St. Gregory Catholic School Newsletter 126 Rathburn Road, Etobicoke, Ontario, M9B 2K6 Telephone: (416) 393-5262 Fax: (416) 393-5189

Visit us: http://stgregorytoronto.com or https://www.tcdsb.org/schools/stgregory.org AND follow us on Twitter @StGregoryCS

St. Gregory Parish Superintendent: Mr. D. Yack 416-222-8282 Principal: J. Pannozzo Fr. John Bertao Trustee: Mrs. A. Andrachuk 416-512-3402 Vice Principal: A. Pires (416) 239-4831 CSPC co-chairs: P. Vokins & J. D’Aprile Secretary: C. Pulcini Clerk Typist: S. Shanahan

FEBRUARY 2017

Dear Parents and

Guardians:

It is hard to believe

that we already find

ourselves at the mid-

point of the school

year. A great deal of activities have

occurred in our school community over

the past few months and many more

exciting events are planned ahead. On

behalf of the St. Gregory community, we

thank our lunch supervisor Mrs. Djokic

for her dedication and hard work. We

wish her great success. We’d like to

welcome Mrs. Boszormenyiova and Mrs.

McNamara to St. Gregory as our new

lunch supervisors.

I would like to remind you that Term I

Provincial Report Cards will be given out

to students on Tues., Feb. 14th.

Parent/Teacher interviews will take place

on the evening of Thurs., Feb. 16th from

5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. and on Fri., Feb.

17th in the morning from 8:30 a.m. –

10:30 a.m. so there is no school for

students on this day. Mon., Feb. 20th is a

Provincial holiday – Family Day.

Please note that Shrove Tuesday is on

Tues., Feb. 28th and all students will be

treated to pancakes by our CSPC. Thank

you to CSPC and all parent volunteers

for keeping up this tradition.

J. Pannozzo

Principal

A Valentine Prayer

I said a Valentine prayer for you

and asked the Lord above

to fill your heart and bless your soul

With the precious gift of love.

I asked Him for sincere love

The kind that's meant to stay

Just like the generous love

You give to those you touch each day.

I prayed for love from family

And from every cherished friend

Then I asked the Lord to give you

His love that knows no end.

Amen

Love can be seen through one’s caring for someone, wanting to be near them and wanting to share with them. Love is treating someone the way that you want them to treat you – with care and respect. The joy of love can be felt in both giving and receiving.

Stop the Stigma at St. Greg's is a group of intermediate students and teachers with a mission to raise awareness for mental health and well-being within our school community. We are part of a network of students throughout the TCDSB with the goal to Stop the Stigma. Mental health is something that we all have and many people confuse mental illness for mental health. Our goal is to raise awareness about how we all need to keep ourselves mentally healthy and support one another. Stigma is when we don’t know our role in providing support when someone confronts a mental health problem, and instead we make the person feel isolated. It is our job to Stop the Stigma and learn how we can create a supporting environment for each other. Our team prepares presentations /skits to all students, promotes mental well-being through PA announcements, raising donations through awareness days and school wide participation. Our most recent activity was selling and delivering Compli-"mints" to students in support of Bell Let's Talk Day. We look forward to more initiatives this year to continue raising awareness.Together we can STOP the STIGMA! Our team: Mlle Iaboni, Mrs. Dalmau, Julia B., Tiffany C., Vanessa P., Annie G., Isabella C., Amy B., Daniel D., Isabelle P., Anya S., Natalie M., Emma C.F., Stephanie P., Makayla M., Kathrin C., Thomas S., Leora A.

Suggestions from TCDSB Student Mental Health and Well-Being Newsletter: see attached insert for further reading and seminar dates.

FEBRUARY is

Psychology Month

Children can often feel

overwhelmed with their academic

workload, social pressures, and

extracurricular activities. Helping

children to develop ways to cope

with stress and feeling

overwhelmed can help them

throughout their lives.

Let your child know that you notice

something is bothering them. By

“noticing out loud” you give the

message that you are interested

and concerned about how they

are feeling. Saying things such as

“It seems like you’re feeling

overwhelmed with the amount of

work you have tonight”, or “you

seem mad about what happened

at school today”.

Ask your child what’s wrong and

listen with the intention of

understanding and without

judgement. Show your child that

you are open to what they have to

say by giving them time to tell you

what’s on their mind. By doing this

you let them know that they have

your support and they are more

likely to speak openly about

what’s bothering them. This is

especially important when they

are feeling stressed or

overwhelmed.

You are reminded that Winter Walk Day takes place this year on

Wednesday, February 1, 2017.

Winter Walk Day is an opportunity for all of us—students, staff, families—to

focus on improved health and well-being, active lifestyles

and building safer communities for everyone. You can follow Canada Walks

on Twitter (@CanadaWalks) or Facebook for regular

Winter Walk Day news and updates.

This February is full of fun for everyone. Our CSPC is happy to host the St Gregory's student and parent

community at our Family Fun Skate on Sunday, February 19th from 5pm-7pm at the MasterCard Arena. Skating is $2 and

cookies and coffee will be complimentary. We also have the annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake event, where students will be

offered a pancake breakfast in the morning. If you have any questions or

would like to volunteer for either of these events please contact

volunteersofstgregs@gmail.com

February’s CSPC Meeting will be held on Wednesday, February

15th at 7:00 p.m. in the Staff

Room.

St. Gregory marked Family Literacy Day on January 27th by participating in a Literacy Trivia contest. Mr. Stepan and Mr. Regner’s students surveyed each division using the iPads. The winning classes received gift cards to Indigo to supplement their classroom libraries. congratulations to Mrs. Ceddia, Ms. Visconti, Mrs. Quartarone and Mdm Bahsous’ classes! Thanks to CSPC for their generous funding. Families are invited to visit this site for other great ideas to promote literacy at home. http://abclifeliteracy.ca/family-literacy

On Wednesday, January 11th, two representatives from our local

TD Bank branch visited Ms. Rosa and Ms. Cabral’s classroom to

present us with a cheque of $250.00. Manager Rami Ibrahim and

his colleague John were more than happy to donate to our class

and take a photograph with us. We are so grateful for their

generous donation that will be going towards our reading

program and proud to be a part of this wonderful community!

Thank you from Ms. Rosa and Ms. Cabral’s class!

April 6th, 6:00PM. Be sure not

to miss this wonderful

opportunity to showcase your

talent. Whether you like to paint,

sculpt, build or have a creative eye in photography, your

donated art will help make this

event successful. If you would

like to donate art for the silent

auction, please contact Ms. Visconti at the school or email

Ms. Tenuta at tenutal@smh.ca.

More information to follow.

Cooper’s Corner

January was a short but busy month in athletics at St. Gregory. Mr.

DeMedeiros, Mrs. Hall and Ms. Rosa and the intermediate basketball

teams continue to practice hard and both travelled to St. Angela to

participate in invitational tournaments. Their west region divisional

tournament will take place in mid- February. Mr. Cooper and Mrs. Hanna’s boys’ and girls’ junior

indoor soccer teams both competed in their divisional tournaments, which was hosted by St.

Gregory. The boys lost by a single goal in a hard fought final. The girls won by a single goal in a

very intense and exciting final. The co-ed hockey team travelled to Albion Arena to take part in

the Monsignor Percy Johnson Invitational Tournament. The team fought hard all day and once

again the final was decided by a goal and unfortunately it was St. Gregory who was on the wrong

side of the one goal game. The girls’ hockey team started practice in January and the junior

soccer house league has started up. The boys and girls junior volleyball teams have also been

practicing very hard. Junior Girls’ Indoor Soccer Team participated in a round robin tournament

against Our Lady of Peace, Joseph Cardinal Slipyj, Nativity of Our Lord, and St. Clement. The team

played amazingly well and represented our school with great pride and sportsmanship. Earning

many points, St. Gregory qualified for the final match against St. Clement. It was a close game,

but in the end, St. Gregory came out victorious with a 2 to 1 win. St. Gregory is happy to claim the

championship pennant for a second year in a row and Mrs. Gentile is very proud of all the team

members. Go Greg’s Go!

PRACTICES will be held on:

Feb. 4 2017

Feb. 11, 2017

Feb. 25, 2017

February 24th is Civvies Day, please donate a toonie to the Angel Foundation for Learning. See attached poster for more information.

For African Canadian Heritage Month, we look forward to Shaun Boothe’s performance for our grades 4-8 students on Friday, February 3rd . He is a motivational TEDx youth speaker and recording artist from Toronto. By repackaging history through hip hop, he uses

powerful life stories to model positive behaviour and deliver character education in a fresh new way.

TCDSB GUIDELINES FOR WEATHER CONDITIONS

In the interest of student and school performance, the TCDSB is in support of

students being outdoors during recesses whenever possible.

However, students will remain indoors during inclement weather. Sometimes

under extreme winter conditions “students will remain indoors when the

temperature or the temperature in conjunction with wind speed creates a wind

chill factor that could possibly lead to frostbite”.

Please know that we apprise ourselves of the weather conditions throughout the course of the day and

base our decisions for recess on current weather conditions and Board guidelines.

In January, Growth Mindset Buttons were given to students who demonstrated a hard work ethic towards new learning. Congratulations to all recipients! In February it will be “I’m Always

Ready to Learn!”

Growth Mindset resources can be found under the parent resources tab at https://www.mindsetkit.org/growth-mindset-parents

GROWTH MINDSET

Monthly Recognition: I Learn From My Mistakes TEACHER January

Ms. Rosa Kamsi O. Matthew B. Gavin W./Parker R.

Ms. Andreacchi Alexia Nathan Cooper

Ms. Salmond Enzo D. Ose A. Tristan L.

Ms. Maxwell/Santelli Remy D. Isabel Y. Andrews O-B

Mrs. Botelho Wynne M. Aiden C.

Mrs. Roy Julia G. Nicholas M.

Mrs. Ceddia Mason R. Cristian D.

Ms. Mulvihill Ethan Lena

Mrs. Barone Sara R. Mia V.

Ms. Alberton Giorgia D. Brandan F.

Mrs. Gentile Chiara L. Marquez S.

Mrs. Yetman/Driscoll Madison K. Marios M.

Ms. Loughlin/Visconti Sophia A. Troy D.

Ms. Brajuka Tristan D. Lina K. Kaine H.

Ms. Steponaitis Jennifer Natalya

Mr. Zinko Thomas K. Joaquin B. Joshua B.

Ms. Hetmanczuk Max C. Julia G. Mason C.

Ms. Micallef Deven D. Aria B.

Mrs. Hall Renee Nate R. Michael M.

Mrs. Quartarone Leah R. Carson D. Joseph M.

Mrs. Cicirelli/Pastuszok Julia R. Alvin Nickolai S.

Mr. Pruchnicky Juliana M. Julian B.

Mme Abboud Eric P. Paul B.

Mrs. Martinez/Nassuna Robert G. Alexis D. Julieta C.

Mrs. Dalmau Liam F. Stephen W. Patrick W.

Mr. Severino Aidin H. Daniel V.

Mme Bahsous Jaidan T. Padraic M. Matthew G.

Mr. De Medeiros Mikael A. Gabriel P. Natasia S.

Ms. Hanna Erin H. Dominic F. Francesca M.

Mrs. Pitoscia Stefan B. Pamella L. Connor C.

Mrs. Pires Alyssa D’ Martina C.

February Message from Trustee Ann Andrachuk

There are many great activities in our schools and around the City this month,

especially with Family Day on Monday the 20th. It’s a great opportunity for all of us

to take a short break and spend some time with our loved ones.

Just a reminder that junior kindergarten registration began on January 18. If you have

a child, or know someone else who does, that’s entering kindergarten in September

please visit tcdsb.org to register.

As the City of Toronto comes closer to setting its 2017 budget, some changes that

could affect many childcare operators at TCDSB schools have been proposed. The

proposed changes would remove City rent subsidies for many of these childcare

providers and may lead directly to increased fees for users. These changes, and the City of Toronto budget as a

whole, will be held on February 15th. If you feel these changes may affect you more information can be found

on the City’s budget website at: http://toronto.ca/budget.

As always, remember to express your love and gratitude to those you cherish everyday but especially on

Valentine’s Day.

Ann