February 1, 2023

Families who want to pick up their race packets at school and receive our NEW Team SCM t-shirt must register for Steps 4 Students by TODAY, February 1 at 11:59 PM. After the deadline passes, packet pickup will take place at the Chancery at St. Dominic Center and will NOT include our school tee.

The annual Steps 4 Students 5K Run/Walk is Saturday, February 11 in downtown Houston. Click here to learn more and join Team SCM to race, walk, and cheer with us.

Please note: We will not host on-campus classroom races or an AC Pancake Breakfast this year.

Montessori Night School is Thursday, February 2 from 5:00 to 6:45 PM. This come-and-go event is a wonderful opportunity for parents to see Montessori work in action. Primary and Lower Elementary children will show their parents their classrooms and demonstrate the lessons they are learning, while Upper Elementary students will present research.

Mr. Snow's classroom will host a geography fair; the students voted to focus on Europe. In Ms. Spesia's room the students will present a colloquium featuring individual research stations on a variety of topics.

Childcare is available in the gym for currently enrolled SCM Primary students only. Because space is limited in every room at all levels, we ask that you visit the room with only your child whose class you are in. Elementary students will need to arrive by 5:00 PM and will remain in their classes for the duration of the event to give their presentations.

All parents are welcome to visit the Upper Elementary classrooms to enjoy the Upper Elementary geography fair and research colloquium.

We have three big applications coming due on Friday, February 10, 2023.

Re-enrollment: Current parents, your decision to enroll into or withdraw from the 2023-2024 school year is due the 10th.

• Log in to FACTS Family Portal with your username/password. (Type STCM-TX into the District Code field)
• Click on the Apply / Enroll button in the left menu.
• Click on the Enrollment / Re-enrollment button.
• Pay the $750 non-refundable re-enrollment deposit for each child. The non-refundable deposit is applied towards tuition.

Tuition Assistance: If you would like to apply for consideration in the first round of the Archdiocesan scholarship fund, please complete the FACTS application by February 10. Contact Holly Copeland at [email protected] with questions.

New Family Applications: Know any families interested in St. Catherine’s? Please let them know we are accepting applications through Friday, February 10. For any questions, please contact Amy Walz at [email protected].

ADVANCING THE MISSION

We invite you to chill with us this Fat Tuesday to help stock the Wine & Spirits Pull for Raise the Roof for Japhet. Guests will spend the evening in Spec’s third-floor warehouse enjoying wine, nibbles, and the store’s employee discount.

Space is limited for this cool event; click here to learn more and to RSVP by Friday, February 17, 2023.

Friends of the Atrium, along with Sister Theresa Josephine, are organizing a pilgrimage to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church on Wednesday, February 8. We are inviting our SCM community to be part of this pilgrimage. We will caravan from SCM soon after morning drop-off, at around 8:30 AM. 

Our Lady of Lourdes is located at 6550 Fairbanks N. Houston Rd. We will have a tour of the church and the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, spend some time reflecting, and recite the Rosary together.

Since Our Lady of Lourdes is well known for healing, we will be collecting prayers from our SCM community to offer to Our Lady at the site. We invite you to send prayers to Mary Tysor at [email protected].

Friends of the Atrium, along with Sister Theresa Josephine, are presenting two Saints to our SCM community this spring semester. The focus is to present Holy Saints that our children can identify with. Blessed Carlo Acutis was a young and faithful teenager who dedicated his short life to the Eucharist. 

Click here to read more about his story.

Friends of the Atrium invites you to join us for Christian Meditation.

When: February 3, 2023 from 8:20 to 8:40 AM

Where: Locations vary; ask at the Front Desk

What: Meditation is prayer in a simple form that dates back to the earliest Christian tradition. It is pure and undivided attention to God.

Click here to learn more about Christian Meditation.

The PSO Book Club will meet in the SCM gym on Friday, March 10, 2023 from 8:30 to 9:30 AM. The group will discuss Why Good Kids Act Cruel by Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D. All are welcome to join, and you do not have to complete the book to participate in the discussion.

Friends of the Garden Teaching Day: Planting Tomatoes

Spring Sociables are in full swing, and anyone who missed out on sales in October can still purchase tickets by visiting the online store. Below are just a few of the parties you can enjoy between now and the end of May.

Sip and Savor Spring

Saturday, March 4

6:30-9:30 PM

Gubitz Residence

Bubble Soccer

Saturday, April 1

10:00 AM-12:30 PM

SCM Soccer Field

Sporting Clays Shoot

Sunday, April 2

1:00-4:00 PM

Greater Houston Sports Club

Basketball season is over and what a season it was! St. Catherine's had three different C-teams for the first time and we saw our first-ever High School basketball teams hit the court, with our girls team winning 40-6 in one of their games.

Both varsity teams clinched playoff spots in the GHCAA division. Each faced No. 1 seeds in the first round, and that’s where our seasons came to an end. But what an achievement to make a playoff run during our first year back to competitive sports!

Next week, we move on to baseball - another first for SCM - and to track and field. Please contact Coach Sam Hemming at [email protected] for more information.

Go Owls!

HIGH SCHOOL CORNER

Dear SCM Community, 

For the past month, the High School has been working on planning our upcoming trip to Puerto Rico. We have been going into a deep dive January Term, in which almost all of our classes have had some sort of emphasis on Puerto Rico. 

Our main emphasis on Puerto Rico has been during our Humanities classes. For the first couple lessons in Humanities we had key lessons on the history of Puerto Rico, from the time of the indigenous people through the Spanish-American War, and how this has impacted the current state of the island. With the history we’ve learned, we’ve also been delving into the current political situation and economic crisis facing the island, which we are interested to learn more about while visiting. Each student also chose specific topics of interest to research. Some of the topics included: 

• Taino mythology and petroglyphs
• Independence activism in Puerto Rico (during the Spanish and U.S. periods)
• PROMESA and U.S. responses to Puerto Rico
• Puerto Rican dance, art, and food
• Paleontology in Puerto Rico
• The evolution of astronomy in Puerto Rico 

Using these topics, we created presentations in which we chose a location in Puerto Rico to visit that related to the topic we would be studying. Using these presentations, we began our official day-to-day trip planning. Pairs of students took each day and began to create detailed itineraries based on the presentations we had heard. 

In other classes, we have also found creative ways to incorporate our studies of Puerto Rico. In science class, we spent a couple of weeks delving into the geography of Puerto Rico, specifically talking about tectonic plates and how they move in that area. In math, we have been learning quite a bit about financial math, as we plan out the financial parts of the trip. We have learned a lot about things such as budgeting, but we have also been able to learn about topics that we can apply to our lives in the future, such as credit score. In Spanish, we have been cultivating presentations about Puerto Rican culture. During our presentations, we have to talk in Spanish as a way to practice our speaking skills so we will be able to communicate while in Puerto Rico. 

When it comes to trip planning in the High School, the students do all the work, from planning out where we go, to even making the bookings and communicating with workers and tour guides. Because of this, it has been an interesting and unique experience getting ready for our trip, and excitement is truly flowing throughout the community. We can’t wait to share pictures, memories, and travel writing from the trip with you all as soon as we get back!

Sincerely, 

Caroline Lewis 

Thursday, February 2

• Parent Education: Montessori Night School, 5:00-6:45 PM

Friday, February 3

• Christian Meditation, 8:20-8:40 AM
• Garden Work Day, 8:30 AM

Wednesday, February 8

• Rosary: Feast of Our Lady Lourdes, 8:30 AM (Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel; meet at SCM to caravan to 6550 Fairbanks N. Houston Rd.)

Friday, February 10

• Deadlines: Re-enrollment, Tuition Assistance, New Student Applications
• Garden Work Day, 8:30 AM

Saturday, February 11

• Steps 4 Students 5K Run/Walk, 8:00 AM (Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart; 1111 St. Joseph Pkwy.)

For more calendar events please check our website.