Vermilion schools update: VES donation, St. J back

Vermilion Elementary School

VES has been extremely fortunate to receive a donation in the amount of $4,000 from the Vermilion & Area Crisis Line. Judy Walsh brought the cheque to VES and Mr. Anhorn accepted it on behalf of our school.

The Crisis Line is shutting down as a result of 2-1-1 now being present in Alberta, as it was a duplication of service.

We were informed that this money could be used at our discretion, so we are thinking this will be put towards new chrome books. We also have a donation previously from them in the amount of $500 that we thought might be best allocated to the breakfast program, since that program may have additional costs this year.

We are so grateful to the Crisis Line for such a generous donation.

We would like to welcome our new Social Emotional Coach, Tanya Laye. Social Emotional Coaches in Buffalo Trail Public Schools replaced the former Family School Liaison (FSL) workers one year ago.

Tanya will be in our school all day on Wednesdays as well as Friday mornings. Tanya has a diploma in Child and Youth Care and is working towards her degree in Child and Youth Care.

When she is not working, she is usually found on her acreage with her husband and daughter doing gardening and working outside.

She also is kept quite busy with her toddler. We would also like to welcome our new VIBE worker, Ramona Mathison. We look forward to having her work with our staff and students to enhance our programming in the regular classroom.

These individuals will play an even more important role than usual this year in supporting our students.

School photos are this week with Lifetouch Photography. September 15 is for KB and Grade 1-3. September 16 will be KA and Grade 4-6.

We will be having individual photos only, with no group photos taken. The alternative to class group photos that we have opted for will be a composite picture featuring each student in the center surrounded by their classmates.

In Grade 5B, they are tracking the weather in Vermilion against other places in the world, and learning how to enter data in Google Sheets to start off their Weather unit in Science.

They’ve been learning about self-monitoring in reading, and getting back into the Accelerated Reading program to practice it.

VES will not be having our fall fundraiser that was scheduled to begin September 29. We will re-assess this for the Spring Fundraiser and have it only if it is needed.

Dates to Remember:

• Sept. 15 – School Photos for KB and Grades 1-3;
• Sept. 16 – School Photos for KA and Grades 4-6;
• Oct. 9 and 12 – No School.

St. Jerome’s Catholic School

St. Jerome’s staff and students were blessed with the opportunity to return to in-person classes this fall. Teachers and students alike were excited to be back together learning. Things definitely look much different, but everyone is adjusting to the changes well.

Frequent hand sanitizing, separate recesses and breaks with cohort groups, and wearing masks when distancing isn’t possible are just a few of the many new rules and procedures that have been put into place.

Regardless of COVID changes, we are all learning and very happy to be back in class. Many thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Decker for making our school sparkling clean, we greatly appreciate your hard work and dedication!

The Grade 1 students have been busy with alphabet show and tell, reviewing letter sounds, printing, and counting.

The Grade 2 class has been busy learning about their classroom family in religion, completing fun seesaw activities, and completing a fall art project. They enjoyed their first visit to the library and were very excited to sign out books.

To start their rocks and minerals unit, the grade three students did a rock scavenger hunt and are bringing in their most precious rocks from home to examine.

Students in the older grades didn’t waste any time getting back at it, with lots of review this month.

Students are excited that the lunch room and hot lunch will be starting up again soon.

Sarah Dewing has taken over as “head chef” in our kitchen and we can’t wait to taste her cooking!

For physical education students have been taking advantage of the beautiful fall weather and the newly upgraded track.

Unfortunately, due to COVID, many of our school extra-curricular activities and school Masses are on hold for now. Hopefully, if we can stay healthy, we will be back playing sports and at church soon!

The staff at St. Jerome’s would like to thank everyone for being so supportive as we began our new school year.

Stay up to date

Vermilion schools want to keep parents informed and if you want to see what the students have been up to or find out what’s coming up throughout the year, you can follow along here.

Their staff kindly take the time to submit this information.