Welcome!

I am excited to welcome you to my Grade Two class at St. Jude’s Academy! Students will be taught academics by myself Nicola Coldwells, French by Mme. Rawan, gym by Ms. Vasconcelos and music by Ms. McMillan. I aspire to generate excitement about literacy and education in my students by providing them with a learning environment that is equitable, challenging, and yet fun. This will be my second-year teaching at SJA and I am very eager for the school year to begin. Below is some important information about the first couple weeks of school: 

SJA Student Policy 

• Attached to this email you will find the SJA Student Policy Handbook. Please read it, sign the last page and bring it to me, so I can add to your child’s file. This page is due in the agenda by Friday, September 13^th.

Orientation Night 

• Wednesday, August 28^th: Lower School Orientation (JK – Grade 6), from 5 pm – 7 pm
• Parents and students are invited to visit the school, meet their teachers, see the classrooms, and ask any questions they may have. 

• New families please ensure you pick up your key fob at the front reception area.
• I will be located in Room 25.
• Specialists will be located in Room 29.
• Bussing, Wynne Fitness, and Uniforms will be located in Room 28.

Hot Lunch Program 

      Please know that the website will be closed at 3pm on Aug 30^th and is unable to reopen for September ordering.

      Lunch payments are due no later than September 13^th, after this date it will begin to collect interest.

Below are the instructions for returning families:

*If you have a sibling joining SJA this year please keep in mind you can only use one email per child. 

Step 1 Logon to website http://mydigitalmailroom.com/sja - if you forgot your password or email used please contact bsmith@stjudesacademy.com

Step 2 Across the top menu bar you will see several options, please scroll over MY ACCOUNT, change grade and teacher to reflect new year. Select SAVE

Step 3 Across the top menu bar you will see several options, please scroll over MANAGE LUNCH, a drop-down menu will appear, select ADD NEW LUNCH FORM.

*Don’t forget to select payment method BEFORE ordering. 

Below are the instructions for new families:

**If you have more than one child you will need to use different email addresses for each child. Only one child can be registered and ordered for under a single email address. 

Step 1 Go to website http://mydigitalmailroom.com/sja

      Select register an account 

      Select grade 

      Select class 

      Select teacher 

      Enter in student information

      Accept terms and conditions and select Register

Repeat for additional students. 

Step 2 Across the top menu bar you will see several options, please scroll over MANAGE LUNCH, a drop-down menu will appear, select ADD NEW LUNCH FORM.

*Don’t forget to select payment method BEFORE ordering.

Homework

• Please know that both grade two classes receive the same amount of homework as listed below.

• Students will receive reading folders on Fridays to complete over the weekend. Additionally, students are asked to read for 20 minutes each night on the Raz kids program. Students may periodically bring home incomplete work from the day to finish that night. 

• For Spelling homework students will pick 5 of their spelling words and put them into a small paragraph. Paragraphs will require an opening and closing as well as the words in the middle essentially 4-6 sentences. Students will also be marked on their sentence structure, punctuation and detail.
• If you would like to request work packages to continue skills at home, I will gladly accommodate that.

Agendas 

 Your child will receive an agenda on his/her first day of school. Please read and sign your child’s agenda every day, as important dates, announcements and homework will be included and updated each week. Students need to bring their agendas back and forth to school each day. This is another way of communicating with me. 

Upcoming Event

• August 28^th Orientation
• September 4 First Day of School
• September 4 - 6 Neophyte Week
• September 6 Spirit Day: House Colours Dress Up

Uniform 

• Students are to come to school on Wednesday, September 4th in their gym uniform including WHITE socks. Required gym uniform days are Monday and Wednesday ONLY. After a holiday Monday, students will return on the Tuesday in their dress uniform. 
• Students are to come to school in their full-dress uniform Tuesday, Thursday and Friday including NAVY socks and BLACK polishable dress shoes. Please ensure that all uniform items are to be labelled with your child’s name. 
• Please make sure your child has a pair of black dress shoes and a pair of gym shoes labeled and to be left at the school for their indoor shoes this year. Gym and dress shoes cannot be worn outside. 
• Please, to avoid any discomfort in case of washroom accidents, send in your child’s backpack an extra change of clothes in a plastic bag. The bag will remain in your child’s backpack and it will be used only when needed. 

Blog 

Please visit the class blog daily, as it is a way to stay connected, see what we did during the day, or to find important dates and homework. On the left-side bar of the blog, you will see a tab, “FOLLOW BY EMAIL”, where you are able to enter your email address. In doing so, you will receive an email of my blog every time I post and will not miss out on any important information. Please click this link to visit my blog: https://ncoldwells.blogspot.com/. On my blog you will also find homework, updates, Units of Inquiry, links to important websites and much more!

Food Allergies 

• Please be advised that St. Jude's strives to be a nut free facility. When purchasing items for your child's lunch, please read the packages carefully. If the label says, "may contain nuts,” please refrain from sending that item. Look for products with the nut-free label.

• Please be advised the school does not permit food to be sent in for special events and/or birthdays. Please refer to the birthday policy in the student handbook.

Bloomz

• Please download the FREE app and follow the below instructions in order to register for our classroom for the year.
• You will receive alerts for important information and reminders about upcoming events/assignments.
• You can message me directly and I will respond as soon as I can.
• You will be able to sign up to volunteer for field trips and class events.
• Connect with other parents to send out birthday invites.

Kinderlime

New Parents

• You have been sent an email to sign up with a pin

• Please download the FREE Kinderlime app via APP Store, Google Play etc. Or Visit the website https://www.kinderlime.com
• Complete MUST HAVE information about your child(ren) on APP/Website
• Phone number(s)
• Updated pick up permissions
• Allergy/Medication information
• We strongly suggest you set up automatic payments through the app/website to ensure you will not incur late fees for monthly invoices.
• You can also choose to pay monthly through the app/website.
• Through the app/website you will be able to digitally access monthly break downs (printed copies will not be available) 
• View App/Website daily to see sign in/out times.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this new addition, please contact the Students Services Coordinator at bsmith@stjudesacademy.com

Returning Parents

• Update the MUST HAVE information about your child(ren) on APP/Website
• Phone number(s)
• Updated pick up permissions
• Allergy/Medication information
• If you have not already done so we strongly suggest you set up automatic payments through the app/website to ensure you will not incur late fees for monthly invoices.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this new addition, please contact the Students Services Coordinator at bsmith@stjudesacademy.com

Library

A NOTE FROM THE LIBRARIAN, MS. HAYWARD 

Hello!  I hope everyone has had a great summer and is excited for back to school. I am looking forward to a great third year in the St. Jude's Academy Library. 

We accomplished a lot last year in the library.  We cataloged over 2,300 books in our collection.  We had successful Recess Readers sessions. We started out LIT Club (library helpers). Our Enchanted Forest Book Fair was a huge success allowing us to get over $2,400 worth of new books and resources for the library.  The Library also held some fun contests. And, of course, we checked out a lot of books for the voracious readers at SJA.  

I hope to continue all these things and more. 

Please check out (and follow) the library blog at www.sjslibrary.wordoress.com for all things library and literacy related. See you soon! 

Welcome BBQ 

• Annual SJA Welcome BBQ. This is a great opportunity to meet other families, socialize, and have fun!
• When: September 19th from 4:00-6:00.  
• Where: St. Jude’s Academy
• Tickets for food and drink will be available to purchase.

Contact Information 

• Please email me letting me know how you would prefer to speak at the end of each our Unit of Inquiry. I will be in contact with you 6 times of the year on top of our 2 student lead conferences. In this email, I would like to know if you would like an update on your child by email, phone or in person. 
• I believe that open lines of communication between the parents, students and teachers are the key to promoting an educational climate that is conductive to learning. Please feel free to contact me at any time if there is a question or situation you would like to discuss ncoldwells@stjudesacademy.com

I look forward to meeting you and having a wonderful school year!