Skating Day/Autumn Colour Day Tuesday, Oct. 24

Grades 1, 3, 5 & 7 have skating on Tuesday, October 24th.  Students in all other grades are permitted to dress in autumn colours as well, as long as they bring a toonie donation to school on Tuesday. The funds donated go towards the various charities we support such as Christian Child Care International, Children’s Hospital, World Vision and the Canadian Red Cross.

Halloween Family Dance Friday, Oct. 27

OLM students and their parents are invited to the family dance party on Friday, October 27^th.  Cost is $5.00 per person.  See the attached order form for more information.  Forms and payment are due to the office before Oct. 25^th.

School and Office Closed Oct. 6 & Oct. 9

There is no school on Friday, Oct. 6 (Pro D Day) and Monday, Oct. 9 (Thanksgiving Day).

Food Drive

Our school is holding a Thanksgiving food drive and we are collecting non-perishable food items.  We are encouraging each class to build a wall of donations with hopes of collecting as much food as possible for the local food bank.  Please help support this school challenge.  The food drive will end on Thursday, Oct. 5th.  Thanks for your support!

Emergency Preparedness

This is a friendly reminder that the comfort kits are due by Thursday, Oct. 5th. The comfort kit list is posted on our website on the Forms page.

Western Theme Day – October 11

This year’s book fair theme is “The Wild West”. Students and staff are encouraged to wear western outfits (jeans, plaid shirts, cowboy hats, etc.) on Wednesday, October 11th.

Book Fair October 10 – October 16

Our Lady of Mercy’s Annual Book Fair starts next week.  The more books you buy the greater percentage of money is returned to the school! Buy for Christmas, buy for birthdays, buy for the love of reading! We accept cash or cheques only. Each student has the opportunity to enter a draw. The winning student receives $25.00 and $25.00 for his/her class.

Place:  OLM Library

Oct. 10 – 3:00pm – 4:00pm
Oct. 11 – 8:00am-8:45am, 3:00pm- 4:00pm

Oct. 12 – 8:00am-8:45am, 3:00pm- 4:00pm
Oct. 13 – 8:00am-8:45am, 3:00pm- 4:00pm

Oct. 16 – 8:00am-8:45am, 3:00pm- 4:00pm

*The students will be going with their class to the Book Fair during school hours.

New Contact for Youth Cat

The contact person for Youth Cat is Geoff Lenahan. If you have any questions or concerns you can email him at:

olm.youth.cat@gmail.com

Food Drive

Our school is holding a Thanksgiving food drive and will be collecting non-perishable food items this week and next.  Classes will be participating in a friendly competition and will be stacking all of their food items outside of their classrooms.  We are encouraging each class to build a wall of donations with hopes of collecting as much food as possible for the local food bank.  Please help support this school challenge and send your donations this week.  The food drive will end on Oct. 5th.  Thanks for your support!

Hot Lunch

There was a slight mix up on the hot lunch schedule.  Next Thursday’s Hot Lunch will be Subway and NOT Hotdog.  The NEW schedule will then be:

September 28th – KFC

October 5th – Subway

October 12th – Hotdog

October 19th – Domino Pizza

Absence Notes

If your child will be away from school and you email or send a message to the teacher, please send the office an email as well.  If the office is not aware of an absence, we will contact the family to find out why the child is away.  The office also requires a note for any absence as we are audited every year. Thank you for your cooperation.

Photo Retakes

If your child was away on Picture Day or if you are not satisfied with your child’s photos, Photo Retake day is on Thursday, November 9th. Students are to be dressed in full school uniform for the retakes.

Proper School Uniform is in Effect as of Monday, October 2

Gym strip is to be worn for P.E. only. Now that the weather is cooler, please ensure that your child has appropriate clothing for outside times such as recess & lunch or an O.L.M. cardigan/sweater for classroom use.

Parking Reminder

Parking at the front of the school is for staff only. There is no parking, drop-off or pick-up at the front door between the hours of 7:45am – 3:30pm.  We have seen some parents dropping their children off for practice in the staff parking lot after 7:45am.   If you are dropping your child off in the morning for practice, coming in to volunteer or to pick up or drop off your child, please make sure to park in the designated area between the church and school. Thank you for your cooperation.

Emergency Preparedness

We are currently updating our Earthquake Bins for each grade. We will be sending home any comfort kits that were still at the school from previous years. We ask that a new comfort kit for each student be sent to the classroom teacher by the end of next week (please see the attached Comfort Kit List). Please read the attached Emergency Protocol for information on what to do if an earthquake or other disaster happens while school is in session.

Dates to Remember – October

Oct. 4              Cross Country Meet

Oct. 6              Pro D – School and Office Closed

Oct. 9              Thanksgiving – School and Office Closed

Oct. 10 – 16     Book Fair

Oct. 24            Skating – Grades 1,3,5,7

Oct. 31            Halloween Fair

For complete information, please see the October school  calendar on our website.

Portrait Order

Proof previews are being sent home with the students and orders are due by Friday, September 29th. Families have the option to place their order online at mylifetouch.ca or return a paper order form with payment to the school.  If paying by cheque, please make cheque payable to Lifetouch Canada.

Used Uniform Sale

There will be a used uniform sale in the gym after school on Friday, September 29th from 3:00pm – 4:00pm.

Privacy Act and Photo Sharing

Thanks to the smartphone and apps such as Instagram, thousands of photos are uploaded to Facebook every day. Some people upload dozens of photos a week, capturing even the most mundane events to share with family and friends. Even photos that are uploaded as private can be shared with others. You have a duty to respect those around you by not uploading photos that don’t belong specifically to your family.

The school is committed to safeguarding your confidentiality and protecting your child. Every year in the registration package parents sign a “Personal Information Protection Act Parental Consent Form”.  This form gives the school permission to post pictures to the school website, the Year/Memory book, the OLM Twitter and Facebook accounts. However, posting to these sites is a rare occurrence and usually the pictures are of large groups. Photos are used for the printed Year Book.

The BC Ministry of Education strongly encourages all schools to create e-portfolios to help Communicate Student Learning to parents. The intent of an ePortfolio is to enable a student to reflect on their learning and make meaningful connections across different learning experiences. These pieces of student learning or pictures taken in the educational environment are then uploaded using See Saw, Class Dojo, Google Classroom etc.

This is a very exciting new format to share with parents the day to day work your child is accomplishing. However, we ask that all parents be respectful and responsible and that photos on these various format are not copied or uploaded to any other social media of any form.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.