The gym was beautifully transformed into a barn courtyard for this year's Pub Knight |
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Message from the President |
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It is hard to believe that another school year is nearing its end. Such a busy time for everyone!
I want to use this newsletter to provide feedback about the satisfaction survey sent to parents on April 25th.
I made the following request in the April Newsletter:
“As one demonstration of our commitment to 2-way communication and to ongoing improvement we sent out a survey to all Parents on April 25 with a request to submit it by May 6. This is your opportunity to provide us with constructive feedback. I urge you to complete the survey and I thank you in advance for providing input. The survey link is provided here for your convenience if you have not already responded.”
CONTEXT:
I am providing the following information as some respondents asked for more context about the survey.
CISVA Schools do an assessment of their performance against 5 specific marks of a Catholic School. Archbishop Miller asked STMC to do a similar self-assessment and provided a copy of the tool used by CISVA. The tool includes a number of sources of information including doing a parent satisfaction survey.
STMC created a parent satisfaction survey to seek input about performance related to the 5 marks of a Catholic School and also used this as an opportunity to ask for satisfaction feedback on some other general areas of school operations including: satisfaction with STMCs performance in providing students with opportunities to develop in Faith, Academics, Arts, Athletics, and Advocacy; satisfaction with the performance of faculty and staff and satisfaction with communication to parents.
The 5 marks of Catholic School Identify are:
- Inspired by a Supernatural Vision
- Founded on a Christian Anthropology
- Animated by Communion and Community
- Imbued with a Catholic Worldview throughout the Curriculum
- Sustained by Gospel Witness
More information about the 5 marks of a Catholic School can be found from these 3 resources:
- The CISVA Tool
- The Holy See’s Teaching on Catholic Schools 2006 written by His Grace J. Michael Miller
- An article in the BC Catholic in April, 25 2022 written by His Grace
RESPONSES:
Thank you to all the respondents. I received 89 survey submissions. A summary of the results is included in this link. Ratings for very satisfied/satisfied ranged were generally above 70% with a range from a low 55% for satisfaction with advocacy opportunities to a high of 90% for satisfaction with academic opportunities. Ratings for very dissatisfied/dissatisfied were generally below 8% with a range from less than 4% for integration of faith, culture and life to a high of 13% for faith development opportunities.
The highest ratings were around satisfaction with academic opportunities, performance of teachers and administrative staff, and communication. The lowest ratings were around parent satisfaction with Opportunities for Advocacy, Integration of Spirituality and Integration of Essential Elements. These may also indicate areas in which we need to provide more information to parents as they also had high ratings of “not able to answer”.
Responses will be incorporated into the self-assessment to be discussed with His Grace on June 28.
The responses will also be reviewed as part of operational planning and priority setting. The assessment is one point in time and provides some areas to consider in looking at continued improvement of our overall performance and the integration of mission and Catholicity.
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Live Jesus in our Hearts... Forever!
Dianne Doyle
President, STMC
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June
4: Jazz Night
4: 2020 Graduation Mass and Reception
13: Pro-D Sessions (early dismissal)
15: Last day of classes
16-22: Tutorials and exams
23: 2022 Graduation Ceremony and Reception
24: Graduation Dinner and Dance
25: Dry Grad
27: Grad Breakfast
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BAND AND CHOIR
Last month, members of the STMC Senior Concert Band and Senior Concert Choir travelled to Whistler to perform at the Con Brio Whistler Music Festival. All the groups performed exceptionally well! Highlights included silver rankings by the Concert Band and Jazz Band, gold rankings by the Concert Choir and Chamber Choir, and a gala concert performance by the Jazz Choir.
Here's a link to a playlist of the daily vlogs and performances from the trip (more performances will be added to playlist as they become available):
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPhckb-u0or2lZ1b_8r6sQktVKTvf5Cjs
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JAZZ NIGHT
Treat yourself to a beautiful night of music by the STMC Music Department on Saturday, June 4 at 7PM. Doors open at 6:15 so make your way over early!
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Sat, Jun 4, 2022 7:00 PM PST
Jazz Night
St. Thomas More Collegiate,
Burnaby
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WHISTLER CON BRIO MUSIC FESTIVAL
The bands had a busy May, starting with the Whistler Con Brio Music Festival from April 30-May 3, with our Sr. Concert Band and Jazz Knights ‘A’ Band each earning a ‘Silver’ Standard (Jazz ‘A’ narrowly missed a ‘Gold’) for their fine performances. Both bands received excellent clinics, watched other great performances, prepared their own breakfasts, had a delicious group dinner at “La Cantina” Mexican restaurant, and participated in the Massed Band performance with several hundred other young musicians from dozens of BC and Alberta schools!
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SPRING KNIGHT OF MUSIC
Our Grade 8, Junior, and Senior Concert Bands, along with our Choirs, put on an excellent concert for a full house in our STMC Gymnasium on May 16, with special guest STMC Music Alumni doing entertaining Emcee duties. Some highlights include: “Pirates of the Caribbean” by the Junior Band, “Latin Fiesta” by the Grade 8 Band, and “Danzon No.2” by the Senior Concert Band.
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ELEMENTARY TOUR
Our Grade 8 Band and Jazz Knights ‘B’ Band went to St. Francis de Sales and St. Michael’s Elementary Schools to perform and introduce the students to band and the instruments. Our students performed brilliantly and the young audience thoroughly enjoyed the shows, often clapping along with their music! Plans are underway to have our Junior Concert Band perform at Our Lady of Mercy Elementary next.
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JAZZ MUSIC NIGHT
Our two fine STMC Jazz Bands (Jazz Knights ‘A’ and ‘B’) and two Vocal Jazz groups have been working hard preparing for our school’s Jazz Night this Saturday, June 4th at 7:00PM. All jazz band and choir members are asked to help with set-up after school on Friday, June 3, and remain after the concert for “take down”. Also, jazz band students are to report to the STMC gym in uniform for Sound Check at 5:15pm on Saturday. Admission is free, doors open at 6:15pm, and parents and guests are asked to register on Eventbrite online. It should be prove to be a great show, not to be missed!
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Student on the Beamlines
Our Students on the Beamline team completed their experiment on May 23rd - connecting remotely from STMC with the control room of the IDEAS Beamline of the Canadian Light Source. This year's group is focusing on metal degradation in the cathodes of lithium ion batteries after repeated cycling (charge & discharge). They are using XRF and XANES techniques to look at the changes in nickel and manganese in cells generously donated by Tesla and Burnaby battery maker Nano One. Data analysis is ongoing, and the team will present their results on Monday, June 13th at 1:30 PM. If you are interested in attending their seminar, please contact Mr. Muise.
Our school has already been accepted for our next beamtime - the project will start work in September 2022 with expected beamtime between the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024. Any current grade 9 or 10 students interested in taking part should contact Mr. Muise for details.
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CanSat
Our CanSat team travelled to Lethbridge Alberta at the end of April to compete in the Canadian CanSat Challenge. The team successfully deployed and recovered their CanSat, studying ionizing radiation in the atmosphere. They also collected data on carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, hoping to find correlation with their radiation data. While the team did not win the competition (finishing a very close second), they are exploring some other opportunities to showcase their research in the coming months.
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Congratulations to 4 young Knights for receiving certificates of distinctions and medals! The certificates of distinction are for receiving a score in the top 25% of all participants. The medals are for receiving the top mark in the grade for our school.
Pictured above, from left to right:
Araya Kasana (Pascal Contest, medal winner)(Gr.8)
Ethan Song (Cayley Contest, medal winner)(Gr.8)
Steven Ge (Pascal Contest, medal winner) (Gr.8)
Joaquin Imperial (Pascal Contest, certificate of distinction) (Gr.9)
Araya and Steven tied for top spot in Math 9 even though they are in Grade 8.
Ethan received the top mark in Math 10 even though again he is in Grade 8.
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Congratulations to Nathan Liou for achieving the top score in the school after writing the Fermat Grade 11 Mathematics Competition, also administered by the University of Waterloo.
Nathan received both a certificate and a medal. The certificate was for scoring in the top 25% of all students who wrote the competition.
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ROBOTICS
The Intro Robotics class recently took a break from standard robot behavior development - flexing their creative abilities, students quickly planned and executed choreographed routines to be judged by their peers. We've included a short excerpt of the event to share our experience. Special thanks goes out to Mr. Brown's Media Arts class for setting up professional lighting and taking footage of the event!
If you (or your child) are interested in learning how to program and build with robots, be sure to look for the Tech Explorations 10 course in your course selection package. Understanding code is quickly becoming an essential skill, and nothing is quite as rewarding as seeing your code come to life!
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ULTIMATE
Across April and May, our three Ultimate teams competed in league games around Burnaby, New Westminster and Port Moody and in tournaments around the Lower Mainland. The grade 8 team worked hard to learn the game and held their own against junior teams most weeks.
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The junior team had a big comeback win against Moscrop at the zone championships to secure a berth at the Tier 1 junior provincial tournament. The team battled hard this past weekend and were the second highest finishing AA school. |
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The senior Ultimate team finished their season strongly, winning five of six games at the AA Ultimate provincials to secure the bronze medal. In May, the team also won the Fraser North Zone banner, and the BC Catholics tournament. Special mention goes to the fourteen graduating players (Aidan Y., Ambrose T., Cameron DW, Chaela L., Crystal W., Gabriel P., Isaac K., Isaiah M., Jasmine C., Josh Y., Kailee E., Katrina L., Nancy L., and Rihanna P.) and two graduating managers (Angelina C. And Jillian C.). |
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St Thomas More Collegiate is hosting our Annual Summer Basketball Camp designed to introduce players to the fundamentals of basketball in a fun and competitive atmosphere. It is open to boys and girls going into grades 3-8. Dates are August 22nd to the 26th, 2022 from 9am until noon. See link for brochure and registration details.
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STUDENT COUNCIL ELECTIONS
In the last two weeks, we have had students in Grade 8-11 campaigning for our Student Council Election.
This group of students will take on the responsibility of representing our student body for various school-wide decisions, organizing and executing events throughout the school year, and promoting school spirit among our students.
Today, our students voted for their grade representatives and we are pleased to announce our Student Council team for the 2022-2023 school year:
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Grad 2026
Remo Giovinazzo
Hana Miles
Carlo Pinske
Aviva Wiser
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Grad 2024
Taylor Bailey
Mia Chan
Matthew Custodio
Lia de Dios de los Santos
Niko Kanagawa
Bruno Napolitano
Micah Penalosa
Daniel Sawyer
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Grad 2025
Elyza Castro
Olivia Casumpang
Stefanie Mocnik
Ieve Reilly
Bernice To
Ema Ulinder
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Grad 2023
Charlize Alegre
Aoife Carolan
Ava Giovinazzo
Ryan Huang
Anna Kotenko
Tea Mocnik
Marcus Morales
Kevin Nicklin
Callum Rogers
Evan Wang
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FASHION CAMP
Hello Moms and daughters,
Lula Kiah, well-known style consultant and founder of www.styleinnovators.com is offering to come to Vancouver to lead her Beyond Fashion program! In this program, you will learn your style personality, your style ID, the history of fashion (this is super interesting!), wardrobe tips and organization, accessories and more - see below.
It will be July 14 and 15, 11 am - 3 pm for girls in grade 5 and older. Moms can come with their daughters or either can attend separately.
She lowered the cost for us to $120 USD for both days (normally it's $350). And amazingly, she is doing it at cost! The price merely covers her airfare and accommodation. We need 40 registrations to proceed, so please forward this to your friends.
Mrs. De Lazzari has done the program online with her daughter and enjoyed it immensely. It will be even better in person!
To reserve your spot please contact Mrs. De Lazzari 604-521-1801 ext 2114 or email patricia.delazzari@stmc.bc.ca by June 6 to reserve your place.
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Speech Night 2022 was a resounding success with the new format with each grade having a specific topic to present. Congratulations to all the winners: |
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Grade 12 - Choice of Original Composition, Persuasive Writing, Slam Poetry or Dramatic Reading
Gold - Cameron DeWith
Silver - Lindsay De Souza
Bronze - Rhoswen The
Grade 11 - Slam Poetry
Gold - Charlize Alegra
Silver - Kairo Chang
Bronze - Samaya Joshi
Grade 10 - Dramatic Interpretive Reading
Gold - Neriah Sumagui
Silver - Lia De Dios De Los Santos
Bronze - John Leung
Grade 9 - Original Composition
Gold - Eilidh Lister
Silver - Leve Reilly
Bronze - Ethan Anagnostou
Grade 8 - Persuasive Writing
Gold - Ethan Panaligan
Silver - Ayush Paul
Bronze - Carys Akol
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Used Uniform Sale
Looking for vintage STMC gear or thrifting for some great deals? Check out the STMC Used Uniform Sale! Here you'll be able to find clothing that have been donated back to the school from former students at great prices.
Do note that the date for this event has been changed from Saturday, 4th of June to Saturday, 18th of June from 11AM to 1PM in the cafeteria.
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Aaron Sutherland (grade 9), Hanna Kaustinen (grade 10) and Maggie Pugosa (grade 12) all made Team BC for Ball Hockey and will compete in the Canadian Nationals in July 2022, in Winnipeg. Canadian Ball Hockey scouts will be in attendance during the tournament as part of their recruitment for national level players. For Team BC, Aaron will be on the U15 boys, Hanna will be on U16 girls and Maggie will be on U19 girls.
Hanna is an unusual athlete in the ball hockey world. She plays as goalie at the highest level of boys competition, including being invited to the Western Challenge Cup (WCC) U17 boys team. A quick costume change and she competes as a player in the girls league, playing head to head against Maggie!
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STMC alumni James Delaney led the University of Indianapolis' women's lacrosse team to its first national championship in the university's history! Read more about it below: |
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Indianapolis, USA – James Delaney, a B.C. native son from the City of Port Coquitlam, now the Head Coach of the Women’s Lacrosse program at the University of Indianapolis, led his team to win the NCAA Division II National Championship this past Sunday.
Delaney was born and raised in Port Coquitlam and played lacrosse for the Port Coquitlam Saints teams from the time he was 5 years old. He was named as an All-Star numerous times, playing for Team BC against teams across Canada and the US. He played high school lacrosse at St. Thomas More Collegiate in Burnaby, where he earned a full ride scholarship in the NCAA to Seton Hill University in Ohio.
He became an All American three times and Mid-Fielder of The Year twice for the Seton Hill Griffins. Delaney was the most prolific scoring midfielder in Seton Hill’s history and was honoured as a Hall of Fame member there in 2018.
Delaney went on to coach women’s lacrosse in the NCAA, first with the Tiffin Dragons in Ohio as an assistant coach. In 2016 Delaney was hired as an assistant at the University of Indianapolis and was promoted to head coach the following year. Delaney won the Divisional Championship in every year of his first 5 years as Head Coach.
In 2022, Delaney achieved his long held dream of advancing to the NCAA Division II National Championship with the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds, where they achieved victory over the East Stroudsburg University Warriors, 11-9 in the final this past Sunday.
Delaney reminisced on his formative years in BC Lacrosse, “Growing up in BC, which is a lacrosse mainstay in North America, I was able to develop my skills as a player which also gave me the foundation to be able to coach. I had some of the best coaches in amateur lacrosse anywhere in the world right in BC. They gave me my start.”
Delaney loves BC and still spends considerable time here visiting family and friends whenever he has the chance.
“Choosing the best players is one of the keys to winning this championship, and some of the best lacrosse players in the world come out of BC. We recruit there regularly for our women’s program and have had numerous players on our team who came from BC. I will always be grateful for all the help and opportunities St. Thomas More and BC gave me,” said Delaney.
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We'd love to hear about all the wonderful and exciting things in which our Knights are engaged! If you have something you would like to share on our social media feeds or in the monthly newsletter send an email to communications@stmc.bc.ca
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