Niagara Catholic District School Board

Good morning, and happy Wednesday. The State of Emergency coming into effect at midnight won't stop our Virtual Open Houses - we are ready to show you the best that Niagara Catholic has to offer, only online! You may already have seen the video series in your social feed, but in case you missed it, we're sharing it here, too, starting with our Kindergarten Open House one. The Kindergarten Open Houses will take place on Zoom January 27. Session times will be posted on school websites next week for parents to pre-register and receive your link. In the meantime, please enjoy this video with some really adorable kiddos. https://vimeo.com/500095385

Looking for a job? Join the Niagara Catholic family in 2021. Details in the post. #virtualjobfair

UPDATE: The phone issue at the Catholic Education Centre has been resolved. Good morning! We have been advised that there is phone system issue at the Catholic Education Centre. We are currently looking into the issue and hope to have it resolved this morning. Email continues to work and we will advise when the issue is resolved.

Who says there’s "snow" fun at work?! With the snow falling outside, and a couple of days spent inside reading, our little #officeelf George and his friends decided a snowball fight was in order. It’s a great opportunity for a #maskbreak as well. Be careful, though, everyone ... we don’t want #healthandsafety to shut down your #winterfun

Good morning, and Happy Friday before the Christmas break! A couple of things before signing off (more or less) for the holidays: We are very up-in-the-air about what could happen in January, so expect the unexpected. IF schools switch to virtual, we will notify families through School Messenger, our Board website and social media just as soon as we hear. Otherwise, we will see everyone where they are scheduled to be on January 4, 2021. ... For those who did not receive the Director's Christmas message to you, please read it here: https://niagaracatholic.ca//2020-Christmas-message-to-fami We have a couple of cute stories to post that will go up intermittently over the coming weeks - scenes from Christmas concerts and displays, that we hope you will enjoy. For today, it actually feels kind of Christmassy. Enjoy the sunshine, stay well and safe, and we'll drop in some ICYMI posts throughout the week. Happy Friday, everyone!!

Hey George! THERE you are! Downstairs with our Mental Health Lead, reading up on #empathy and #resilience - an important message for all of us, particularly at this time of the year. Hope you and your friend there learn lots from what you read. #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealth

Goooooood snowy morning, Niagara Catholic! It's beginning to feel a little more like Christmas. We missed this story last week, but here's a cool story about Grade 12 Saint Michael Catholic High School student Madi Burnside, who turned losing a job opportunity due to COVID-19 into her own little cottage industry. Thank you to Alison Langley for the story, and congratulations to Madi on her fledgling business! We're sure you have a bright future in front of you :) https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca//niagara-teen-turns-hobb

Hi everyone: This is a message for secondary students and their families. If you have not received it already, you should get a call/email about changes to the schedule for Semester 2. Read it here: https://cdn.niagaracatholic.ca//Secondary-letter-to-famili

There goes George, off on a new assignment! Thanks for visiting with us, and we’re glad you learned all about the true meaning of #christmas Safe travels to your new home!

Week two of virtual learning - here we go! You’ve totally got this, and don’t sweat the small stuff. Hoping for a week free of internet glitches, but we’ll roll with the challenges we’re given. Meanwhile, ask yourself, Who have I lifted up lately? Lift someone up this week, and you’ll be amazed at what good it does for you. That’s your Monday Motivation for today. Have a fantastic day and week, everyone!!

You would think growing up in the North Pole, George would know how to ski! Good thing he has a friend to help hold him up! Rumour has it this is George’s last day, so we’re glad he’s having fun.

Did you know that Niagara Catholic will provide French Immersion in secondary school in September, 2021? Find out more in a virtual parent information session tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. Details here: https://niagaracatholic.ca/secondary-french-immersion/

Good morning, one and all, and Happy Monday! For those of you who aren't big on Monday and find them tough, here's your reminder that you are tougher! ICYMI - Director of Education Camillo Cipriano was just on the line with Tim Denis from 610 CKTB talking about COVID in schools. We'll post the link to the interview a little later. And don't forget the Facebook Live event with Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School at 1 p.m. as the Y2K time capsule is revealed. That's on the Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School Facebook page. It's a big, awesome Monday here - make yours big and awesome, too!

Goooooood morning, and welcome to a truly fantastic Friday! It's the final day of Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week, and today we are happy to a photo this morning at Saint Michael Catholic High School, with everyone in their pink shirts to show solidarity against bullying. An advance announcement for Monday - Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School will livestream the opening of the school's Y2K time capsule on Facebook Live beginning at 1 p.m. Former Raiders, check it out. And listen live on 610 CKTB at 4:45 p.m. today to hear principal Andrew Boon talk about the event with Tom McConnell. Whatever you do today, make it awesome!

Hello there, and Happy Monday. Hope everyone's day is going well so far - and secondary students, welcome to the second half of your first semester! This is your Monday reminder to show everyone that You. Are. Awesome.

Hi George! What are you doing up in the Christmas tree? Are you looking for some #peace in the #secondweekofadvent #officeelf

Let's close off the week with a fantastic story about students from the Niagara Launch Centre who are helping to make spirits bright in Niagara Falls, by building Christmas cabins for an outdoor Christmas market in the city. There are lots of other projects on the go for students, including ones for some of our youngest and oldest in the community, as well as four-legged friends. Read the story here: https://www.niagarafallsreview.ca//niagara-students-put-th

UPDATE: The power is on! Good morning - the power is out at St. John Catholic Elementary School in Beamsville. We're waiting to hear from hydro for more details about when power will be back on, but students are safe inside the building.

This is a very sad, yet lovely story, that sounds like it’s based on a novel Nicholas Sparks or John Green. But this Hollywood movie is a true-life love story that originated in St. Catharines, and the tragic leading man was a graduate of Holy Crosss Catholic Secondary School. Thank you to John Law from The Review for the story. Apologies if it’s behind the paywall for some - that’s out of our control - but for those able to access it, give it a read. https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca//tragic-new-tearjerker

Good morning! Here we are at Thursday already! Niagara Catholic is committed to ensuring our schools are safe, caring, inclusive communities for our students and our staff. As part of our theme this week promoting both bullying awareness and prevention and cyber safety, here's a great resource from UNICEF about recognizing - and preventing - cyberbullying. Stay well and safe! https://www.unicef.org/end-viole/how-to-stop-cyberbullying

Good morning, and happy Wednesday. We know you love school, but we also know you love a PD Day. Enjoy this rare-as-a-white-moose mid-week PD Day, and we'll see everyone scheduled to be in school tomorrow, back in class tomorrow. While you're at home, your teachers, principals and all school staff are busy doing some awesome professional development to help them continue to be the fantastic work they do for you every day! Stay safe, everyone!

Good morning, Niagara Catholic, and welcome to the end of the week. Today is Friday the 13th, which makes it EXACTLY eight months since our pandemic nightmare began. So hooray just what we need, ANOTHER Friday the 13th in 2020. It’s enough to make a triskaidekaphobiac (that’s someone with a fear of Friday the 13th) want to stay in bed. ... According to today’s Friday the 13th story on BBC, it’s not only the number 13 that’s known for bad luck. Fridays might be the end of a work and school week, but they have their own sketchy reputation for bad luck as well. But what’s the deal on Fridays and 13 being bad luck? Fridays were known as Hangman’s Day in England, because that’s the day that people condemned to death would be hanged. Ironically, Good Friday is the only day that is known to have a good omen. The number 13’s bad reputation also has roots in the Bible and in Norse mythology. During the Last Supper, the 12 disciples and Christ ate dinner together. Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest to sit down. For the Norse, the 13th guest was Loki, who caused the world to be plunged into darkness. And so, it has been bad luck to have 13 at table, as Ludwig Bemelmens noted in one of his Madeline books. In France, it was deemed so unlucky to have 13 people at a dinner party that socialites known as quatorziens fourteeners were invited to prevent bad luck tainting the event. Did you know that the way the calendar falls, if the first of the month is a Sunday, there will be a Friday the 13th in that month? Most years have two months with Friday the 13th in 2019, it was September and December. This year, it’s March and November. And if February has a Friday the 13th (in a non-leap year), March will, too. That last happened in 2015. Friday the 13th is particularly unlucky if it falls on a full moon. Born on Friday the 13th? You’re the outlier the day is actually good luck for you. Whatever you make of today, make it a great one! Stay well and safe, and have a great weekend!

Good morning, everyone, and Happy Tuesday. Eyewitness weather from the Niagara Catholic Weather Desk (we're baaa-aack!) spotted what was at first thought to be a stray midge flying outside and was later confirmed to be a very determined snowflake. Sigh. Well, since we're all staying home and putting up Christmas decorations and making things look festive so we can all feel a bit better with settling down our long winter's nap (thank you, Samuel L. Clements), it might as wel...l be pretty. Did you know it's Bullying Awareness and Prevention Week in Ontario? And it's also the final week of an awareness campaign about cyber-safety. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has some incredible resources that we're going to share this week, starting with this great Tweens and Teens in the Digital World resource guide, which touches on both topics. Stay safe and well, and have an awesome day, everyone! https://protectchildren.ca//C3P_ParentingintheDigitalWorld

Goooood morning, everyone, and Happy Thursday! We've got another gorgeous day out there today - although someone seems to have turned down the furnace a bit. Still, any day you're in double-digits and sunshine in November is what is known as a Very Good Day. Today, we're thankful for the stretch of decidedly un-November like weather, and for all of our students, staff and families. Have an awesome day, everyone!

At the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month 102 years ago, an armistice was signed at Le Francport, France, ending the land, sea and air battles of the First World War; the Great War, the War to End All Wars. Seventy-five years ago, the Second World War ended, first, in Europe, with V-E Day on May 8, 1945, when Allied troops accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, and then on September 2, when Japan surrendered to the United States by signi...ng the Instrument of Surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. There have been many wars after these. Too many wars after these. In Korea. The Middle East. Afghanistan. The Falkland Islands. Rwanda. Bosnia. These, in addition to peacekeeping missions. Six hundred and fifty thousand young men and women served Canada in the First World War. A million Canadians and Newfoundlanders served in World War Two. Twenty-six thousand Canadian soldiers served in Korea. And more than 40,000 served in Afghanistan. Sixty-one thousand of those young men died in the First World War. Another 45,000 were lost in the Second World War. Five hundred and sixteen Canadians gave their lives in the Korean War. And 130 soldiers were killed in action in Rwanda and in other peacekeeping missions. One hundred and fifty-eight Canadians died in Afghanistan, including our own Cpl. Tyler Crooks, an alumnus of Lakeshore Catholic High School, killed on his 24th birthday on March 20, 2009, and fellow Niagara natives Dennis Brown and Albert Storm. Twenty-three more were killed in Bosnia. All told, that’s nearly 110,000 Canadian soldiers, most of them young men, many of them lying in graves in foreign lands. That’s scores of young Canadians who suffered physical injuries that impacted their lives. And virtually every one of those 1.6 million Canadian soldiers carried and still carry the ghosts of battles and atrocities seen in service throughout their lives. We remember those lost: The fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and great-great grandfathers, uncles, cousins and brothers of our students and staff; particularly the Crooks family. We remember those who returned injured and infirm. And we remember those who left for war innocent in their youth, and returned as profoundly changed adults. Lest We Forget.