Principal's Weekly Update

Dear Families,

It is with great honor to share that Dr. Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education has announced that St. Mary of the Assumption School has been awarded National Blue Ribbon School 2024!

National Blue Ribbon Schools (NBRS) is the official program name of the U.S. Department of Education that recognizes outstanding schools. The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognizes public and private elementary, middle, and high schools based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Every year the U. S. Department of Education seeks out and celebrates great American schools, schools demonstrating that all students can achieve to high levels.

This year, 356 schools from all around the United States, 9 from Massachusetts, were rewarded the 2024 National Blue Ribbon School award.

This award is a reflection of the dedication, hard work, and collaboration of our entire school community! We are so grateful to receive this honor as a school & we look forward to celebrating with our wider school community.

We kicked off the celebration today with a viewing party of the announcement of the National Blue Ribbon School recipients. Our admin team joined with members of our parish staff, our pastor Father Jonathan, and our district superintendent Eileen McLaughlin. Today, we held a school-wide celebration where students, faculty, and staff had the opportunity of celebrating this accomplishment with plenty of cake!

Check out the video below to hear from Dr. Miguel Cardona and see St. Mary's listed (at around 16:30)!

Have a lovely weekend!

• September 30

  • Fall MAPs Testing Week (Grades K2-8)

  • Fall Clubs Begin

  October 2

  • Mass of the Guardian Angels Mass at 8 AM (Grades K2-8) All Families Welcome

  October 3

  • No Brookline Lunch Program - Bring Lunch from Home

  October 4

  • Picture Day (Grades PreK-8)

  October 6

  • Protecting God's Children VIRTUS Training in the School Cafeteria

  • Register Online before

  October 11

  • First Day of Paul Effman Music Band Practice

  October 14

  • NO SCHOOL - Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day

  October 18

  • Discovery Day 9:00-11:00 AM

  October 25

  • Trimester 1 Progress Reports Released (Grades K2-8)

  • Halloween Costume Dress Down Day and Parade (Grades PreK-8) at 8:15

  • EDP Ends at 3:30 PM

  • Trunk or Treat from 4-6 PM

  October 31

  • Progress Reports Released (Grades PreK-K1)

  • Halloween Dress Down Day (classroom-specific)

  November 1

  • Dress up as a Saint (Grades PreK-8)

  • All Saints Day Mass at 12:10 (Grades PreK-8) All Families Welcome

  November 3

  • Daylight Savings Time Ends, Turn Clocks back 1 hour

  November 5

  • No Brookline Lunch Program - Bring Lunch from Home

  November 11

  • NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day

  November 22

  • Trimester 1 Grades Close (Grades K2-8)

  November 26

  • Thanksgiving Liturgy of the Word (Grades PreK-8) All Families Welcome

  • No EDP/Clubs

  November 27-29

  • NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Break

Last Saturday we hosted our second annual 5K! This event was such a success despite the rain, and we are so grateful for all of our students, families, community members, and sponsors who came out to run the race! This event was a wonderful way to bring our community together! Congratulations to our winner Davio DeLuca with a time of 17:18! Congratulations to our female winner Bailey Williams with a time of 18:37! Congrats to our student winners Max & Alexandria both finishing with times of 25:08 and 25:10, respectively! This race was made possible by our generous sponsors, especially the Brookline Police Department who supported in planning and ensuring a great race!

We hope to see you all at next year’s 5K!

Thank you to families for attending and participating in our Back to School Night on Tuesday, September 24th. Parents and guardians enjoyed a BBQ Dinner Social outside while students were treated to Movie and Pizza Night inside. Father Jonathan opened the evening in prayer, Dr. Nadjarian welcomed families and shared our great news as a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School Awardee and other exciting news, and Mrs. Enrique directed families inside to faculty and staff who were eagerly waiting to welcome all. Special Subject teachers met with families in the Auditorium alongside members of our Board of Specified Jurisdiction. Classroom teachers from Grades PreK through 8 hosted families in their classrooms. Teachers shared notes and letters from children to their parents and guardians, artwork and lessons aligned to the curriculum. Thank you to all our teachers and assistant teachers for their hard work preparing for the night and for all you do each day!

Last year, many members of our St. Mary's community contributed their family recipes to create an amazing blend of delicious dinners, desserts, snacks, and more wrapped into one recipe book! Not only will this cookbook provide incredible meals to try, but it will also serve as a memorable keepsake for your child's time at St. Mary's. Cookbooks are available for purchase for just $25. If you would like to try all of these wonderful recipes, please fill out the order form below!

The Paul Effman Music Band Director, Mrs. Jen Hawes, and instructors came to St. Mary’s on Friday, September 20th, to host a Band Demonstration. Students in K2 through Grade 8 observed the various instruments from ukulele, violin, trombone, trumpet, xylophone, flute, and more! Please register using the paper form OR the link that was shared with families via email. Band Practice begins on Friday, October 11th at the school. If an instrument has not arrived yet, students will still attend practice.

Next week students in Grades K2-8 will take MAP tests. Grades K2 and 1 will participate in Math and Reading tests. Students in grades 2 through 8 will participate in Math, Reading, and Language Usage tests. Please be sure your child comes to school well-rested and on time each day. Make-up test sessions will be provided in the case of absence.

St. Mary’s Picture Day is Friday, October 4th. All students in grades PreK-8 will be photographed individually and in their class. Please arrive to school on time as the photography schedule begins soon after arrival at 8:15 AM. Orders are completely digital this year. Please complete the online ordering process as outlined via email from Mrs. Enrique. You may still wait for a hardcopy proof before ordering which will come a few weeks after Picture Day.

Fall Clubs begin on Monday, September 30th. Teachers and community partners will host clubs such as Crochet Club, Soccer Club, School Choir, Sports Club, Debate Club, Arts and Crafts Club, Chess Wizards, and Voices Boston. Thank you to our Director of EDP, Miss Nicole Tiney, for organizing student registration and overseeing clubs and EDP with Assistant Director, Miss Mary McAuliffe. Have fun this Fall, students!

Students in Miss Porcello’s PreK class are learning about families. Their first project is an “All About My Family” class book! In the morning, students in PreK and K1 participated in their monthly practice fire drill. They did a great job stopping what they were doing, lining up at the door, and walking carefully outside.

Students in Mrs. Curley’s K1 class are learning to write their names and their family members names, such as mother, father, brother, and sister. They illustrated family portraits and practiced using capital letters.

Ms. McAuliffe’s students in K2 created a classroom promise and each added their handprints. They discussed how they are a classroom family and help each other learn and grow! Thank you, Ms. McAuliffe, for always making our students feel welcome!

Students in Ms. Tiney and Ms. McAuliffe's K2 classes celebrated Johnny Appleseed's birthday! They read a fiction book and a nonfiction Scholastic magazine to learn all about his story, and then they conducted a science experiment. Students started with an apple, and they added baking soda, food coloring, and vinegar to create an apple volcano! The class made predictions beforehand and observations throughout the test.

This week, first graders in Ms. Reitnour's class continued to work on the stories they have been writing. They added pictures to go along with the sentences they have been working on!

Second graders in Mrs. Sterge's class prepared for Back to School night by writing letters to their parents! In each letter, students shared what they were excited for this school year, their goals, and some beautiful artwork! Our students were so excited to have their parents come in to see their classroom and learn more about all of the exciting things they will learn throughout their second-grade year!

During Number Corner, students in Ms. Kousidis' third grade played a game called "Spud" to help them master their multiples of 100. Students took turns counting by 10s and when a student got to a multiple of 100 they had to say "Spud" or they were out. Third grade went around and around in a circle until they reached 1000.

This week in third grade, students were learning how to read a grid map. They began by reading a few pages in their Social Studies workbooks to get an understanding of how to use the map. Once they did this, students were able to work together as a class to complete a worksheet that centered around reading a grid map.

Fourth graders have been writing and identifying latitude and longitude coordinates. They are creating their own country map that includes cities and points of interest. Then, they were tasked with writing the coordinates for each place. They came up with some very creative countries!

The 5th graders also celebrated their class patron, Saint Michael. The class learned about how he is portrayed in the bible and how he is the saint who represents the protector against evil. Students also learned what an archangel is and what an angel is. They celebrated Saint Michael's feast day by enjoying angel food cake and creating Saint Michael statues to take home! The class also learned the Saint Michael the Archangel prayer and what it means.

In 6th grade ELA with Miss Allen, after reading chapters 7 and 8 of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, students used the information that they gathered in their previous activity, "exploring symbolism," to write both a thesis and an introductory paragraph for what will eventually become a formal paper. Students learned that being a good writer is to effectively convey ideas in a written form, and that they must be clear, concise, and patient as good writing takes time and practice.

In 7th grade science students used an orangutan habitat simulation to collect data about orangutan movement habits and habitat necessities. They worked in pairs to study orangutan behavior and make suggestions for orangutan habitat construction. They also practiced applying scientific thinking by utilizing the scientific method to collect multiple sets of data from different trials. Students ended by organizing, analyzing, and graphing their data to make robustly supported scientific claims.

In 7th and 8th grade Religion with Miss Allen, students explored the concept of human dignity.

Engaging in thought-provoking discussions, they learned that being created in the image and likeness of the Trinitarian God means we are made for communion with others. This truth calls us to live out a sense of fraternity and brotherly love toward all people.

This week, grade 4 Drama completed a picture-relaying activity with partners. One partner had one minute to view a picture. Then, the student had to relay what he saw back to his partner for them to draw in just four minutes. The students practiced using descriptive speech, written word, and gestures. This activity worked the students' abilities to notice details and communicate effectively, two central skills to acting.

Please find the links below to our social media pages. We have been constantly uploading posts and stories so if you are interested in seeing more of our day-to-day happenings, please follow us!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/st-mary-of-the-assumption-school

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stmaryschoolbrooklinema

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stmaryschoolbrookline/