Welcome to SJA

I am very excited to meet each and every one of you. I’m looking forward to teach your child and providing meaningful experiences to develop a lifelong love for learning. I truly want their first year of school to be a positive experience. If you ever have any questions, you may email me (kpadovan@stjudesacademy.com) or call me at school.

As most of you know, we are an IB School and we operate with IB curriculum, policies and procedures.  Please check their website for more information regarding the program: http://www.ibo.org/

Every IB unit operates under a central idea that acts as a guideline for the learning and development that will be done in the unit.  Within a school year, you child will complete 4 different units, all with different focuses and initiatives.  You can find all four units with the description on our class blog.

Please visit the class blog daily as I post important announcements, pictures, videos and students’ work. To make things easier, please input your email where it says “Followed by email” on the left side bar of the blog. This way you will not miss out on what is happening in our class. Here is the address: https://padovan2019.blogspot.com/

Attached to this email you will find the SJA Family Handbook 2019-2020 and SJA Code of Conduct. Please read them sign the last page of the handbook and bring it to me no later than September 13^th, so I can add to your child’s file.

Here is some important information before school starts:

·        Parent – Teacher Orientation Night is on Wed., Aug. 28^th at 5pm. It is very important that at least one of the parents participate, so you can collect your key fob to enter the school. A $40 deposit is required for the fob. JK parents are all meeting in the cafeteria at 5pm for a general information session. After the general meeting we will walk to our class, which is classroom #1.

·        Specialists teachers will be in room #29, Alpa (uniforms), Anna (busing) and Wynne Fitness will be in room #28. 

·        Students in JK will be attending  French class with Mme. Jessica as well as Physical Education with Ms.V on a daily basis, please check the teachers’ corresponding blogs  for updates: http://mllehousja.blogspot.com/  https://msvphysed.blogspot.com/

·        JKs will attend Music class very other day, please check Mrs. McMillan’s blog for updates: https://mrsmcmillanmusic.blogspot.com/ 

·        On the first day of school, I strongly encourage parents to make the drop off as quickly as possible. I know, it is hard, but it is the most effective way for your child to get into the school routine. I’ll be there for your child! J  No worries! Drop off will take place in the classroom for the JKs (only during the first week of school).

   ·        On September 20^th, from 4-6pm SJA is inviting your family for a fun BBQ event. You will have the opportunity to meet the teachers involved in your child’s school life and other parents. Please see attached flyer.
·        Just a reminder, students are to come to school on Wednesday, September 4^th in their gym uniform. Required gym uniform days are Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, students are to come to school in their full school uniform. Please, label all your child’s uniform items.

 

·        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. If your child is not able to change independently we will be calling you to come to school and change him/her. Please understand, that is part of our policy.

 

·        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 do not send that item. Look for products with the nut-free label.

·        Remember that your child will need to bring 2 pairs of indoor shoes: 1 pair of black dress shoes and 1 pair of indoor running shoes. These shoes will remain at school. If your child cannot tie laces on his/her own, please send in slip-on or velcro shoes. Please label your child's shoes. Children often have the same or very similar shoes.

 

·        For hygiene purposes your child’s bottle of water will be sent home everyday to be washed and returned. Please, place your child’s water bottle in the bin inside the class every morning.

 

·        Please read and sign your child’s agenda every day. Students need to bring their agendas back and forth to school each day. This is another way of communicating with me.  Your child will receive the agenda on his/her first week of school. Please, place the agenda in the bin outside the class.

 

·        Each day a different child will be the Special Helper of the day. The Special Helper will be the line leader, will help lead the calendar routine and is in charge of any special errands for the teacher.  

·        Starting on the second week of school (Sept. 9^th), every Friday 5-6 students will be asked to bring in an object that begins with the letter of the week (i.e .if the letter of the week is “Cc”, then the child might bring in a car). Students will be assessed on how they present their item to the class.

 

·        In regards to class field trips, if you are interested in participating, please let me know as we rotate parents throughout the school year. Parent volunteers are required to submit a clear vulnerable sector check. Please see the SJA Family Handbook for more information.

 

·        Your child is free to bring in a small toy to school, so she or he can play during recess. Please refrain from sending expensive and breakable toys.

·        Kinderlime Information

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 <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. 

 

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

 

·        If you wish to purchase hot lunch for your child, please see the information bellow explaining the steps to do so. 

 

Hot Lunch Program 

·      Please know that the website will be closed at 3pm on Aug 30th 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

 

·        A note from Ms. Hayward: please check out (and follow) the library blog at www.sjslibrary.wordoress.com for all things library and literacy related. 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.

Please contact me if you have any questions.