Volume 8: Issue 5 January 2017
Message from the Regional Director
Ms. Kate Brandley
[email protected]
Happy New Year! We wish you and your family a holy and blessed New Year! It has been a wonderful year so far with so many achievements and opportunities. Our prayer for your family is that God continues to bless and provide you with all that you need and more! We look forward to 2017 with its opportunities and challenges. In reflecting on the past four months, we have much to be thankful for and excited about. During the season of Advent, we had many opportunities to pray, serve and grow closer to God. We participated in weekly prayer services led by our students. Our theme of Peace is shared by the Blessed Sacrament School in Walpole. We have begun an all Academy partnership with them. Our students are sharing their experiences of Advent, Christmas and
family traditions with the BSS community. Our Academic program continues to thrive. Our middle school math teachers have implemented ENGAGE New York math program. It is giving our middle school students a deeper dive into math concepts and better skills. Our teachers continue to meet across the academy to share resources and ideas to strengthen the classroom experience for all students. We have begun our next round of testing with MAP, one hour a week for the next three weeks. KII – Grade 2 will be testing in Math and Reading while Grades 3-8 will be testing in the areas of Math, Reading and Language. In September, we tested to create a baseline to recognize areas of growth and need. This testing data allows teachers to plan lessons that meet the needs of all students. In order to grow in our instructional practices, school will not be
held on Friday, March 17th due to a day of professional development around differentiation. Please note this is a change to the school calendar. Our Christmas Shows were fantastic! I cannot praise and thank our Fine Arts teachers enough for what they do with and for our students! They certainly want the students to share their gifts and talents. A generous donor allowed us to send students to the Christmas Show at the Boston Pops in December. It was a wonderful event with Santa and beautiful music! Boys’ and Girls’ basketball has begun! The teams are part of the South Shore Parochial School League with home games held at Lower Mills. Times and dates are on our website. Our campuses will be holding Admissions Open Houses for prospective families. Please encourage friends, neighbors and colleagues to consider us. continued on page 3
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January 2017
Campus Corner What is a Dam?
Academy Christmas Card Congratulations to the four winners of the Academy Christmas Card contest: Columbia – Maxwell Owusu-Mensah Lower Mills – Joby Frejuste Mattapan – Adrin Saint Louis Neponset – Marek Mulvey Their drawings, selected from students Academy wide, were used on the Academy Christmas Card sent out to over 200 members of the SJPIICA community and local parishes and schools. All of the winners are pictured on the front page of the newsletter, being presented with a packet of cards from Ms. Brandley. Congratulations to all the winners!
Op en House D ates If you know a family who would like to enroll in the Academy, tell them to join us at one of our upcoming Open Houses at the following campuses:
Columbia Wednesday, February 1st – 9AM
Lower Mills Wednesday, January 25th – 10AM & 6PM
Mattapan Wednesday, February 1st – 9AM
Neponset
Sunday, January 29th – 12PM
Grade 2 Lower Mills students have been learning some interesting facts about dams, and in particular about the Hoover Dam. They learned that a dam is a huge wall built to control the flow of water in a river. More than 5,000 workers participated in the building of the Hoover Dam, and it took about five years for it to be completed. Thanks to the help of their good friend Mrs. Lennon, they also learned how to build a model of a dam. By using water, sand, and an aluminum pan, they were able to create their own dam, and watch a small lake form. It was amazing!
Registration Info The Re-Registration and New Application process for the 2017-2018 school year will begin this month. Re-Registration packets will be sent home from school with your child. Please return all materials to your campus office to reserve your seat for the next school year! If you know a family who would like to enroll in the Academy, look for our referral form, which will be sent out the first week in January. You could earn $100 tuition credit!
Chr istmas Cheer! Pre-K at the Columbia Campus is spreading the Christmas spirit! They are making ornaments in their classroom and using them to decorate the Christmas tree in front of their church. Each child made a Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer ornament and snowflake ornaments to hang on the tree. As a class they discussed the importance of everyone helping. By everyone in the class making two ornaments, they were able to decorate most of the tree.
A Box of Joy Both KI Neponset Campus classes were very proud to have participated in packing 48 boxes for “Box of Joy,” a charitable organization through the Cross Catholic Outreach program. All the students participated in packing and shipping items for boys and girls ages 2 – 8 in both Haiti and Guatemala. Some of the items that were donated were crayons, memo pads, books, toothpaste, toothbrushes and even handmade cards and pictures. Special thanks to KI’s 6th grade buddies for assisting on the project! All the students are looking forward to doing this once again next year with the goal of donating even more boxes of joy!
Be sure to check www.sjp2ca.org and your campus homepages for all the important information and upcoming events at your campus!
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Campus Corner Message from the Regional Director (cont.)
January 2017
Find Us Everywhere!
Tuition fees for the 2017-2018 school year have not been set by the Board of Trustees and as soon as they are we will send home a reregistration packet with your child.
Have you seen our new website? Visit www.sjp2ca.org and see all the exciting changes. SJPIICA is on Facebook and Twitter! Go to www.facebook.com/sjp2ca and like us or go to Twitter and search for @SJP2CA and follow us. Help us reach 500 followers on Twitter and Facebook! Check out our individual campuses Twitter pages, too:
May God continue to bless you and your family. Thank you for your continued love and support of our schools.
@CBSSJP2Columbia @SJP2CALowerMill @sjp2camattapan @SJPneponset
Most of our families come to us by word of mouth. You are our best salespeople! We have a wonderful school to share with others!
Kate Brandley Regional Director
Mattapan Reading Buddies Mattapan Campus students in KI and Grade 5 join together once a month for reading buddy time. Last month, they read Christmas books and made Christmas trees out of ice cream cones, icing and sprinkles! It was a delicious craft that helped the students’ fine motor skills. They also helped find letters of their names in the storybooks they read about Christmas!
Letters in KI KI Columbia Campus students are working on recognizing the letters in their first name. The OWL activity was a name matching game. The students used play dough to shape the first letter of their name.
A Message from the Business Office The financial aid applications are available to be completed on our FACTS Grant & Aid website. Please go to https://online.factsmgt.com/signin/3CGS5 and complete your application as soon as you can. As always we are available in the Business Office to assist you. We will be sending dates home with your children for when we will be available at the various campuses. Financial aid open houses will take place at the regional office. •
The financial aid applicant must claim the student(s) on their tax return and students must be enrolling in Grades K2 – 8 to be eligible. We need all families to submit the Grant and Aid application for the students that will attend the Academy, including the Pre-K and K1 students.
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This will help us when we apply for grants for education programs, technology, services, etc. The federal tax return for 2016 and W2’s must be submitted and/or proof of nontaxable income if not employed. Payments must be made through the FACTS Payment Plan or financial aid will not be allocated.
Business Office staff will be on-site at the campuses during the month of January to accept payments, answer questions, provide assistance and advice. We will send dates home through the campus announcements. CONTACT US Financial Aid: 617-265-0019 x7005 or
[email protected] Tuition Payments: 617-265-0019 x7004, x7005,
[email protected] or
[email protected] Vouchers and lunch verification: 617-265-0019 x7005, x7004,
[email protected] or
[email protected]
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Academy Christmas Concerts All four campuses of the Academy performed wonderfully in the Christmas Concert series the weeks before Christmas. Parents, families, and friends were treated to numerous performances, ranging from vocals and violins to tin whistles and bells! The Academy would like to thank all the students for their hard work and wonderful performances, as well as everyone who attended the concerts. A very special thanks goes out to Ms. Hebard, Mr. Sobchenko, Mr. Flax and Mrs. McCourt for their hard work in preparation for the shows!
FEBRUARY FINE ARTS PROGRAM SJPIICA will be hosting a February Vacation Fine Arts program that will run from 8AM to 4PM, Monday through Friday of vacation week. The program is a huge success each year and great fun for the students! The program will offer music theory, violin, keyboard, tin whistle, guitar, musical drama, chorus and art classes. Look for more information coming later this month!
Grade 4 Field Trip to the Nutcracker For the seventh consecutive year, our Academy 4th Graders enjoyed a holiday tradition with a field trip to the Strand Theater for Jose Mateo’s Ballet Theatre’s performance of The Nutcracker and were treated to lunch at Applebee’s. It was a wonderful day! The Academy and all our 4th Graders are thankful for their gift this holiday season. Our students will never forget the experience!
To submit stories for the next newsletter, contact your campus office!
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