Gator Gazette Volume 8 Issue 9 May 2014 January 2014 Principal: Mr. B. McGowan Volume 6, Issue 4 Vice-Principal: Mr. C. Williams Guidance: Mrs. A. Ummat Secretary: Mrs. S. Harrison Great Academics and Treatment of Others……. Respectful School. GATORS! School News Contents School News 1 Grade 8 Assessments 1 Important Dates 1 Yard Sale Update 2 April Students of Month Grade 7 Haley Murphy Aaron Ashton Grade 8 Mackenzie Muise Christian Moore Grade 9 Michael MacArthur Sammy Bezanson Call to Remembrance The Call To Remembrance team competed on April 24, 2014. This competition is sponsored by the Royal Canadian Legion. It was held at Camp Hill Veterans’ Hospital so that Veterans living at the hospital could attend. Three teams competed against other public and private schools in the local area. The other schools were Fountain Academy, George P. Vanier and Halifax Grammar School. The team members are Veronica Curry, Peyton Duggan, Nicholas Hiltz, Ethan MacLean, Theo MacLean, Irisjade Ong, Ivanseth Ong, Laurel Sajko, Parker Verboom, Liam WicentowichHamilton, Morgan Wicentowich-Hamilton and Lochlan Williams. One of the three SAJH teams competing placed second in the competition. Congratulations! Principal’s Message: Gr. 6 Orientation Dear Grade 6 Parents/Guardians, I offer a warm welcome and invitation to all of our in-coming grade six parents/guardians to join our grade 7 staff for a presentation and orientation of St. Agnes Junior High School on Thursday June 5th at 6:30 p.m. in the school gym. Throughout the evening, you will have an opportunity to tour our facility, meet the current grade 7 teaching staff in their respective classrooms and hear about our subject offerings and expectations for the 2014-15 school year. Brad McGowan Principal Grade 8 Assessments The 2013-2014 Nova Scotia Assessment: Reading, Writing, and Mathematics in Grade 8 will be administered over 4-days between May 26 and May 29, 2014 for 90 minutes during the morning each day. This assessment includes the following: • • • • • • • • • reading and writing tasks that reflect the end of grade 8 curriculum outcome expectations reading passages in the narrative, information, poetry/song, and visual text genres reading comprehension questions in selected response format reading comprehension questions that are designed to provide a broad range of challenge, thereby providing more information about individual student performance one essay writing task and one story writing task mathematics questions that reflect the end of grade 8 curriculum outcome expectations selected response (multiple choice) and constructed response mathematics questions in all mathematics domains tasks designed to assess students’ ability to solve problems tasks requiring different levels of • cognitive demands to solve, thereby providing more information about student performance For more information about the assessments please consult http://plans.ednet.ns.ca/grade8 Please ensure your child arrives to school on time. We ask that if at all possible, that regular appointments are not scheduled during this time period. SAC News Our next meeting is Monday June 16 at 5:30 pm. PTA News Our next meeting is Monday June 16 at 6:30 pm. Yearbook News! The yearbooks will soon be here! If you have not purchased one of these terrific hard covered books, full of the school year memories it is not too late. There are still 40 books available. These will sell fast so make sure you purchase one on-line (see the school website) or bring in $35.00 to Mrs. Margeson as soon as possible to secure yours. We always sell out and there are students that are disappointed they did not get one so don't miss this opportunity. The online section of the book will include track events, trip photos, awards night and grade 9 graduation ceremony photos. You can only access these if you have purchased a book! Let's Talk Science Many thanks are extended to Mrs. HessamiPilehrood for supervising the Let's Talk Science Team (Stephen Dory, Elnaz Hessami-Pilehrood, Kyle Bauld, Abdelrahman Abu Osba, Molly Monk and Irisjade Ong) for participating in the challenge at Dalhousie University where they completed against other grade 6, 7 and 8 teams from the local area. Volunteer Tea St. Agnes staff will be hosting a Volunteer Tea on June 11 at 4:00-6:00 p.m. in the school library. It is the time of year that the staff and students want to recognize the many volunteers who have assisted. Invitations will be sent out in the near future. We look forward to being able to say thank-you. Page 2 of 2 School Newsletter Sports News Track and field is underway with the first of three meets running Tuesday May 20 and Wednesday May 21. St. Agnes will have four teams competing in this event. The top eight winners of each event will move on to regionals the following week. Best of luck to our teams. The Boys Softball team competed in the Citadel Zone tournament held on the Halifax Commons May 12. The Boys played well and everyone had great fun, despite the cold driving rain. The Girls Softball team competed in the Citadel Zone tournament held on the Halifax Commons May 13. The girls showed great team spirit and excellent teamwork. Both teams are to be congratulated for their fantastic representation of St. Agnes Junior High! St. Agnes Junior High 6981 Mumford Rd. Halifax, N.S., B3L 2H7 Congratulations to Jake Sampson and Sammy Bezanson who are the 2013-2014 St. Agnes recipients of the NSSAF Good-Sport award Phone: (902) 493-5132 E-mail: [email protected] We’re on the Web! http://sajh.ednet.ns.ca We’re on Twitter! http://twitter.com/sajhnews Homework on the Web http://sajh.ednet.ns.ca/ homework.htm Safe Arrival Line 493-5132 Important Dates May 20, 21 City Track Meet May 26-29 Gr. 8 Assessments June 4 Band Concert 7 pm. June 5 Gr. 6 Parent Orientation 6:30 pm. June 12 Awards Night 7 pm. June 16 Gr. 9 English Assessment June 17 Gr. 9 Math Assessment June 18-20 Gr. 9 Trip June 26 Gr. 9 Closing Breakfast 9 am. Gr. 9 Closing Rehearsal 9:30 am. Gr. 9 Class Photo 10:15 am. Gr. 9 Closing Ceremony 2 pm. Gr. 9 Closing Dance 7-9:30 pm. June 27 Assessment Day (no classes) June 30 Last Day PTA Yard Sale and Market Update Thank you all for the tremendous support for the annual Yard Sale & Market held on Saturday, May 10, 2014, our biggest PTA fundraising event. We had a great time and we were so pleased to see so many from the SAJH community and surrounding community turn out. Students who rented tables were very pleased with their results as we sure had a lot of customers come thru the SAJH doors. The PTA tables raised approximately $2,050 (after expenses). The money raised from this event will go to help fund various things in our school such as; books for the Battle of the Books Club (which the books are later put into our school library for all students to use), hot chocolate for all school skaters at the Oval Skate Day during Winter Carnival Week, high school bursary, new computer for school, appreciation breakfast for teachers/staff, Pancake Tuesday breakfast for the entire school, Gr. 9 graduation cake/juice/balloons, specific teacher requests for supplies, and more. In addition to all the individuals selling items to raise money for their grade 9 trip, the grade 7’s and 8’s were also trying out their entrepreneurial skills and having fun setting up tables. Some of the many creative things made to sell were: beautiful artwork pieces, home-made dog treats, choc. marsh mellow kabobs, earrings, jewellery, cookies, brownies, popcorn, cotton candy, lemon-aid, a sucker pull game, creatively decorated books, and many more creative things along with new and used yard sale items. Thank you to all the wonderful bakers/cooks who donated items to the PTA Bake Table - so many delicious and beautifully decorated items. We even had a gluten free selection of items. Even grandmothers helped out by donating delicious fudge! Wow! We were impressed. The sports table a great spot to buy a deal on some used sports equipment. As always this was a great table to visit. Our basket draws again were outstanding this year. Thank you to those who contributed items for the baskets this year and for those who bought tickets. The basket winners were: Ms. Clara Mitchell, Mother’s Day, Ms. Lisa MacInytre-Smith, Father’s Day, Ms. Forfa, Barbeque Basket, 50/50 Raffle was won by Ms. Rachael Myette Our Mother’s Day Table was new this year and was a great hit. Thanks to all who contributed items for us to use for some lucky Moms. We look forward to this new table again next year. Despite the long winter and late spring, we still managed to have a wonderful plant table. This too was a great addition to our event. The canteen worked hard to feed all the hungry customers. Specific fundraising incentives that took place during the event were: Ms. Mitchell’s class showed up to help raise some money for a new piece of equipment for the classroom; and some Student Council members were there raising money for We Day. Please keep ideas in mind and write them down for next year. All leftover items were picked up by the Canadian Diabetes Assoc. and they will be used for their fundraising. Again, thanks to so many people; students, staff, parents, grandparents, teachers, and volunteers who all came together to make this event happen. It was a team effort and many hands made for light work. Karen , on behalf of all of the SAJH Annual Yard Sale & Market Committee Boston Pizza Supports SAJH! Calling all St Agnes Junior High parents. Do you dine at Boston Pizza Bayer's Lake? Would you be willing to send your receipts into the office with your children? The Parent Association will receive a percentage of your purchases from Boston Pizza to help support the work of the PTA in our school; it is as simple as that. Thanks in advance. Liz Greene, PTA President