St. James Elementary School           

It gives us great pleasure to wish each and every one of you the merriest Christmas and a most prosperous New Year! We appreciate all that you do.

On the 25th we participated in our annual Terry Fox Walk and Healthy School Commotion Day. Thanks to the generosity of our school community we raised approximately $3200.00.

School Council resumed. Our membership is as follows:

Vanessa MacArthur: Co-Chair

Wanda Merrigan: Co-Chair

Melanie Parsons: Secretary

Roslyn Warren, Trudy LeRiche, Amanda Hann, Debbie Munden, Colin Short, Lockie MacDougall

Lunch with the Principal recipients: Kailey Strickland, Logan Billard, Julia Organ, Calista Seaward, Chelsea LeRiche, R.J. Keeping, Charlotte Osmond, Jesse Wells, Shane Anderson, Leo Strickland, Angelica King, Jennifer Chippett, Megan Savoury (gr. 5), Morgan Mauger, Joshua Morrison, Sara Ford, Katie LeRiche

On the 16th we participated in the Kids Eat Smart Walk to Breakfast. Members of the Royal Canadian Legion came and prepared the pancakes, while other family volunteers coordinated with the CIS to serve our 359 students. Many thanks for your generosity of spirit!

We changed our Caring Tree to an Olympics theme this year with the addition of Gotcha's! Students who are caught doing something that promotes respect for self, others, learning or the environment receive a Gotcha in their house team color. The tickets are placed in the Olympic Ring designated for their team color and names are drawn for prizes throughout the year at various assemblies. We have to remove all the Gotcha's every 2 weeks because the rings fill up so fast! Good work everyone!

Lunch with the Principal recipients:

William Osmond, Brooke Francis, Jordan Warren, Marcus Buffett, MacKenzie Strickland, Stephen Whitehorne, MacKenzie Chant, Lucas Leamon, Rachel Walters, Kevin Organ, Ryan Osmond, Daniel Osmond, Emma Currie, Tyler Osmond, Samson MacNeil, Tyrone Osmond, Haley Walters .

Teachers spent 2 days engrossed in their own learning at the Western School District's Conference on Assessment and Learning in Corner Brook. Since then we've had opportunities for follow-up with District Office Staff and from within our own expertise here at the school.

Mrs. Parsons' Dance Group is practicing regularly for upcoming performances.

During this month we collected $1100 for the Hodder family who lost their home and all its contents in a fire. On their behalf I thank you for your generosity.

Lunch with the Principal recipients:

Zachary Ford, MacKenzie Osmond, Paige Musseau, Logan Billard, Alex Osmond, Sophia Munden, Chloe White, Gordon Blackmore, Benjamin Tobin, Melissa Savoury, Kelsey Leamon, Cameron MacDonald, Kelsey Lawrence, Nicholas Janes, Courtney LeRiche, Patrick Meade, Dalton Osmond, Tyson Osmond

The Olympic Torch Relay netted our school a 1000 dollar donation from the Royal Bank of Canada, a major corporate sponsor of the Torch Relay. The cheque was designated for the Breakfast Program by RBC. (75-80 students still participate in breakfast program each morning.)

Our school float, Give the Gift of Learning, won 5th place in the Annual Christmas Parade. Thanks to Donna, Samantha (CIS), Colby (Library Assistant) and their faithful volunteers for putting it together and to Johnny and Rebecca Purchase for towing it!

The school underwent its External Review this month as well. We received many commendations from the 4 person review team (administrators, teachers and district office personnel). We also received a few recommendations that we are currently exploring and working towards turning into commendations the next time around, which will be in 2012-2013 school year.

First term reports were sent out during the last week of this month. Many of our students are demonstrating their best efforts and we are so proud of them! We want to thank the parents/guardians for their efforts as well, since the home and school must work together to ensure the success of our students.

Lunch Time Intramurals began in November for each grade. Events are led by Grade 6 student leaders and points are earned for House Teams while we promote active living and increase our physical activity.

Choral Group and Bell Choir are back in action and are preparing for Christmas Concert performances.

Mr. Anderson has started back with the guitar lessons for students in grades 3-6 on Tuesday's at 3:15.

Rev. Peter Boote visits the school each Monday morning to have a little talk with the children via the intercom. Each week he focuses on an important social lesson that we hope will encourage the children to become considerate, caring individuals with respect for all people.

Doors will open at 5:30 for K-3 groups and at 5:00 for the 4-6 group. Admission $3.00 (This year the proceeds of our concerts will support our co-curricular programming for students.)

Students in grade 3 are filling Christmas Stockings with food items and/or a small toy for the Happy Tree at the Mall.

Grade 5 students are doing a food drive for Christmas charity this year.

On December 18 at 11AM the K-3 students will be entertained for an hour by some of the staff of College  of the North Atlantic, who will be dropping in for some caroling.

The Cafeteria will not be operating on Tuesday, December 22. Students will need to bring their own recess and lunch snacks on that day. This is the last day before Christmas Holidays begin!

Microwave Meals are becoming an issue in terms of student safety and time. Increasingly larger numbers of students are bringing items, not to warm, but to actually cook for anywhere between 3-7 minutes (on average). This is causing more students to be delayed in getting their lunch and increasing the chances of getting burnt by hot food containers. While teachers are spending time heating lunches, they cannot be watching over students who are already in classrooms eating, thus increasing the probability of behavior incidents. We ask that you not send microwaveable meals (michelinas, zap'ems, Kraft Dinner cups, Mr. Noodles). Items that take 30 seconds to a minute are fine.

We will track this for the next couple of weeks, but if conditions do not improve we will remove microwaves and students will no longer be able to avail of them.

We have approximately $10 000 to put into our playground (built up over the past 4 years) and now that the exterior is just about back to normal after the renovations to the building we will be exploring catalogs and websites to obtain some new play equipment. The School council is working on exploring partnerships locally as well to assist with this. We will do one major fundraiser in the new year to help increase the amount that we have to spend since in the playground world this amount will not get us a great deal.

Many of you will have received this newsletter and many other messages via e-mail. Please send along your e-mail address and help us reduce our contribution to the greenhouse effect! (We promise not to give it to any other agency! It is strictly for communication with our school.) E-mail donna.hancock@wnlsd.ca to have your name added to the growing list.

Please review the information in your child's planner regarding expected behavior and regarding expectations for parents during “weather” days.

Also, on fine winter days we will be going outside. Please ensure that your child is prepared to play outside in the snow.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS