In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr., Ms. Timlin’s Kindergarten Class recorded their version of his “I Have a Dream” speech. Listen here:

We celebrate Catholic Schools Week, January 25-30, 2009, with its theme “Celebrate Service.”  This is a week Catholic Schools throughout the nation look to the accomplishments of our faith forefathers and reflect on where we are as leaders in education.  It is a week to remember that we are each divinely called to serve one another. It is a week to affirm different members of our community who all work together as one Body of Christ.  It is also a week to celebrate and have fun.

Culturally, you are invited to enjoy the gifts of pianist Mr. Christopher Kypros on Sunday afternoon, January 25th at 4:00 p.m. His concert will amaze you and will the solo piano concert will include works by Beethoven, Chopin, Copland, Debussy, and Ginastera and will be played on our newly acquired grand piano. There will be a reception immediately following the concert where works of art by Mrs. Suzanne Voorhies will be featured.

Spiritually, we will be gathering together to celebrate a special Catholic School Week Liturgy on Wednesday, January 28th with Father Dan Klem as our presider.  We will end this gathering with affirmations of some our student leaders.

Educationally, our 5th Grade students will be studying specific saints, who established Catholic Schools as places that formed the minds as well as the spirits of each student.  Our language arts teachers throughout our school will be encouraging students to enter an essay contest. The theme of the essay is “Service” and the students will write about what service means to them, show personal examples of service and describe how they exemplify Life of Vocation. We will select several overall winners from different grade levels and announce them at our Mass in the following week.

Celebrating Service,  A school-wide service project is the Annual Can Challenge.  The Celtic Council has challenged each individual class to earn 100 cans of food for the hungry in our community.  Parents hopefully you have tasks your students can do to earn those cans.

In Thanksgiving, Photo Journalism students will be working on a montage to present to certain groups within the school as a way of thanking them for their gifts. This school has many teams within its walls who do so much for the good of so many.  We have invited our three pastors for lunch with our students in gratitude for all that they do for Saint Patrick Catholic School.

In Leadership, at Mass, we will affirm students who will attend Catholic Advocacy Day in Richmond for their preparation work and advocacy for many issues of our Church.  Members of the Celtic Council will send letters to Mayor Fraim, our City Council, and our City School Board advising them of our place as an education institution in Norfolk working to promote citizenship among our students in the greater community.  We will also have students at each of our three parishes speaking after the masses the weekend of January 24-25 to tell about Catholic Schools Week and their experience at Saint Patrick.

In Relationship, on a lighter note, we will have some experiences of fun for our students.  The Celtic Council has planned themes for each day of the week. Monday will be “Crazy Sock Day,” Tuesday will be Decade Day (dress in your favorite decade attire), Wednesday we will lead the Canned Food Challenge and Mass, Thursday we will stop briefly and gather to recognize receipt of our dual accreditation and Friday will be School Spirit Day (students who brought canned foods may wear jeans and their favorite STPCS shirt). To promote an awareness of Catholic Schools and Saint Patrick, we also invite ALL students to wear their dress uniforms to their church service on the weekend of January 24-25th.

As you hopefully can see from these events we are seeking to promote activities for the whole child.  We look forward to this week as a week of learning, remembering, celebrating, serving, and leading.  We thank God for the wealth of gifts bestowed on our community.

Please join us for a concert by our music teacher Christopher Kypros to kick off Catholic Schools Week. He will play piano works by Beethoven, Chopin, Copland, Debussy, and Ginastera. There will be an art show in the lobby by faculty member Suzanne Voorhies. A reception will follow the concert.

A parent workshop will be held on January 20th from 6:00-7:30 p.m. for parents of students in grades k-8 .  We will explore the following topics :

1. Students develop in stages as writers.

2. The writing process takes time.

3. Models of strong writing, frequent practice with writing, and feedback to students all help to support strong writers.

The workshop will be led by Saint Patrick teachers in primary, elementary, and middle grades.

Parents will review student writing at various stages and learn practical strategies to help their children write.  Please RSVP Jan White at 213-0843 or jwhite@stpcs.org

Parents and teachers are encouraged to join together in an effort to identify the progress made by students within the pillars of the Graduate at Graduation document and to make strategic plans to augment the work that is being done at home and in the classroom. This is a non-crisis type interaction between the parent and teacher on behalf of the student. The time for this collaboration is open ended and scheduled between parent and teacher.

Enjoy this short break!

We are currently accepting enrollment applications for the 2009-10 academic year. Please call 440-5500 or email bhummel@stpcs.org for more information.