Your Weekly Update

Prayer to Begin a School Year

Blessed are you, Lord God,

Creator of body and mind and heart;

you have sent the Spirit of wisdom and knowledge

to guide your people in all their ways.

At the beginning of this new year

we implore your mercy:

bless the students, teachers, and staff of St. Francis Parish School,

that together we may grow in faith, hope, and love

as we learn from you and each other

how to follow your Son Jesus

Expand the horizons of our minds, that we may grow in wisdom,

understanding, and knowledge.

Deepen our commitment to seek the truth of your ways

and enliven our faith to reach out to those in need.

Glory and praise to you, Lord God,

in the Church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever

Amen

Preschool News

Welcome Back! We had a great first week of school. (Keep Reading)

Distance Learning Model

Greetings!

Anchored in faith and moral development we are uniquely positioned to support your students in a distance learning environment. Our enhanced distance learning will ensure high quality instruction because we have bright, dynamic, and experienced educators, who have established caring relationships with your children. Our SFPS Teaching team eagerly looks forward to being back at work educating your children. Catholic schools provide children with the invaluable opportunity to expand their knowledge, explore their passions, create community, strengthen their sense of self and come to know God all in one place. We plan to continue to strengthen our Catholic identity by using a new series Christ in Us by Sadlier. This new series incorporates digital tools and resources that will help your child take an active role in understanding and participating in faith formation at school and with you at home.

With our earlier experiences, our teachers are now more adept in setting up Google Classrooms for organizing assignments and engaging our students. They are more familiar with the versatile use of Clever and other applications to deliver our core curriculum in Math, English Language Arts, Religion, Science and Social Studies. Our teachers have taken professional development courses over the summer to improve their knowledge and techniques in engaging students in a virtual classroom. We plan to retain our well-rounded curriculum with Art, Spanish, PLTW and even brief PE sessions by utilizing ZOOM and Google Hangouts.

Distance Learning - What is different this time?

Classroom based Teacher lead virtual instruction with access to SMART Boards, instructional materials and consistent WiFi
Wireless headsets for our teachers to better communicate in a virtual classroom
Tech support easily accessible with on campus help and remote help through BakersfieldNet

Most importantly, I want to acknowledge the overarching concern whispered across the country right now. "How is my child going to sit at the computer all day?" Please know that we are being mindful and reflective of family scheduling needs and will continue to welcome feedback and suggestions as we navigate our Distance Learning Plan. One thing is sure. It will take a lot of flexibility from both families and teachers as we develop the right balance of instruction and independent learning to ensure continued growth and academic success.

Seeing you all on campus filled our hearts with excitement. It is apparent that we are all ready to put some normalcy back into our days. Please be certain to take a few minutes with your child/children to get familiar with their school devices and confirm that they have all connected with their teachers. Our offices will open at 7:30 on Monday. If you are having any issues that do not get resolved over the weekend, please do not hesitate to call so we can ensure all students are prepared to learn when classes begin at 8:50am.

Our weekly schedule is posted below along with an updated school year calendar. I am excited to share that Father Theo will be live streaming Mass for us each Wednesday morning so please mark your calendars and join us if you can.

As always, thank you for your continued support. We are ready to make this year special.