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