends from Mrs Sauve’s, Human Growth Class at St. Charles College, the students extended their knowledge of the story of Christ’s birth by building a crèche.
This morning, students at the feeder schools were wowed by the magical performances of St. Charles’ performing arts students.
The yearly Christmas concert featured MC Jenna Daypuk belting out “Let it Go” from Disney’s “Frozen” which created a sing along by some 550 grades 5, 6, 7 and 8 students.
Other highlights include the choir and band ensembles as well as Parker Szilva and Ava Danyluk singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”.
The Arts concert is open to the public this evening, Thursday, December 11th at 7 p.m. in the St. Charles College gymnasium.
More than one hundred staff and students from St. Charles College will cross the finish line tomorrow morning at Science North. They will be participating in the Santa Shuffle 5k race to support Salvation Army programs for children and families at Christmas time.
The students and staff raised more than 25-hundred dollars to help the campaign making them the largest student group to participate and the largest school donator to the cause.
They will also be running alongside a special guest. Kate Gustafson is a high ranking Canadian marathon runner. Gustafson motivated the students this morning (Friday, December 5th) at the cheque presentation at St. Charles College. She talked about how she trains 120 km./week. She said “running is a discipline that encourages a healthy balanced diet, time management skills. If you have a passion whether it be art or sport, running can be an amazing compliment to your life.”
Each year, the students at St. Charles College join forces with the students in their homeroom to help put gifts under the Christmas tree in a home somewhere in Sudbury.
Deacon Steve Callaghan organizes the campaign with the administrators working in the eight feeder schools – St. Bernadette, St. Andrew, St. John, Pius, St. Paul, St. Mark, St. David and St. Raphael. Deacon Steve says “The administrators at each of these schools know which family is in dire need of support and what life is like for them.”
After students are selected, the child writes a letter to Santa and each homeroom “adopts” one of the children. Money is then raised during the month in the mission envelope. All money is then given to a designated student on December 11th so that the shopping can be done.
Deacon Steve Callaghan then brings the wrapped gifts to the school principal on December 17th and 18th and the principal contacts the family for pick-up. He says, “When the principal and the secretary see us hauling in present after present – they are overwhelmed and often cry because of the generosity of our children.”
Grade 9 and 12 students at St. Charles College spent a morning this week shedding tears together to educate and raise awareness about bullying. The highly emotional Targeting Zero Tolerance day was organized by the grade 12 Leadership class.
It’s the third annual event which consists of students’ presenting bullying statistics and a documentary style video they compiled along with organizing break-out sessions with students to answer a series of “what if” questions.
Mrs. Beverly Belanger teaches the Leadership class, and oversees what has become a yearly event. She says “it brings seniors and grade 9’s together in order to build peer relationships and grow positive school climate.”
In celebration of bullying prevention week, a group of students gathered in the St. Charles College chapel at lunch today to speak about the challenges and pressures facing youth. Natalie Robert will be presenting about her teenage experience thus far at the Antioch weekend retreat this weekend. Natalie will be talking about building a community of faith and how we all have a responsibility to care for each other and ourselves.
Antioch is a weekend retreat to build relationships and spirituality. It is being held this weekend and is held twice each year for incoming grade 9 students.
Deacon Steve Callaghan who leads the retreat says Natalie’s topic is fitting given this is bullying prevention week. “If we are taking care of each other, that means we are saying no to bullying of every shape and form”.
A November 11 ceremony of remembrance honoured soldiers whose lives were lost in historic wars but also highlighted former students like Pvt. Andrew Miller. Pvt. Miller graduated from St. Charles College and was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan back in 2010.
Another fallen Cardinal was also honoured. Cpl. Glenn Arnold was a medic technician who was killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2006.
The moving ceremony included both staff and students from S.C.C. and its sister school, St. Bernadette.
The ceremony also included songs presented by the S.C.C. choir.
On Oct 21, an outstanding SCDSB teacher was recognized by the Learning Disabilities Association of Sudbury as the 2014 Teacher of the Year.
Jodi Cunningham, a teacher at St Charles College, has been with the board since 1995 and has taught in a variety of settings but it is the last nine years as the resource teacher at St Charles where she has made the biggest impact. Jodi continually puts students and families first and goes above and beyond to make sure each student has a place at St Charles College.
At St Charles you can ask any student with needs who one of their first contacts was at St Charles and they would tell you Mrs. Cunningham. Jodi helps every student find their appropriate path with the right supports for them. In her role, Jodi shares difficult conversations with students and families, in a caring way, and will go that extra mile to help each student reach their potential. It only takes five minutes with Jodi to know that each and every student is special to her and she will do everything in her power to help them be successful.
At SCDSB we are proud to be have such dedicated teachers as Jodi Cunningham helping each and every student.
Congratulations Jodi Cunningham!
From October 21 to October 24, guest speakers from the Harmony Movement group held workshops for student leaders from all of our secondary schools to talk about diversity and equity in the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.
Biju Pappachan and Caitlin Wood led the 40 students through many activities and discussions about such topics as bullying, racism and sexism. The students were engaged as they examined issues surrounding stereotypes and prejudice and to hear about how many biased images bombard us regularly in the media.
“It’s changed my perspective on how to look at different people of different genders and races,” said St. Benedict student Laura Rinaldi.
The students gained a much deeper appreciation for the privileges that they enjoy in our society, whether it’s gender, socioeconomic status, culture or in other ways. It made them more empathetic toward those who don’t necessarily wake up with the same abilities. They were taught that with privilege comes the responsibility to make our world more equitable through examples of student leadership like the pink shirt day anti-bullying movement.
The students who attended the workshops now feel empowered to go back to their schools and work to make their peers more aware of some of the issues that were discussed.
St. Benedict student Breana Mastroianni said, “I really learned how to stand up and take a stand againstt discrimination.”
Superintendent of School Effectiveness, Rossella Bagnato, explained the importance of initiatives like this one. “We can’t predict the future but we can help shape it and a good place to start is with the students. The Harmony Movement and the equity workshop have provided us with a great starting point.”
Congratulations to these future leaders and we look forward to being a part of what you bring back to our schools.
