Year Four!
Our fourth school year began on September 7, 2010 and on the first day we had an enrolment of about 440 students. We also welcomed our new vice-principal, Mrs. Julie Lavalle. Some staff returned from leave - Mrs. Cassar, Mrs. Papineau, Mrs Butera, Ms. Pelltier, Ms. Pierro - while other staff prepared for leaves: Mrs. Farrar, Mrs Alaimo. Miss Sisti came back as Mrs. Karolidis! Some new staff joined our team: Mrs Dunne-Robbins, Mr. Quirk, Ms. Matias, Mrs Monaghan; welcome back Mr. Suppa and Miss Stewart. Mr. Robertson had a new team, with Mr. Leo & Ms. Dhillon. We welcomed quite a few new families to our community, and after a couple of days managed to sort out the class lists and buses!
The Autumn season was launched with our annual Terry Fox walk, Thanksgiving Mass, food drive, and plans for an even more exciting Hallowe'en Dance-a-thon.
This was the year of the "new, revised" reporting system, of two report cards, which meant progress reports were sent home in early November, and the first report card moved to January.
"Where's the Witch" was the theme of the annual Hallowe'en activities, with the final location being Brampton City Hall! We had lots of activities for the week of the dance-a-thon, and of course, lots of great dancing.
After our annual Remembrance Day ceremonies, we started preparation for the season of Advent. Along with the season came some changes: we said a temporary goodbye to Mrs Alaimo, who went on maternity leave, awaiting the arrival of her baby; welcome to Mrs. Kennedy, who was filling in for Mrs. Monoghan, and welcome back to Mrs Paun, whose little one was almost a year old now! Mrs Paun took over her Grade 3 class at the end of November...just in time to get ready for...
The annual Christmas Concert! Our concert was a huge success, witha variety of singing and dancing, all on a Christmas theme of course. Our newly elected trustee, Mr. Scott McLauchlin came to watch.
It's always busy around our school! The new year brought a few changes...Mrs. Alaimo had a baby girl...another dancer we expect! We welcomed Ms. Witte to our ERW team; Mrs. DiPasquale went on leave and Mrs. Melanie Lunn came as Acting Principal for the rest of the year. Then Mrs. Lavalle went on leave after the arrival of her new baby boy, and Mrs. Gina Sideroff came as Acting Vice-Principal! Mrs. Farrar returned from maternity leave and we said goodbye to Miss Stewart.
We continued our tradition of "dance" in February when the whole school took part in 8 weeks of ballroom dancing lessons, learning the tango, foxtrot and merengue, and preparing for a Dance Showcase in Education Week in May. The Dance Showcase was fantastic, with all students from J.K. to Grade 8 performing for an appreciative audience of parents. Our Junior Grade 5 & 6 teams went on to perform at the Ballroom Competition in June where they won both first and second in the junior division!
Mrs. Dias returned from maternity leave, and Mrs. Masters went on maternity leave! Our enrolment continued to grow and we were planning to have about 550 students in the Fall. Our newly registered students continued to include families recently arrived from Iraq, Ghana, Nigeria and Pakistan as well as other nationalities. We also were preparing for our first year of full day kindergarten and saying goodbye to a Father Mac founding teacher as Mrs. Papineau was leaving for a new school in the fall.
The year ended with a very busy last few weeks: class trips, Track & Field, Talent Show, Play Day, Graduation, and our final school Mass with Fr. Papais on June 30. Not much time to squeeze in anything else but the final "clap out" of the grade 8s at the end of the day!
And of course, there are always changes...
"After many years of teaching I have decided to retire at the end of June. I have enjoyed keeping this chronicle of our school, but now it is time for someone else to take over as webauthor and recorder of school history. It has been a great pleasure teaching at Father Francis McSpiritt and I will miss the wonderful staff and the great students I have met here. I wish you all the best in the future."
Mrs. A. Stephens