As partners with parents and guardians in the education of our students, the WCDSB’s school staffs, the senior team and the Board of Trustees are always interested in receiving information and feedback from the community.

It keeps us in touch with day-to-day life in our schools, and helps us anticipate and deal quickly and effectively with any questions or concerns you may have concerning your child’s education.

Since 1999, the school board has operated using a very straightforward, transparent and extremely successful set of Communication Guidelines for Parents & Staff. These easy-to-follow steps are in place to help parents / guardians resolve questions or concerns quickly, right there at school, where the overwhelming majority of issues are resolved.

The guidelines are very simple:

A) If you have a question or concern involving your child, you should always first speak directly to the child’s teacher.

B) If the issue remains unresolved, you should next speak to the school Principal.

C) If the issue continues to be unresolved, you should speak to the Superintendent of Learning for that school. Click here for Contact Information.

Our schools are already off and running to a fantastic start!

We’re looking forward to a #WCDSBAwesome 2018-19 school year — and we thank you sincerely for your ongoing support and cooperation as we continue being #HeartOfTheCommunity and #PeopleOfFaith!!

On October 23, 2017 – at schools and administrative sites across Waterloo Region – the staff and Trustees of Waterloo Region’s Catholic schools officially launched WCDSB’s year of “Faith in Action”.

This marked the beginning of the third and final year of the Board’s 2016-18 Pastoral Plan. In 2016, the focus in our schools was centred on what it means to be #PeopleOfLove. In 2017, the focus shifted to being #PeopleOfHope. In 2017-18 the focus has been on being #PeopleOfFaith.

Throughout the current school year, a special cross has been making a pilgrimage from school to school across Waterloo Region. The journey began at the Centre in the Square in Kitchener during special Eucharistic celebrations presided over by the Most Rev. Bishop Douglas Crosby and the Very Rev. Con O’Mahony. The first stop on the special journey was St. Brigid CES in Ayr. To date, the cross has visited 18 WCDSB schools, and their associated Parishes. The journey will continue in September, 2018 – concluding at the end of November, 2018, with the cross having visited each of WCDSB’s schools. The cross will spend this summer in the foyer of the Catholic Education Centre.

Coinciding with the pilgrimage of the cross, has been a special project in which one WCDSB school per week has been spotlighted on the Board’s website, demonstrating in their own unique ways how People of Love and People of Hope, working together in community, create Faith in Action. Schools will continue to be featured until the end of November, 2018.

The special videos created by each school have been featured in the “What’s new in our Catholic schools” section of the Board’s website homepage: www.wcdsb.ca

You can follow along by following the Board on Twitter at @WCDSBNewswire, and/or by signing up on our NewsWire instant news service. Look for the subscription box on the website homepage.

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YOU may have changed address in the last few years — but your Catholic school tax support probably didn’t follow you. That means, while you may think you are a registered Catholic school supporter, you may not be! So, it may be time to get “ticked”.

Here’s some important information about how you can help keep our schools #WCDSBAwesome:

During the week of May 7-9, 2018, a total of 19 WCDSB secondary school students competed at the Provincial Skills Ontario Competition at the Toronto Congress Center.

Skills Ontario is Canada’s largest skilled trades and technology competition. More than 20,000 spectators watched more than 2,000 of the brightest young people from across the province compete in one of 67 skills contests.

Two WCDSB students won medals in their competitions:

Samantha Parsons, Resurrection C.S.S. – GOLD Medalist – Job Interview

Andy Le, St. Benedict C.S.S. – SILVER Medalist – Hairstyling

Samantha would go on to represent Ontario from June 1 to 6, 2018 at the Skills Canada National Competition, in Edmonton (see further below).

Congratulations to all the WCDSB Skills Ontario competitors!

At the Skills Canada National Competition, secondary school and college students, as well as apprentices in skilled trades and technologies were tried, tested and judged, showcasing their talents in 44 contests across six industry sectors in front of crowds of thousands.

Samantha Parsons, a Grade 11 student from Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, competed in the Job Search category of the Employability sector. As part of the competition each student was interviewed based on a specific career, and completed job search challenges and activities over a two-day period.

“I entered the competition at the Regional level because I felt it would provide me with the opportunity to enhance my writing and interviewing skills. It was amazing to have the opportunity to represent the Waterloo Catholic District School Board as part of Team Ontario at the National level. The competition was an incredible experience that allowed me to improve my skills while meeting like-minded students from across the country.”

~~ Samantha Parsons

Rosemarie Brenner, Skills mentor and College Cooperative Education Program (CCEP) teacher from WCDSB, worked with Samantha, mentoring her for the competition as well as accompanying her to Edmonton.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is proud to support and participate in these important regional, provincial and national Skills Competitions, and wishes to thank and congratulate all the leads, chairs, judges, mentors, and teachers who supported our students along the way.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board, representing more than 96,000 Catholic school supporters, operates 49 schools and five adult education facilities serving more than 40,000 elementary, secondary and continuing education students in Waterloo Region – continuing a 182-year tradition of quality, inclusive, faith-based education. Follow us on Twitter: @WCDSBNewswire – #WCDSBAwesome.

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For many years, the WCDSB’s St. Louis Adult Learning & Continuing Education Centre has leveraged the province’s Learning Opportunities Grant funding to help elementary and secondary school students deepen their learning via school-based Homework Clubs and the always-popular Saturday Skills Builder Program.

Below or some key statistics covering the September, 2017 to June, 2018 period:

1,030 students served

29,210 pupil hours for grade 7/8 Homework Clubs and Saturday Skills Builder

4,678 pupil hours for grade 9/10 Homework Clubs

33,888 pupil hours in total for September, 2017 to June, 2018

17 elementary schools ran Homework Clubs

4 secondary schools ran a combined total of 9 Homework Cubs

71 teachers were involved in the program

For more information about how St. Louis can help you, please visit https://stlouis.wcdsb.ca, call 519-741-1201, or email stlouis@wcdsb.ca.

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board, representing more than 96,000 Catholic school supporters, operates 49 schools and five adult education facilities serving more than 40,000 elementary, secondary and continuing education students in Waterloo Region – continuing a 182-year tradition of quality, inclusive, faith-based education. Follow us on Twitter: @WCDSBNewswire – #WCDSBAwesome.

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On May 30, 2018, Conestoga College hosted Jill of All Trades – a special event for female students, funded by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry for Advanced Education and Skills Development. More than 300 students participated.

The day began with an address by Mandy Rennehan, owner of Freshco, recipient of the RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur “Momentum” award.  She shared her own self-made pathway success story and voiced her strong support for Women in Skilled Trades initiatives. She also introduced a number of members of her team, two of whom are recent graduates of Conestoga’s WISK program.

Rosie Hessian, the Chair of Community Outreach, Pathways and Youth Engagement for Conestoga College, is responsible for the Jill of All Trades day. She works very hard with her team every year to make the annual event even more successful than the year before, by bringing in new mentors such as Brandi Ferenc, an HVAC Mechanic/Gas Fitter 1 with Johnson Controls. Brandi spoke to the students about her own experiences as a trades person, and her journey from a university degree desk job to being a Red Seal HVAC Mechanic.

Jill of All Trades allows students to select workshops that align with their interests and curiosities. Students choose from several workshops ranging from Automotive Service, Truck and Coach, Heavy Equipment, and Motorcycle Technician, to Masonry, Welding, Plumbing, Millwright, Electrician, Carpentry, and HVAC. Students use the tools of the trades, complete small projects and depart the day with the items they had constructed, new friendships made, and a better understanding of the skilled trades opportunities available to them.

St. David CSS student Melissa Valad said: “I liked HVAC the best. I liked the opportunity to find out and experience a bit of what I would do in the trade.”

Her St. David colleague, Ainslie Huiser, summed the day up best when she said: “It was an eye opening experience, because before this I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and now I know I want to do carpentry.”

Waterloo Region, ON – With the addition of five new sites, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board’s popular and successful “Extended Day” before-and-after-school program is now offered at 37 schools across Waterloo Region – another sign that more and more families across the Region are seeking a quality, inclusive faith-based education for their children.

QuickFacts

> Extended Day Programs enhance the impact of the Full-Day Early Learning Kindergarten Program and are taught from a faith-based perspective. The programs are delivered by teams of Registered Early Childhood Educators (RECE) who are members of the College of Early Childhood Educators.

> The extended day teams are dedicated to providing faith based, quality educational programming. Having an educator from the core day provides a seamless day allowing for consistency and security for both parents and children. The extended day program offers parents a convenient school location, equity of access and a safe and healthy environment for young children.

> The Extended Day program is funded by parent fees and operates on a cost recovery basis only where there is sufficient demand to make the program viable.

Schools offering the before and after school extended day program:

• Blessed Sacrament – Kitchener
• Canadian Martyrs – Kitchener
• Holy Family – New Hamburg
• Holy Spirit – Cambridge
• Monsignor Haller – Kitchener
• Our Lady of Grace – Kitchener
• Our Lady of Fatima – Cambridge (new)
• Our Lady of Lourdes – Waterloo
• Saint John Paul II – Kitchener
• Sir Edgar Bauer – Waterloo
• St. Agnes – Waterloo
• St. Aloysius – Kitchener
• St. Anne – Cambridge
• St. Anne – Kitchener
• St. Augustine – Cambridge (new)
• St. Bernadette – Kitchener
• St. Boniface — Maryhill
• St. Brigid – Ayr
• St. Daniel – Kitchener
• St. Dominic Savio – Kitchener
• St. Elizabeth – Cambridge
• St. Gabriel – Cambridge
• St. John – Kitchener
• St. Joseph – Cambridge
• St. Kateri Tekakwitha – Kitchener (new)
• St. Mark – Kitchener
• St. Matthew – Waterloo
• St. Michael – Cambridge
• St. Nicholas – Waterloo
• St. Paul – Kitchener
• St. Peter – Cambridge (new)
• St. Teresa – Kitchener
• St. Teresa of Avila – Elmira
• St. Teresa of Calcutta – Cambridge
• St. Timothy – Kitchener
• St. Vincent de Paul – Cambridge (new)

Quotes

“We’re very proud of our extended day programs. When parents choose one they know their child will continue receiving the same quality, inclusive, faith-based education they receive during the regular school day. It’s just another example of the tremendous added value our Catholic schools bring to Waterloo Region and a great example of why Catholic education has always been and remains a jewel within our community.”

~~ Loretta Notten, Director of Education

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board, representing more than 96,000 Catholic school supporters, operates 49 schools and five adult education facilities serving more than 40,000 elementary, secondary and continuing education students in Waterloo Region – continuing a 182-year tradition of quality, inclusive, faith-based education. Follow us on Twitter: @WCDSBNewswire – #WCDSBAwesome.

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