St. Daniel Weekly Update

June 2 - June 6, 2025

Prayer

Loving Creator,
In this month of blooming flowers and growing gardens, we thank You for the beauty of new life all around us. Just as the earth awakens with color and hope, help our hearts open with wonder and joy.

Bless our students as they learn, play, and grow each day. May they feel safe, loved, and curious, ready to explore the world You have made. Help them to be kind friends and eager learners.

Bless our teachers, early childhood educators, and staff with gentle hands, open hearts, and creative minds. Give them strength and joy as they guide each child with care and compassion.

May our schools be like gardens - full of light, laughter, and love - where every child is seen, every gift is celebrated, and every day is a chance to grow closer to You.

Thirty-Sixth Week of School

For our Grade 3 and Grade 6 students, this is EQAO week.  For the Grade 3 students, this will be the first time that they will write a Provincial Assessment.  For our Grade 6 students, this will be the second time that they will write a Provincial Assessment.  Our teachers and other support staff have prepared them for this week.

Each assessment has a language component consisting of four different sessions, and a mathematics component consisting of four different stages. Students complete a session or stage in one continuous sitting. These sessions or stages can be undertaken back to back with breaks in between or on different dates and times. The language component consists of four sessions: two reading sessions and two writing sessions. Each session is designed to be completed within approximately 35 minutes. The mathematics component contains a total of four stages. Each stage is designed to be completed within approximately 30 minutes.

All of the testing is now completed on chromebooks. 

Our Book Fair brought a wonderful wave of excitement and joy to the school all week long! There's a special kind of magic in picking out a favourite book, and we saw plenty of that happening. A huge thank you goes to Mr. Ryan for his incredible work and effort – without his dedication, this fantastic event wouldn't have been possible.

Speaking of excitement, hockey fever is clearly still in the air! We've noticed one of our 'Lions' sporting his Edmonton Oilers jersey on game days, and a victory often seems to follow. He's not the only fan, either – we've discovered Mme. Rachel Minkutu is also cheering for the Oilers. It's great to share this excitement. GO, CANADA'S LAST TEAM!

The week ended with a beautiful day that all our Lions enjoyed. It was great to see so many supporting the Grade 6 end-of-year trip and leaving ceremony by purchasing a cool treat.

PD DAY

Just a reminder that June 6, 2025 will be a PD Day.  There is no school for students.

EDP Entry and Exit Door

To further enhance student safety and school security, a new pin pad system has been installed at the main front entrance. All student drop-offs and pick-ups for EDP will now be facilitated through this single point of entry. Consequently, the EDP access code will only function with the front door pin pad. The front parking lot has been allocated for EDP parent use during drop-off and pick-up times. The rear parking lot is now designated for staff parking only. Please note the operational hours for the front pin pad: access is available from 7:00 AM until 9:00 AM and resumes at 3:45 PM to 6:00 PM. We appreciate your cooperation as we implement these important safety improvements.

As a reminder, the north side of the street in front of the school is a no-stopping zone. Please be mindful of the no-parking zone on the south side as well. Please use the front parking lot for drop off and pick up.

Freezie Thursday

The grade 6’s are at it again!

We will be selling freezies on Thursday, June 5th. A jumbo Freezie is $2 and half of a jumbo is $1. 

All proceeds will go toward the Grade 6 Year End Trip and Leaving Ceremony. To purchase tickets, please go to cash on line. 

Fire Drill Practice

The second practice was to have taken place on the 30th of May.  Unfortunately with EQAO testing going on, we felt it would be too disruptive.  We have rescheduled this for Monday, June 2. Finally our last practice will be on the 4th of June.

September Planning

Planning for September is well underway.  To help with staffing and scheduling, please let us know as soon as possible if your family (JK - Gr. 5) is planning to change schools in September.  You can call the school at 613-225-4603 or email us at Daniel@ocsb.ca.  Please include if your children will attending another school in Ottawa or if your family will be moving outside of Ottawa, please let us know the province or country where you will be living.

There is no need to respond if your family plans to return to St. Daniel in the fall.  We'll be happy to have you back!

Hello St. Daniel School

I hope that you and your students are doing well! 

 I am writing to invite families at your school to visit the Ottawa Public Library this summer to take part in the annual, Canada-wide TD Summer Reading Club literacy initiative! 

The TD Summer Reading Club (TDSRC) is Canada’s biggest, bilingual summer reading program for kids of all ages, interests and abilities. This free Club is offered at more than 2,200 public libraries across Canada, as well as online. The TDSRC celebrates Canadian authors, illustrators and stories, and inspires kids to explore the fun of reading their way. This is key to building a lifelong love of reading.  For more information about the TDSRC, follow this link: www.tdsummerreadingclub.ca. 

We’re starting to plan our June school visits to let students and teachers know about the Summer Reading Club. As you know it’s a fun presentation to get children excited about summer reading, and avoid the summer slide. 

What to expect from this visit: 

• We can usually speak to 2-3 classes at a time (usually close in grade level) 

• Each presentation is about 20-25 minutes, but we can be flexible on timing to suit your school’s schedule 

• The school usually sets up a schedule/sign-up list for teachers, and the classes come visit us in the library/Learning Commons, based on that schedule.  

I was wondering if you wanted to set up a visit for your schools? Right now, we have availability in late May-early June. Please let me know what works best for you, and we’ll go from there! 

Children are also invited to pick up their free TD Summer Reading Club kit at any OPL branch starting June 9th, and to join us at the library for free Club programs: https://biblioottawalibrary.ca/en/program. We hope to engage all children in our city in the joy of reading this summer, supporting their continuing success at school next year. 

You will find a letter to families attached to this email. Please share widely to help us promote this important initiative.  

Thank you in advance for helping us to promote the TD Summer Reading Club program to children and families at your school! 

Sincerely, 

Suzanne McCormack (she/her/elle)

Supervising Librarian, Children's and Teen Services / Bibliothécaire superviseure, services aux enfants et aux adolescents

Succursale Nepean Centrepointe Branch, Ottawa Public Library | Bibliothèque publique d'Ottawa

BOOKFAIR

Thank you to Mr. Ryan, who made the 2025 Bookfair a huge success.  We certainly hope to welcome the Bookfair back to St. Daniel next year.

School Climate Survey

It is once again time for the School Climate Survey to be administered. This is a Ministry of Education requirement. There will be three school climate surveys - one for students (grades 4-12), one for staff and one for parents/guardians. The parent survey will be “live” on Wednesday May 7. The student and staff survey will be “live” May 26 - June 13. For the student survey, there are 2 versions so that students respond to an age-appropriate survey, accessed when the school code is entered.

This is the Parent letter 

This letter contains the following information:

1) Information about the survey in general

2) Information about consent for the student survey

3) Invitation for parents to complete the parent survey with the link included

4) Contact information for the research team from Ottawa U should there be questions about research or ethics 

St. Daniel Spirit Wear

St. Daniel Spiritwear is now available to order on our new webstore.  Please go to https://stdaniel.secure-decoration.com/ to shop our expanded line of St. Daniel merch!  

The webstore will remain open year round. THIS IS ALSO ON THE LANDING PAGE OF OUR SCHOOL WEBSITE.

OSTA

Ottawa Student Transportation Authority has launched a user-friendly progressive web application to

provide real-time updates about your child’s transportation status. With this app, you’ll receive timely

alerts and notifications directly to your device via push notifications. It’s easy to set up, it’s free, and

notifications are instant. The app will replace emails when it comes to weather cancellation

notifications only; emails will still be circulated for delays, cancellations and other alerts.

Visit www.ottawaschoolbus.ca to learn more. Questions and concerns can be directed to

pwahelp@ottawaschoolbus.ca.This initiative reflects our commitment to better serving our communities and improving the well-being of our students during transportation.

Summer Camps

Game On 2025 Summer Camp

June 30-July 4 (4 day-camp; $199 cost; St Pius location only)

July 7-11; 14-18; 21-25 & July 28-August 1

Ages: 7-13 yrs

Price: $249 (Sibling: $239, first child pays full price)

9:00 am – 4:00 pm (Pre-camp 8:30 – 9:00 am; Post-camp 4:00 – 4:30 pm)
Locations - St Pius HS (Nepean) & St Mother Teresa (Barrhaven)

The Goal of Game On is for campers to actively participate in a variety of sports with the FOCUS on FUN!

The sports include: basketball, volleyball, soccer, badminton, tchoukball, ultimate, disc golf, floorball, target games and others. Adult educators as head instructors. Professional sport-specific instruction with the aim to develop and improve Fundamental Movement Skills by experienced Physical Education teachers. Includes camp t-shirt (one per camper), daily/weekly prizes & Friday Pizza Day.

Game On Camp Information

Game On Summer Registration

Parking

As a reminder, the north side of the street in front of the school is a no-stopping zone. Please be mindful of the no-parking zone on the south side as well. We've noticed increased congestion in these areas, which creates a potentially unsafe environment for our students and neighbours.

To help alleviate this, we kindly ask that you park a block away and walk the short distance to school. Your cooperation in making our school zone a safer place for everyone in our community is greatly appreciated!

Breakfast Program

Dear Parents/Guardians,

All students are invited to attend the breakfast program.  If you do not want your child to participate in the breakfast program, kindly contact your teacher with this request.

Arrival / Dismissal Drop off / Pick up

Please be aware the procedures that are in place for dismissal and pick up.  To promote the safety of our students at St Daniel Catholic School, we have developed and implemented a plan to ensure the safe arrival and dismissal of our children. Parents and school staff have a vital role in this process. 

ARRIVAL: Children enter the gate which is located at the east end of the school . They do so between 9:00 - 9:15 a.m. Students will then proceed to the schoolyard. No adults are allowed on the school yard before, during or after school. Educators will be in these designated areas.  At 9:15 when the bell rings, students will line up with classes, and then they will proceed into the school through their designated door, and be escorted with their teacher to their classroom.  In the case of inclement weather, students will enter the school from designated doors, and be directed by staff to their classrooms. We ask your full cooperation as the safety and security of our children is a whole school approach.  

Dismissal:  Everyone will be dismissed from their classrooms between 3:38 - 3:45pm.  When the buses arrive, kinders will start boarding buses at 3:40, followed by Grades 1-6 students.  EDP students will leave at 3:44 to walk directly to EDP.  Walkers will leave at 3:44 to leave school for home.  

Drop Off /Pick UP If you are driving your child to school in the morning or picking them up at dismissal time, we ask you to park your car away from the school and WALK-A-BLOCK. We ask that you do not enter the Bus drop off zone, these are off limits to all cars between 9:00 AM - 9:30 PM and  3:30 PM - 4:00 PM .

Reminder EDP

We kindly request that students and parents refrain from entering classrooms and the junior floor area before and after school. These rules have been in place for some time and we appreciate your cooperation in following them.

St. Daniel Catholic School Council  

Next Meeting: June 17, 2025  LC

Council News: Parent Pulse

School Website

We encourage all of our Parents/Guardians to check our St. Daniel website daily during the week.  Updated information from the Board is published, as well as weekly updates from the school, as well as important dates  listed on the school calendar. Please take note that the information that is on weekly updates will also be sent via school messenger.

School Messenger

 Please sign up for School messenger to make sure you will be receiving all communication from our school. If this is not completed you may miss out on receiving some important announcements from our school. School Messenger

Parent Portal

****** VERY IMPORTANT TO COMPLETE THIS PROCESS OR YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO ACCESS REPORT CARDS 

Please visit Login - enCompass to access your students information and in future their report cards.  Please review the contact information listed.  If any changes need to be made please email Daniel@ocsb.ca with the new updates.  

Office Administrator 

Please take note that often times you will not be able to speak to our Office Administrators 30 minutes before the end of school bell at 3:45 PM. This is a very busy time.  Requests to have students be removed from the bus or ready for you to pick them up early should be done in the morning,  by communication in the agenda or a voicemail message before 12:00 PM.  Please understand that these types of requests may not be addressed if you are calling late. We would kindly ask that if you are requesting a pick up at 3:30, please wait until 3:45.

Thank you 

Important Dates

June 2   Practice Fire Drill

June 4   Practice Fire Drill

June 4    Edmonton vs Florida

June 5   Volunteer Breakfast

June 6    PD DAY

Triduum Schedule