Family Newsletter ~ Sep. 19, 2019

Family Fun Day

All families are encouraged to join us a week from Sunday for our first Family Fun Day! Please remember to RSVP to assist with planning.

NWEA Testing

NWEA tests will resume next week for those classes/students who have not yet finished. Once again, please help students feel prepared with healthy foods, plenty of rest, and a great attitude.

Grandparents Day Preparation

We will need to spend a little time at the church next Thursday 9/26 practicing for the Grandparents Day program. After lunch students will be bussed to the church and we will dismiss the students from there. Hicks buses will collect the children at the church, and those who pick up are asked to do so from there.

If you have any changes to the grandparents attending, please let us know as we like to have nametags ready for them upon arrival.

Grandparents Day

Thank you for providing us with the addresses which allowed us to send invitations to grandparents. We are looking forward to their visit next week. The students will begin and end the day AT THE SCHOOL. They will ride the blue bus to the church, go to 8:30 Mass (grandparents meet us there), share a short music program, have refreshments, and then return to the school on the bus. Grandparents are welcome to drive back to the school and join us for a visit. We will close the visit with our Friday Marathon Rally at about 11:00 AM.

Marathon Update ad Planning

We have had an outstanding week in our marathon collections. As of this morning, our count has reached $20,793! Please keep this a secret from your kids until we announce it at the rally tomorrow afternoon. We are over the halfway point now, so we’ve got to kick it up to high gear for these last two weeks. Please get out there and do your best—we REALLY want to reach our goal by Marathon Day 10/4! Updates are being posted on our website in the meantime—www.schoolofstphilip.org .

Speaking of Marathon Day, we hope you’ll join us for the day. We begin with Mass at 8:30, do the walk around 9:30, and then come back to the church for lunch around 11:00. After lunch we have a nice prayer service where we read all of the collected intentions of our donors. We then share the total (and celebrate wildly when we share that we’ve done it! 😊). Students are then dismissed for the day – approximately 1:00. Please make arrangements for pick up if you are unable to be there for the day.

REMIND App

If you still have not signed up for the REMIND app, please do so asap. This is a great way for us to communicate with you!

Reading Counts

Last year we began the Reading Counts program at our school. This initiative helps to challenge students to read independently, an important piece that some kids do not readily do on their own. This year our teachers will set reading goals for each individual student based on their developmental levels. It is an expectation that all students will meet these goals by Oct. 31. Those who meet their goals will have a short movie time in the afternoon of November 1st following the All Saints Day noon Mass. It is our hope to instill a love of literature in our students and grow their fluency and comprehension skills. Please help us at home to find books/series they love and carve out “sacred” reading time. This will be time well-spent!