St. Mary's Catholic School

Monday, Nov 24th

Jr. Girls Volleyball Practice 3-4:30
Sr. Boys Basketball Open Gym 4:30-6pm

Tuesday, Nov 25th

Personal Fitness - Swimming @1:30pm
Jr. A Girls Volleyball Bronze Medal Game @Fort Christian @4pm
Jr. Boys Volleyball Playoff Game vs. New Horizons School@4pm @home(St.Mary's Gym)

Wednesday, Nov 26th

*Early Dismissal @2pm*
Sr. Boys Basketball Try-Outs 4:30-6:30pm

Thursday, Nov 27th

Happy Thursday!

Friday, Nov 28th

St. Mary's Family Ham Bingo @7:30pm (Doors open at 6:30pm)

____________________________________________

Upcoming Dates:

December 12th Awards Night @6:30pm

Peace and blessings to you all!

This week our school was a hub of energy with so many events going on. We held Jr. High Volleyball playoffs, Sr. High Volleyball Zones, Parent/Teacher Interviews, a School Council Meeting, and various presenters from different universities shared their info with our students. It was hard to keep up!

A heartfelt thank you to all our parents and staff for making this round of Parent-Teacher Interviews such a great success. We truly appreciate the time, energy, and care everyone put into these conversations.These interviews are an important part of building strong partnerships that support our students’ growth. The thoughtful discussions, meaningful questions, and shared insights help us understand each child more deeply and work together toward their success.

Congratulations to our Senior High Boys and Girls volleyball teams on their strong performances at Zones! Our girls team played with determination and heart, earning a well-deserved bronze medal, and our boys team battled hard all the way to a competitive quarter-final match. We are incredibly proud of both teams—not only for their skill and effort, but for the sportsmanship, teamwork, and resilience they displayed throughout the season. For our Grade 12 athletes, these games marked the end of their high school volleyball journey, and we thank them for their leadership, dedication, and the positive legacy they leave behind. Well done, everyone!

Up this week, we have Jr. High Playoffs - our girls are going for bronze, and our boys are going for placement! Good Luck! Also, this Friday is our Family Ham Bingo. We Hope to see you there!

God bless for a wonderful week!

With gratitude,
The STMY Administration Team

Thank you once again for your patience and support as we return to normal operations following the three-week labour stoppage. Our collective focus remains the same: ensuring every student has the opportunity to meet the necessary instructional outcomes and curriculum expectations for their current grade level.

To maximize student learning, we plan to use the proposed calendar changes to extend Semester One to January 30th, with Semester Two beginning Monday, February 2nd.

Report Cards: End-of semester report cards will continue as usual.
Diploma Exams and Grade 9 PATs: To ensure students and teachers can concentrate on learning after lost instructional time due to the teacher strike, Alberta’s government has cancelled the January 2026 diploma examinations and Grade 9 Provincial Achievement Tests (PATs). Students will be automatically exempted.

Students who choose not to write at a later date will receive their school-awarded mark as their final official course mark. A notation will be added to transcripts confirming that no diploma exam was written. This ensures there is no impact on students’ ability to graduate or transition into post-secondary programs.
Students may choose to write January diploma exams in April or June 2026.

Exam Week: This may be condensed to two days: January 29th and 30th. All final assessments will be completed at this time. Regular instruction will continue until Jan 28th.

These changes allow us to recover a significant amount of instructional time for the first semester, with minimal impact on the second.

Proposed School Calendar Amendments:

The Board of Trustees will be considering amendments to the 2025/26 school calendar, to add extra instructional days for students, and to provide teachers with extra time to complete instruction.

The Board plans to review following proposed changes which will be finalized at their November 18th, 2025 public board meeting:

For all schools:

January 28th, 2026 - currently a Professional Development Day, will now become an instructional day for Semester 1
January 29th, 2026 - will remain an instructional day, but in Semester 1
January 30th, 2026 - will remain an instructional day, but in Semester 1
February 2, 2026 - will remain an instructional day, and mark the start of Semester 2

Busses will be running on January 28th, which will follow the normal Wednesday (early out) schedule.

Our Commitment to support uninterrupted learning:

Training and professional learning will focus on essentials—such as curriculum implementation and student support—while keeping classroom time as the top priority.
We will seek to maximize student learning, while balancing student wellness
Central Learning Services will minimize meetings to promote teacher/student time in classrooms.
Schools are balancing the time committed to non-curricular school wide events to optimize student learning

How We Will Communicate Student Learning

As we return to regular learning routines following the recent disruption, we wish to share a few important updates and adjustments about assessment, reporting, and student support plans for this term. These adjustments are consistent with Alberta Education’s expectations and ensure that our assessment, reporting, and individualized support practices continue to meet all provincial requirements.

Parent-Teacher Conferences: Fall conferences remain an essential opportunity to connect about your child’s learning. Schools will complete conferences between November 3 and December 12, either on original or rescheduled dates. St. Mary’s will run their conferences from November 19 and November 20, 2025.

Report Cards:

Grade 7-12: One formal report card will be issued at the end of each semester.

What Students Will Be Learning

All Alberta Education outcomes remain in effect. We are working divisionally to pace outcomes in ways that are meaningful to optimize learning.Our focus is prioritizing key learning outcomes.

Individualized Support Plans(ISPs):

As shared in the September communication, Elk Island Catholic Schools is implementing a new ISP process to better support students and strengthen collaboration with families. To allow for implementation training and meaningful parent engagement, timelines have been adjusted as follows: K–12 ISPs: December 19, 2025

Parents remain valued partners in the development and review of all Individualized Support Plans. If you have any questions regarding your child’s ISP, please contact your school.

We recognize that families and educators have faced significant change this fall. Through compassion, collaboration, and clear communication, we continue to live our divisional theme:
“Growing Together in Christ’s Love.”

If you have specific questions related to your child’s course load or schedule, please contact your child’s teacher, or the school.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Please click the link below to book your Parent/Teacher Interviews.

Jr. Boys Basketball Coach Needed!

We are in urgent need of a Jr. High Boys Basketball Coach for this upcoming season. Please contact the school if you can help out.

Jake Warawa is a kind, positive individual who shows fantastic teamwork and school spirit. He is a yound leader on the boy's volleyball team and we are proud to call him a saint!

Alyssa Ezio is a friendly and extremely helpful person in our school. She is always willing to lend a helping hand and is a skilled leader in high school foods. Great job Alyssa! We are proud to call you a saint!