We will be holding Parent-Teacher Interviews for Grades 9-12 on Thursday, October 20th.

Appointments from 2:00 – 5:00 pm will be held in person at the school. Appointments from 6:00 –

7:30 pm will be held by phone or virtual meeting. This term, you will be able to schedule your

Parent-Teacher Interviews online. If you wish to schedule a meeting with any of your child’s teachers,

please follow the instructions printed further down the page. You will be able to schedule appointments

until October 19 th at 11:00 pm.

Instructions

1. Go to the St. Pat’s scheduling webpage at https://parentinterview.com/s/stpat

2. Enter the Parent Code (printed below) and click “Sign In” (please make a note of your Confirmation #)

3. Fill in your contact information and click “Continue to Make Appointments”

4. Click on the name of a teacher with whom you wish to schedule an appointment

5. Click on “Available” for a time at which you wish to have your meeting

6. Repeat Steps 4 and 5 until you have scheduled all the teachers you wish to meet

7. Click on “My Schedule” (top left of the page)

8. Print out, email or copy down your schedule

The Parent Code for this term is

PAT2022

Do not share this code with anyone outside your school community

Should you wish to delete an appointment you have made, click on "Delete" beside the meeting you

wish to have removed from your schedule. If you misplace your schedule, you may use your

Confirmation # to retrieve your schedule from the website at any time. If you need help using the

service, please email support@parentinterview.com

We look forward to speaking with you.

In this issue

- Principal’s Message

- Catholic School Council

- Introducing our Grad Coach for Black Students

- Updates from the Student Services Team

- Grad Hoodie Store is Open

- Black Student Association

- High School Athletics

- Reminders About Strangers in the Neighbourhood

- Important Dates

Quick Links

St. Patrick

OCSB

CSPA

OSTA

Parish Links

Immaculate Heart of Mary

613-733-9636

Trustee for Zone 8 - Alta Vista - Gloucester - Southgate Wards

Mark Mullan

Chairperson

(613) 841-4836

mark.mullan@ocsb.ca

Principal’s Message

We welcome the month of October after a busy September! During the month of September we held our Meet the Teacher, celebrated our Opening Liturgies, and had a number of sports teams begin their season.

We also honoured our Indigenous communities while discussing a pathway to reconciliACTION. Our National Truth and Reconciliation Week Committee offered our community moments of reflection so that we can commit to #ocsbReconciliAction by learning, listening, and praying. Resources were shared and activities were taking place in classrooms to enter into dialogue with our students. On Friday, we joined with Canadians across the country in Orange Shirt Day and were grateful for the leadership of our Indigenous students and staff who led us in prayer as we engaged in a day of reflection and commitment to action.

This Friday is a PD Day (no school for students) and leads into the Thanksgiving weekend. I want to thank all of our families for continuing to make St Patrick’s High School the place to be! Our enrollment has increased since last year and we are thankful for each and every one of you!

Stay Safe and Be Well!

Mme Al Koura

Catholic School Council

We held our first Catholic School Council meeting on September 26th. Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth Gibbons (Chair), Dawn Eady-Dowdall (Vice-Chair) and Nadine Robinson (CSPA Representative).

Our next meeting will take place virtually at 7:00 pm on November 7th. Please email the school to get a link for the meeting.

Introducing our Graduation Coach for Black Students

We are thrilled to introduce our new Graduation Coach for Black Students, Mr. David Kajoba. His home schools are St. Patrick’s and Lester B. Pearson and he’s here to help! Follow him on Twitter @kajoba_d and reach out directly to him via email at david.kajoba@ocsb.ca.

Updates from the Student Services Team

#IAMSTPATS, Dedicated To My Pathway: Rolled out April 2022 - present

• School wide campaign (including our seven feeder schools)

• Helping our students identify and maintain their individual pathways

• Recreating our Irish Family school community, showcasing every aspect of our school, including our SPH Alumni and community supporters

More info: #IAMSTPATS Campaign

University of Ottawa school visit: Tuesday, October 4 @ Lunch in the St. Patrick’s HS Learning Commons (#IAMSTPATS)

A representative from the university will provide SPH students with information and answer questions regarding programming, scholarships, important deadlines and support available on campus.

Mandatory Grad Assembly: Thursday, October 6, Period 1 in the St. Patrick’s HS Cafetorium (#IAMSTPATS)

Our Student Services department will be addressing our gr. 12 students around graduation requirements, university and college applications, scholarship information and important graduation and application dates.

Gr. 12 Classroom Visits (#IAMSTPATS):

Our Student Services team will be visiting all of our gr. 12 classrooms over the next couple of weeks to speak to students around their individual pathways. Each student will receive a hard copy of their credit summary sheet to reference their credit accumulation, community service hours and the Ontario School Literacy requirement. In addition, we will be able to provide further clarification around post secondary opportunities and answer any questions around pathways.

Grad Hoodie Store is Open

The grade 12 grad hoodie store is open until October 5, 2022. Go to gradwear.ca and select St. Patrick's High School - GRAD account. The direct link may also be found at: https://grdwr.co/StPatricksGrads2023

Delivery to the school is free of charge, and students will be contacted for pickup in room 070 when the item has arrived. There is a $15.00 shipping fee if you select delivery to your home address.

The brand name is Champion and the composition is 50% cotton/50% polyester. Please check the online sizing chart when ordering, and if you are between two sizes, order the larger size.

All grads received this information directly in their school email account.

The store will be open until October 5th, 2022.

See Ms. Laderoute in Room 070 for questions. 613-733-0501 ext 3070

Black Student Association

The Black Student Association or BSA is starting up again for the school year. This student-led club for students is open to all grades. It aims to provide a safe space where Black students can speak their truths and support each other. We aim to allow students to use their voices to help create ideas for positive change in their school community while making new friends, and sharing our lived experiences. If your child is interested in joining the BSA please ask them to complete the following form and a student leader will reach out to invite them to our next meeting: BSA Sign Up

High School Athletics

We are excited to have our St. Patrick’s Irish High School sports team returning to action for another year. This Fall, the following teams have been hosting tryouts and practicing, getting themselves ready to start their seasons:

Varsity Girls Basketball Varsity Girls Rugby 7’s

Sr Boys Volleyball Varsity Non-Contact Hockey

Varsity Football X-Country Running

Varsity Boys Soccer

Our spectator policy this year will allow St. Pat’s students (who were in attendance in class the day of the game) to attend all games. Parents/guardians of both our team and visiting teams are also welcome.

Upcoming Winter season sports include Sr. and Jr. Boys Basketball and Sr Girls Volleyball. Students should be listening to announcements and looking for sign-up posters soon.

Our players and coaches are looking forward to your support on the fields, rinks and courts.

Reminder about Strangers in the Neighbourhood

We have had a number of reports about strangers trying to interact with our students as they walk in the neighbourhood and/or on the path behind our neighbouring schools. Although it may seem odd to be speaking of “Stranger Danger” with High School students, we are never too old to be extra cautious. Please take a moment to have a conversation with your children about the importance of not engaging in conversations with strangers, not sharing any personal information with them and to report to a trusted adult if the strangers are making them feel uncomfortable. It is also extremely important to NOT take or ingest anything from a stranger. We are NEVER TOO OLD TO BE SAFE!!!!

Important Dates

Please mark your calendars!

Grad Assembly (Gr. 12s) - Period 1

October 6, 2022

PD Day

October 7, 2022

Thanksgiving

October 10, 2022

Vaccination Clinic for Grades 7/8

October 12-13, 2022

H.S. Letters of Intervention

October 13, 2022

H.S. Parent-Teacher Interviews (Early Dismissal)

October 20, 2022

OCSB Black Student Forum

October 27, 2022

Photo Retakes

October 27, 2022

Take Our Kids to Work Day (Grade 9s)

November 2, 2022

Civics/Careers Turnaround Day

November 9th, 2022

Remembrance Day

November 11th, 2022

PD Day

November 18th, 2022

7/8 Parent-Teacher Interviews (Early Dismissal)

November 24, 2022

God Bless!

St. Patrick’s High School

2525 Alta Vista Drive

Ottawa, ON K1V 7T3

Phone: 613-733-0501

Email: Patrick.High@ocsb.ca

Website: sph.ocsb.ca

Twitter: stpatricksIRISH

The provincial government has revised the high school graduation requirements to include mandatory online courses. Students still need to earn 30-course credits to receive their Ontario Secondary School Diploma, but at least two of those credits need to be from e-learning courses.

Who’s affected?

The new requirement applies to any student currently in grade 10 or below. It does not affect students currently in grades 11 and 12.

Why the change?

The new requirement is intended to help students become familiar with working and learning in a fully online environment. e-Learning courses help develop digital literacy and other necessary transferable skills that will serve students well in all aspects of their lives.

What counts as an e-learning course?

An e-learning course is any asynchronous grade 9-12 online learning credit course delivered entirely using the internet. It does not require students to be present with one another or with their educator in the school or online. Because courses taken through St. Josephine Virtual High School are synchronous, they do not meet the criteria for this requirement.

Advantages of e-learning

In addition to developing students’ digital fluency and skills, e-learning courses have several other benefits. Students have access to a broader selection of courses and are not limited to those offered by their home school. Because the courses are asynchronous, students have greater flexibility and can choose to learn when best suits their schedule.

e-Learning at the OCSB continues to grow

The OCSB has offered e-learning courses since 2014. Both course offerings and participation have grown significantly since then. This year, 13% of students in grades 11 and 12 are enrolled in e-learning courses. When surveyed, 89% of current OCSB e-Learning students said they would take another e-learning course. Next year, we will offer 42 e-learning courses. These are designated with a J or a V in myBlueprint. Students can also talk to their guidance counselor to access additional courses offered by school boards across Ontario.

Can my child be exempted?

Despite its advantages, e-learning is not for everyone. Parents/guardians may opt out their child from the mandatory e-learning graduation requirement. Log into the parent portal and complete the Mandatory e-Learning Opt-out form to exempt your child from the graduation requirement. By completing the form in the Parent Portal, all your child’s student information will be automatically filled in.

If you do not have a parent portal account, you can use this link to access the Mandatory e-Learning Opt-out form.

Students who opt out of the e-learning courses will need to complete all 30 of their credits through in-person courses. Students will be reminded of the e-learning requirement and the option to opt out each spring during the course selection period.