Message from the Administration Team:

Welcome back to another year of learning at École St. Mary School. Here at École St. Mary School it is

our goal that every child who enters our doors will achieve at their highest potential in a faith-filled, safe

and caring, inclusive environment. We are dedicated to providing an excellent educational environment

for our students.

We believe in the power of working collaboratively in teams. We value open communication between

school and home. In order to keep everyone informed, we update our school website

(www.stmarywhitecourt.com) and Facebook page (École St. Mary School) regularly. The Calendar of

Events on the website is kept up-to-date with all important school events. If you would like our

newsletter sent directly to your email each month, please subscribe on the homepage of the website. If

you have specific questions regarding your child’s class, please contact the teacher via email

(firstname.lastname@livingwaters.ab.ca) or call after instructional hours to set up an appointment.

Our St. Mary family has many gifts and talents to be shared and celebrated. Each month, we celebrate

the childrens’ success at our monthly assemblies. Please feel free to join our school celebrations. We

welcome family attendance at all assemblies, Masses and other seasonal celebrations.

We would also like to remind our families of a few safety points.

There is a large open parking area at the church for parents as all of the smaller parking lots in

the front of the school and along the sides of the school are Staff Only parking spaces. The drop-

off zone for students is on Trading Post Trail only. Dropping off is not permitted in the parking

lots or in the front of the school. Thank you for helping us keep our young students safe!

During designated times, Mink Creek Road is a 30km/h driving zone. Please be aware of the

crosswalk in front of the school. We encourage parents to practice proper crosswalk procedures

with their children.

Our side doors are locked at all times. Visitors must enter through the main entrance at the front

of the building, sign in and wear a visitor ID tag. Please do not proceed to your child’s classroom

during instructional hours unless previously scheduled with the teacher.

Fire Drills and Lock Down/Out drills are practiced each term.

If your child is going to be away from school, please call the office to let us know. The office

voicemail is check regularly, so leaving a message is acceptable.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks for a wonderful start to the school year. The positive energy

around the building brings such joy to our staff, students and entire school community. We look forward

to continuing to work together to help our students achieve their personal best!

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. (Psalm 96.11)

Mrs. Floyd and Mrs. Whitten

Parent/Visitor Parking

Safety is of the highest priority at École St. Mary School. We are aware that our current parking

situation is not ideal and we must work together as a school community to ensure the safety of

our small children. Parents and visitors to the school are asked to park at the Church. The

Church provides a very large parking lot and is a very short walk from the front doors. Parking

is not permitted in the front of the school or in the side parking lot near the Parish house.

There are two handicap parking spaces in the side lot facing the Parish house. Parking is only

permitted in those spots if the appropriate permit is visible in your vehicle.

During discussions with our School Council in 2014-2015, the Council suggested that the

parking lot near the playground be converted to staff only parking spaces. This parking lot is

narrow and has posed many parking/safety challenges over the years. We ask that parents not

park in this lot during the peak drop off and pick up times. If you are visiting the school to drop

off your child's lunch or other quick visits, you may park in that lot if a space is available.

Parking in the front of the school is not permitted at any time for visitors. This area is

staff parking and an emergency access.

For Your Information

STUDENT ENTRY TO BUILDING

In keeping with School Division Policy, all students will be permitted to enter the building at 9:00 a.m. each

morning. A student must then report immediately to his/her classroom. Students are expected to go outside for

the recess and lunchtime breaks, weather permitting. The administration will decide “in” days at recess and

lunchtime should such be required. When the temperature reaches –20C, a student is expected to remain indoors,

for his/her own safety.

SCHOOL CLOSURES

In the event that school will be closed due to inclement weather, the Superintendent of Schools will notify

the local radio stations with the message: “There will be no school at ST. MARY SCHOOL in Whitecourt on

(current day)”. Often it is only the country buses that may not be running, however, the doors will be open to all

students that are able to get to the school. It will be announced on Boom 96.7 FM and XM 105 radio.

Medication at School

Any child requiring the administration of medication during school hours must have a

signed consent form from their parent that clearly states the name of the drug, amount to

be given according to the original labeled direction and authorization of staff to do so. All

medication is to be in its original labeled container. Children should not be bringing

medications to school with them. We expect parents to drop off the medication at the

school office.

If your child will be absent from school for any reason, please call the school secretary as soon as possible. If for

some reason no one answers, please leave a message indicating who will be absent and for what reason. This

greatly reduces the absentee calls sent out daily. 780-778-2050

SPEECH SERVICES Reminder: If your child has received speech services in the past, and you are interested in continued services for this school year, he/she will need to be reassessed at the Alberta Health Services office. It is the parent’s responsibility to contact the Speech Pathologist to book this appointment.

Call Cheryl Baranitsky at 780-706-3527 ext. 223

Notice to all parents and Visitors

All Visitors to the school are asked to please stop at the front office to sign in and get a pass before proceeding anywhere in

the school.

École St. Mary School continues our effort to go paperless!! There are a limited

number of paper copies of our monthly newsletter at the school office if you do not

have access to a computer at home. Please check your child’s agenda daily for

important messages. Important information can be found on our school website

www.stmarywhitecourt.ca and our school Facebook group (École St. Mary School).

You may sign up on the website to receive a copy of our newsletter via email.

St. Mary School collects:

POP CAN TABS FOR JUVENILE DIABETES Here at St. Mary School, we collect pop can tabs to aid the fight against Juvenile Diabetes. How, one may

ask???

The pop can tabs are recycled to help in the making of insulin needles; this in return helps reduce the cost

of insulin supplies for a diabetic. There will be a box just outside the office door for collecting the tabs.

So, when you get your pop cans/beer cans ready to take to the Bottle Depot, take that extra second to

remove the tab. Every tab makes a difference. Even the tabs from some food cans, such as soup, beans,

etc. can also be collected.

MISSION CLUB BOTTLES

If you have bottles to donate to the Mission Club throughout the year, to help support our foster children

and various other activities, please contact Miss Fortin at school 780-778-2050 or at 780-778-9397. Thank

you for your support.

School Council Do you want to become involved in school events? Do you want to make our school an exciting

place to be for our students? Do you want to have a voice about decisions in the school?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then come and join us for our first School Council

meeting on Monday, September 18, 2017 @ 6:30 pm. You can make a difference!

If you are a room parent for one of our classrooms, we encourage you to attend these monthly

meetings.

Allergy Alert

We are writing to ask for your assistance in keeping our students with severe allergies safe. We have students in our school who are severely allergic to certain food items. If they are in contact with these foods, it could cause an anaphylactic shock. This condition is very dangerous and could potentially put the lives of some of our students at risk. We ask that the following items be kept at home:

Nuts of any type including nut butters (peanut butter, almond butter, Nutella, etc.)

Almonds

Pistachios

Seafood (particularly shellfish, salmon, cod, trout and halibut) There are many other types of allergies at our school, but the above mentioned are the ones that will cause the most severe reactions. If your child has a severe (anaphylactic shock) allergy to something not listed above, please contact the school and we will adjust the list. This list will be posted on our school website and Facebook page. If your child has a severe allergy that might require an Epi-Pen, we as ask that parents teach their child about their food allergy and encourage them to talk to the peers about it. Empowering our children to be advocates for their health and raising awareness of the severity of some allergies is critical to ensuring safety. We appreciate your support in keeping all of our children safe. Additionally, there are some wonderful tips and advice on healthy eating available at www.healthyeatingstartshere.ca, http://www.kidswithfoodallergies.org/page/recipes-diet.aspx and http://allergicliving.com/advanced-search/ Thank you for your cooperation and commitment to ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn in a safe and caring environment.

The M.O.O.S.E. Society is looking for new members for this year. The first meeting will be

September 18, 2017 right after the School Council meeting.

September 2017

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15

Assembly @

9:15

16

17 18

School Council

Mtg. @ 6:30

MOOSE Mtg. @

7:30

19

October Hot

Lunch forms due

20

Mass @ 11:00

21 22

P.D. Day – No

School

23

24 25 26 27 28

Lifetouch

Picture Day

29

Terry Fox Walk

30

Sunday, October 1st @ 10:30 – Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ Regional Mass. Lunch to follow!

Here is the link for the Child Health Benefits form. They can be printed off online or they can stop by our office (50th avenue dental) and pick one up!

http://www.humanservices.alberta.ca/financial-support/2076.html