Principal’s Corner...
Greetings from St.Mary’s School! With the arrival of the month of November
and the onset of December and Christmas we find ourselves in a state of
constant excitement. As the first term is now behind us we are busy
preparing for our first set of report cards and parent/teacher interviews
keeping in mind the Christmas concert is just around the corner.
With the report cards on the horizon, it is important to note that
assessment is a continuous process of gathering information about student
learning and performance over time. The purpose of assessment is to improve
student learning by identifying student strengths and needs, monitoring
student progress and performance and providing ongoing feedback. Continuous
assessment allows us to monitor program effectiveness and inform instruction
while providing critical data for evaluation, reporting and making
instructional decisions. Types of ongoing assessment include diagnostic
assessment used to determine starting points helping the teacher to program
appropriately for individual students, formative assessment used to provide
valuable feedback to students throughout the term and summative assessment
providing an opportunity for students to demonstrate their achievement. The
information gained from formative assessments may be used to support
professional judgment in the determination of report card grades however, it
is the information gathered in the summative assessments that should be used
in the determination of report card grades.
During the previous month the students of St.Mary’s have been very busy. Our
cross country team competed successfully in the annual Pat Cook Run and the
Huron Perth Catholic District School Board System Cross Country event. We
are very proud of the effort and spirit displayed by our team members and
their dedicated coaching staff. Our school intramural program is in full
swing with soccer coming to an end and volleyball games occurring regularly.
Currently our volleyball teams are preparing for their upcoming volleyball
season. We are proud to announce that our school will be hosting our system
tournament to be held on Thursday, December 8th.
In the month of October our school began a school-wide waste reduction
initiative beginning with attention to composting. Under the leadership of
staff and a keen group of students St.Mary’s has begun to look at reducing
the amount of garbage that is sent to the local landfill. We are very proud
of what we have done to reduce our “carbon footprint” and continue to be
dedicated to improving our awareness and level of participation as we strive
to be a “Green School”.
Although it is a little early, please accept season’s greetings from the
staff and students of St.Mary’s School.
Dave Cassone,
Principal
St.Mary’s School