The Info Page
The Info Page
CLICK THE LINK BELOW FOR ORIENTATION PRESENTATION FOR GRADE 7
Current_Grade_6's_Presentation for Website.pptx
For Grade 7 & 8 homework, please visit individual teacher's wikis at http://www.stmaurice.mb.ca/teachers.html
St. Maurice School
Integrity Liberty Modesty
Academically, students at St. Maurice are taught to excel! There are always lots of activities that learners are engaged with in the classrooms. We also believe in frequent reading at home and encourage daily reading and homework.
Our K-8 students are well prepared for high school, whether they continue to attend St. Maurice, or choose to go to St. Paul's High School, St. Mary's Academy or another high school. When we track our students' progress throughout and after their schooling at St. Maurice, we are encouraged by how many of them go on to university and college successfully. It's always a gift to our teachers when graduates come back to our school (and they often do) and share with us that their education at St. Maurice prepared them very well for post-secondary studies.
Every April, many of our Grades 4-8 students compete in the Mathematica Math Contests, which is a national event that thousands of students take part in. In recent years, we’ve had several St. Maurice students place in the top ten in the province of Manitoba!
Middle Years pupils also participate annually in the National CanSpell Spelling Bee.
Our educators believe firmly in early literacy initiatives. Teachers in K-6 use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark System in their classrooms that helps them determine the literacy needs of each student. This tool allows teachers to program specifically for the needs of all learners in the classroom. Educators in early years use a broad range of approaches to literacy instruction including the Daily 5 program, the Literacy Cafe program, the Tyner Small Group Instruction approach, the Literacy Place program and Reading A-Z resources. Teachers use guided reading principles in the classroom, and a full time instructor works with teachers and individual students to provide literacy support programming for select students who require greater individualized assistance in reading development.
Educators at St. Maurice have received training on how to best use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the classroom. Every class has access to SMART® Boards and LCD projectors are in each of the Grades 4-8 classrooms. There are also two computer labs in the school, a fixed lab with new desktops and a mobile lab with laptops for an entire class. St. Maurice has two full time ICT teachers and an ICT technician.
Our student services department has 15 professionals and paraprofessionals working in the areas of assessment, special needs programming, speech and language support, counselling, English Language Learner (ELL) support and general academic support. The school also has a shared services agreement with the Child Guidance Clinic within the Winnipeg School Division. Through CGC, our teachers receive support for students when required from a psychologist, speech language pathologist, reading clinician and social worker.
On a monthly basis, the whole school comes together in our church to celebrate Mass with our Pastor, Father Barry. The children have got to know Father Barry over the course of the past two years and appreciate his friendly greetings in our school hallways and the time he takes to help us understand God's Word. Every grade has several Class Masses with our pastor each year as well.
In addition to Mass, each month, we have a prayer service in the church that the students themselves plan and deliver in consultation with the parish’s Youth Minister. Each grade level takes and plans the event based on a selected theme. Students are learning that worship can be both interactive and participatory!
The Grade 5-8 students have several retreats over the course of the school year, one of them facilitated by the National Evangelization Team, a group of Catholic youth who travel the country proclaiming God's Word. Our Grades 5 & 6 students also take part in the Annual Diocesan Retreat.
Charity
Students at St. Maurice in K-8 work each day to live out the Mission of our school, in particular, “to create a community which promotes academic excellence in an atmosphere permeated by Gospel values.”
Our Kindergarten through Grade 8 pupils are actively involved in living out their faith lives through activities in and outside the school. For instance, the children in Grades 3-6 take turns visiting the elderly at the Golden Door Geriatric Centre each week, our neighbours on Pembina Highway. The students share arts and crafts with the residents, and often sing songs. On several recent occasions, we have received notes from the centre telling us that our weekly visits are one of the hi-lights for many of the residents. Our Grade 7 & 8 students volunteer in the community in a variety of ways as part of their Religion Curriculum. For example, several of our junior high students volunteer regularly at the Missionaries of Charity Soup Kitchen in Winnipeg's inner city.
The K-8 students take part each year in raising funds and collecting school supplies for Project Love, a charity that supports education in the developing world. In recent years, we have shipped school supplies to Tanzania and Ethiopia. This year, our supplies were shipped to Malawi.
The children also raise funds for the Holy Childhood
Association. This is a charity that has projects “in 110 countries and helps
make Jesus known to children all over the world.
Under its banner ‘children
helping children’, monies raised through schools are directed towards self-help
programmes involving the building of schools, the provision of health and
nutrition programmes and medications, school fees, and teaching and learning
resources.” (HCA)
Several times throughout the year so far,
students have brought in food items to support our parish food bank run by the
St. Vincent de Paul Society and also for Winnipeg Harvest.
Recently, one of our Grade 1 classes was featured
on Shaw TV for the students’ generosity in bringing in so much food for Harvest.
There is always a lot to do outside of the classroom environment as well. In Grades 4-6, there’s a chess club, a running club and a geography club, as well as Mad Science™. Students can take part in athletics with track and field and basketball events and select athletes at the Grade 6 level also take part in developmental sports in basketball and volleyball through the Manitoba Catholic Schools Athletic Association.
The St. Maurice Before and After School Program (run by the SMS Daycare) is open to K-6 students (space permitting) and runs from 7 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. each school day. Students in the program are constantly busy with games, crafts and activities, or they can get an early start on their evening reading or homework.
Our students in Grades 7 & 8 compete in MCSAA sports. In recent years, we have taken home Championship and Finalist Banners in Track & Field, Basketball and Volleyball. Go Patriots!
The Grades 7 & 8 students also have an active public speaking and debate club. The Middle Years Choir is also very active and recently, members showcased their talents at the Manitoba Federation of Independent Schools Dinner. Many students at St. Maurice are pursuing their musical interests, and our junior high band program is gaining popularity.
Many Grades 7 & 8 students take part in student government through the Leadership Group. As a committee, they plan morale boosting activities throughout the school year! In February, our Grades 7 & 8 students can choose to partake in Winter Camp at Camp Arnes. We ice fish, toboggan, cross country ski, snowshoe and swim. Participants also play hockey and "human foosball", and watch movies and play games. It's a real community building trip!
Our Counsellor, in partnership with the Parish Youth Minister, facilitates an Anti-Bullying Program for Grade 4-8. This school year, we also welcomed Dr. Mary Hall and Cst. Henry Buczynski (our Winnipeg Police School Information Officer) into our school to deliver anti-bullying presentations to our Middle Years students. This year's focus was on preventing cyber bullying.
These activities described just scratch the surface of the many wonderful attributes of St. Maurice. We invite you to come and see for yourself.
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After School Homework and Study Room
The after school homework and study room is open every weekday from 3:30 – 4:30 that school is in session
for students in Grades 7 & 8 (students are eligible by referral).
A certified para-professional (educational assistant) supervises the room and
provides student support when possible. The
A.S.H.S.R. is not held on days when afternoon classes are cancelled (eg.
Parent/Teacher Interviews).
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Published by Mr. Dan Ward, Vice Principal for Grades K-8 e-mail: k-8vp@stmaurice.mb.ca
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