St. Mary's Catholic School

Monday, Dec 1st ⛪Advent Begins

Jr. Girls Basketball Try-Outs 3-4:30
Sr. Boys Basketball Practice 4:30-6:30pm
Sr. Girls Basketball Try-Outs 6:30-8:30pm

Tuesday, Dec 2nd

Personal Fitness - Swimming @1:30pm
Jr. Girls Basketball Try-Outs 3-4:30

Wednesday, Dec 3rd

*Early Dismissal @2pm*
Christmas Hat Day! (Wear a Christmas-themed hat)
Sr. Boys Basketball Practice 4:30-6:30pm
Sr. Girls Basketball Try-Outs 6:30-8:30pm

Thursday, Dec 4th

Gingerbread House Making @Lunch Hour
Students' Union Bake & Candy Sale @Lunch Hour (Everything $2!)
Open Gym for all Basketball Players @3-4pm

Friday, Dec 5th

Sr. Boys Basketball Tournament @Forestburg (Boys leaving at Lunch Hour)
Sr. Girls Basketball Tournament @St.Paul

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Upcoming Dates:

December 12th Awards Night @6:30pm

December 20th-January 4th Christmas Break

Peace and blessings to you all!

With great joy and excitement, we begin the holy season of Advent in our school community! This beautiful time in the Church year invites us to slow down, reflect, and prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. As we light the first Advent candle, we are reminded of its powerful meaning of hope. Hope that Christ is with us, hope that guides us through darkness, and hope that calls us to share His light with others. How beautiful is that?

As Advent continues, we are reminded that this is a special time of preparation, prayer, and joyful anticipation. Even as our calendars fill, Advent helps ground us in what truly matters.

The next three weeks leading up to Christmas break will be filled with many fun and meaningful Christmas and Advent activities for our students. These moments of joy, celebration, and faith help make this season so special in our school community. Stay tuned by checking out our calendar above, and by watching posts on social media. This week, we wear Christmas Hats on Wednesday!

One highlight of last week was the wonderful Ham Bingo, graciously organized by the St. Mary’s Education Society. This event truly brought our community together in the spirit of fun, togetherness and ham! Thank you to everyone who volunteered, attended, and helped make it such a success. We are so grateful for your continued support.

We are also very proud of all of our volleyball teams as their season has now wrapped up. Thank you to our athletes and coaches for your hard work, commitment, and sportsmanship. And now, basketball season is underway, and we are excited to cheer on our teams as they begin this next season of play. We are still looking for a Junior Boys Basketball coach, so please reach out to the school if you are interested or know someone who might be.

Finally, we extend a warm welcome to our new Archbishop-designate, Stephen Hero. We keep him in our prayers as he prepares to begin his ministry, and we look forward to his leadership within our Archdiocese.

May this Advent season fill our school with hope, peace, and joy, and may we continue to walk together in faith as we prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ.

Blessings 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.

Jr. Boys Basketball Coach Still 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.

Ethan Palsatt

Ethan Palsatt is a very kind and positive individual in our school. He is always willing to lend a helping hand when needed, and he greets everyone with joy, pleasantness, and respect. Ethan, we are proud to call you a Saint! (We will share his official Saints Spotlight photo next week)

Marloe Nelson

Marloe Nelson is is a bright spark of positivity in our school, always bringing kindness, energy, and encouragement to everyone around her. Thank you, Marloe, for also being such a dedicated and uplifting volunteer during zone volleyball last weekend. We are proud to call you a saint!

Congratulations to our Jr. Girls who placed 4th in EIAA, and our Jr. Boys who placed 5th. Thank you to our coaches and Liaisons for all their time and effort with these teams this year.

The Ham Bingo was a family fun success! Thank you to everyone who attended. And, a huge thank you to the St.Mary's Education Society and to all of our volunteers.