Save the date!

This year’s 28th annual Parent Conference will be held virtually on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 at 6:30pm.

Parents/guardians and educators are invited to join presenter Sara Westbrook for a keynote address on “Nurturing Your Child’s Emotional Well-being.” In this virtual presentation, Westbrook will discuss different strategies to help parents/guardians develop resilience and emotional well-being in their children.

The Parent Conference is an annual event hosted by the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board to support parents in their roles as primary educators of their children. The conference is held free of charge.

More details to follow.

Registration is now open for FDK for September 2021.
Please view our Power Point attached for useful information. If you have any questions, please contact the school. We look forward to meeting you and inviting you to the SMTR Catholic School Community.

Advent & Christmas activities and resources for youth and families from St. Francis Xavier Parish

Advent prayer service series
St. Francis Xavier Parish's youth ministry community will be hosting a weekly virtual prayer service for youth and families on the evening of each Sunday of Advent from 7:00-7:30pm over Zoom.
Each week will have a different focus: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love (the gifts symbolized by the 4 candles of the Advent wreath).
Each one will include music, prayer, Scripture, reflection, sharing time, and a personal testimony from a participant about recognizing the 4 gifts in their lives. You are invited to join in each Sunday, or for whichever ones you can make it to. If you would like to participate, please contact Youth Minister Wes Moga (soundofmusic1986@gmail.com) for the Zoom invites and a permission form for student participation.

Christmas Pageant
This year our annual Christmas pageant will be done a little differently! We are very excited to invite individuals and families to participate in helping to create a video version of the Nativity story using photos. Those who would like to participate will dress up as characters from the story and take photo(s) of themselves re-enacting a particular scene.
The photos will be compiled into a video with narrators reading the accompanying passages from Scripture, and the video will premiere on the parish YouTube channel on Christmas Eve!
If you/your child/your family is interested in taking part, please complete this form and return it to our youth minister (preferably by email) by Friday, December 11.
You will be contacted after December 11 regarding roles, scenes, etc. and also provided with a Diocesan media waiver to complete to give the parish permission to use your photos online.
Contact: Wes Moga (Youth Minister) (905) 662-8593 ext. 6 or soundofmusic1986@gmail.com

Advent resources for families
Is your family looking for something to help you stay focused on your faith this Advent? The pariah is happy to share a couple of great resources with you!
1. We have copies of Advent daily devotional booklets that have a short Scripture passage, reflection, and prayer for each day of Advent. These can be mailed out to anyone who would like one. Please email Wes (soundofmusic1986@gmail.com) if you would like to arrange this.
2. We're also pleased to share an online Advent family resource called
the Advent Family Prayer Challenge! Beginning the first Sunday of Advent, you will receive a daily prayer prompt with a reflection on the Antiphon from Evening Prayer and a prayer for your family to pray together. You can sign-up and receive reminders to pray via email or by text message. For more information about the Advent Family Prayer Challenge, please visit: www.52sundays.com/advent-prayer-challenge.

https://www.hwcdsb.ca/328281--Decision-Gui ...

Bike for Mike Survey: "Our school is working with Bike for Mike on an initiative called the Daily School Route (DSR). We’d like to see more students walking and biking to school, but we know it needs to be safe enough. So, a part of the DSR is CARS - Creating Active Routes for Safety. CARS requires learning about existing popular routes to school as well as changes that are needed to make it easier for children to walk and wheel to and from school. We are asking that students and parents complete this survey and mapping exercise together, to help inform this process. Please use this link to complete the survey https://schoolwalk.planlocal.ca/hamilton/"

Invitation to Prayer by Pope Francis: https://hamiltondiocese.com/news/2020/Marc ...

Supporting Student Mental Health during time of crisis: https://smho-smso.ca/blog/how-to-support-s ...

Learn a Language for Free (for a month) with Babel: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/babbel- ...

Active School Travel News: https://mailchi.mp/1d6cdf53c924/ontario-ac ...