These programs include:
While St. Boniface Catholic Elementary School in the rapidly growing community of Breslau is the Waterloo Catholic District School Board’s newest school, it is also the school with the longest history.
According to a detailed history of the School Sisters of Notre Dame’s Canadian Province, in 1836 the settlers of what was then New Germany (now Maryhill) established a church / school – “a very small log structure which was replaced in 1848 by a sturdy stone building fifty by sixty feet dedicated to St. Boniface”.
The school didn’t receive electricity until 1937!
Today, when you step inside the bright and airy “new” St. Boniface, it’s hard to imagine those long-ago, candle-lit days.
The school – currently home to 275 students, and growing quickly — is a beehive of activity, with the school’s Learning Commons a key knowledge hub for all grades.
On a recent February morning, a group of intermediate grade students was gathered in the commons, working on a variety of Science / Technology / Engineering / Math (STEM) challenges.
In one part of the room, students were intently focused on studying a variety of specimens under microscopes, while in another corner, students worked in teams, racing a clock to see which group could successfully engineer and build a weight-bearing structure within a time limit.
Meanwhile, throughout the Learning Commons, the floor was filled with multi-coloured Spheros whizzing here and there.
Spheros are programmable tennis ball-sized robots that help introduce students to fundamental STEM concepts (such as coding) via play-based learning. Students program the Spheros to follow a pre-determined path on the ground (the same principle as a self-driving car).
And in yet another area of the Learning Commons, students worked on robotics tasks.
What’s notable here, is these activities are not just happening at St. Boniface because it is a NEW school.
All WCDSB schools and all WCDSB students have access to the same Quality, Inclusive, Faith-based education – which animates a key pillar of our Multi-year Strategic Plan (“Strengthen to Become”) which works to ensure “Every student reaches their full potential” and “Staff see their impact on student achievement”.
Whether 1836 or 1937 or 2023 — learning was, is and will always be a collaborative process.
And for almost 19 decades, our #WCDSBAwesome schools have placed offering “Success for Each” and creating “A Place for All” at the heart of all we do.
Just as the founders of our very first schools would have wanted it!
Click +++++> HERE to register today!
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. — Monday, February 27, 2023 at the Waterloo Region Catholic Education Centre.
General Information About WCDSB Board Meetings
Information About the Board of Trustees
(Note: Agenda files can be large. If you are experiencing issues downloading a file, right click on the link and choose “Save Target As…”.)
On February 21, 2023, WCDSB Vice-Principal Lorraine Harris was present at the Ontario Legislature where she accepted a special certificate of recognition for development of “My Place in this World”, a new Ontario school curriculum that celebrates Black Heritage.
It is recognized as the first year-round Black Heritage Curriculum that is aligned with Provincial standards.
The Guelph Black Heritage Society – led by WCDSB’s Denise Francis – -was an integral collaborator/ contributor, especially in doing research for the project.
The award sponsored and presented by Cambridge MPP Brian Riddell.
Following presentation of the certificate, Lorraine was honoured to meet with Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce.
The Ministry of Education will be reviewing the curriculum to decide the next steps in bringing this resource to more schools in the Province.
About My Place in this World
My Place in this World celebrates Black Heritage. Rather than starting and ending with the slavery narrative and oppression, this innovative curriculum provides a wealth of information, activities, assignments, and assessments that recognize the vast contributions of people from the mother continent.
My Place in this World is for all students, but particularly for our Black students in Canada. It disrupts the negative effects of post-traumatic slavery syndrome plaguing Black youth and it fosters pride, a sense of belonging, and most importantly, hope.
My Place in this World:
My Place in this World +++++++> VIDEO
Twitter: @MyplaceinthisW1
Instagram: @myplaceinthisworld
Email: lorraine@myplaceinthisworld.ca
Why should we use a Black curriculum in schools?
In Ontario, nearly one out of every 15 young Black men experienced jail time, compared to one out of 70 young White men — THAT is a disparity of more than four times.
What does the curriculum look like?
The activities are:
The students are:
Please note that Kindergarten Registration this evening at St. Daniel CES in Kitchener is CANCELLED.
Due to the forecast for deteriorating weather conditions, all St. Louis Adult Learning & Continuing Education programs are CANCELLED this evening and all campuses are CLOSED.
All Community Use of Schools permits are also CANCELLED.
St. Louis Wednesday evening programs include:
NOTE: Homework Clubs WILL BE RUNNING at all participating Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools
Nominations are open for the annual WCDSB “Distinguished Graduate Award”, “Community Partner Award” and “Chair’s Award”. Information about the awards (including the Distinguished Graduate Award nomination form) is available HERE. There are no nomination forms for the Community Partner and Chair’s Awards.
If you wish to make a nomination in any of the categories, please submit your rationale in writing along with any supporting documentation you feel appropriate, to Alice Figueiredo by Friday, March 31, 2023. Hard copy or emailed nominations are equally acceptable. Alice can be reached via email at alice.figueiredo@wcdsb.ca.
The Chair’s Award is presented to a person (or group of people) in the school system who has contributed significantly to Catholic Education. It is given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions made in serving the students, staff and greater community of Waterloo Region and/or to the betterment of Catholic Education in Ontario in general.
If you submitted a nominee in prior years and wish to have the individual nominated again, please resubmit your application.
Recipients
The Community Partner Award is presented annually in recognition of outstanding contributions made to Waterloo Region’s Catholic Schools by a community partner or agency serving the students, staff and greater community of Waterloo Region.
If you submitted a nominee in prior years and wish to have the individual nominated again, please resubmit your application.
Recipients
The Distinguished Graduate Award was established in 2005 under the Board’s “Celebration of Excellence” policy. It is presented annually to a graduate of 10 or more years from Waterloo Region’s Catholic Schools who has provided an outstanding example of the Ontario Catholic School Graduate Expectations in action. The award is presented at the graduation exercises of the recipient’s Secondary School or another appropriate public venue.
If you submitted a nominee in prior years and wish to have the individual nominated again, please resubmit your application. Nominations will be retained for 3 years. This does not preclude anyone from being re-nominated in any given year.
Recipients
You’d be hard pressed to find anywhere in Waterloo Region a school more brimming with school spirit than Our Lady of Grace CES (OLOG) in Kitchener.
And it’s not by accident. Thanks to Principal Jeff Dinner, the OLOG staff, and the school’s very active School Council there’s a very visible “whole school approach” to building community and creating a positive school climate.
For starters, the school is firmly committed to The Umbrella Project – a program specifically aimed at equipping students, parents, and educators with positive social and emotional coping skills to help them live confident, healthy, and meaningful lives in the face of life’s uncertainties and struggles.
The program is designed to work with the existing school curriculum as well as any well-being efforts that are already in place. The lessons can be used during Religion, Language, Math, Social Studies, History, the Arts, Health and Physed, and more.
As the program is implemented, students learn the skills of emotional wellbeing such as empathy, kindness, growth mindset, autonomy, self-compassion, grit and gratitude. This helps fulfil the WCDSB’s anti-bullying initiative, aiming everyone in the right direction — making bullying an unwelcome behaviour across the school community and bringing a very clear focus to building community through acts of kindness.
And that’s where the “bucket-filling” comes in.
At OLOG, all classrooms are provided a copy of the book “Have You Filled Your Bucket Today”? (Written by Carol McCloud & illustrated by David Messing)
The lesson is simple: everyone carries with them an invisible bucket. Its purpose is to hold good thoughts and good feelings about yourself. You need other people to help you fill our bucket and other people need you to help fill theirs.
Each class has been provided a bucket and a supply of mini-pom-poms.
When a student demonstrates a simple act of kindness or an umbrella project skill for that month (e.g., Empathy, Grit, etc.) and a staff member “catches” them, they are invited to throw a pom-pom in the classroom bucket.
Each Friday, the school plays a fun song (e.g., Farrell Williams, Happy) over the PA system for the whole school, and all classrooms send down their classroom buckets to fill the “OLOG Community Spirit-meter”.
There are marked levels around the spirit-meter and when the school hits a new level the students (thanks to the School Council) receive a whole community reward … because the whole community benefits from acts of kindness!
Of course, there are many things that can fill someone’s bucket.
Mrs. Ortiz – originally from Guatemala – is a Lunch Hour Supervisor at OLOG who LOVES knitting.
As a way to help fill the buckets of some students, she established a lunch hour Knitting Club that draws around 50 participants each week.
And Mr. Dinner and other staff help fill Mrs. Ortiz’s bucket by covering her supervision duties on Knitting Club day!
All of which goes to show, learning at Our Lady of Grace CES is buckets of fun!
