Terry’s Legacy: Sudbury Catholic Schools Continue to Proudly Support the Terry Fox School Run

Posted on September 17, 2024January 10, 2025 by Erin Kendall

Although current students were not yet born when Terry Fox ran through Sudbury on August 4, 1980, his spirit lives on at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board (SCDSB), where his legacy is honoured each year through the Terry Fox School Run.

The Terry Fox School Run is an annual nationwide event, allowing students across Canada to participate in non-competitive runs or walks to celebrate Terry Fox’s legacy as a cancer research activist and athlete. Fox’s 1980 “Marathon of Hope” continues to resonate, encouraging physical fitness, community involvement, and charitable giving, with donations supporting vital cancer research.

For the 2024-25 school year, seven Sudbury Catholic Schools will proudly continue their tradition of holding their own Terry Fox School Run. This includes:

St. Albert
St. Francis
Holy Trinity
St. James
Marymount Academy
St. Paul
Pius XII

Superintendent of Education, Erica Raymond, expressed her gratitude for the continued support: “As a Board, we acknowledge the impact of the Terry Fox Foundation. We are immensely proud of our students and staff who have supported this important cause year after year. In 2023, our participating schools raised over $4,000, contributing to an impressive grand total of $115,000 in Sudbury Catholic School donations over the past 19 years.

Not only is it about the fundraising aspect, but Erica also explains how educators have used the event as a catalyst for a wide range of classroom discussions and activities. “It incorporates Cross-Curricular Learning, as the run can be linked to various subject areas, such as social studies, history (learning about Terry Fox’s journey), and physical education and health. In addition, it provides an opportunity for schools to help students build emotional intelligence. Through Terry Fox’s story, students learn about empathy, kindness, and the human capacity to overcome challenges, contributing to their emotional and moral development.”

Among the 7 schools participating this year, St. Paul Catholic Elementary in Coniston stands out as it marks its 12th consecutive year taking part in the Terry Fox School Run. Over the past 11 years, the school has proudly raised more than $23,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation, and this September, they aim to add $800 to that total during their event on Thursday, Sept. 19^th, 2024.

“I’m incredibly proud to join St. Paul this year as we take part in the Terry Fox School Run,” says Principal Derek Radey. “The energy and enthusiasm that our staff brings to this event is truly inspiring. It means so much to our students and their families. Having already raised over $23,000, I’m excited to see that number grow as we continue to teach new generations about Terry Fox’s remarkable legacy.”

To support this great cause, St. Paul will be collecting donations starting Monday, September 16, leading up to their walk on Thursday. To add a bit of fun and motivation, the school has promised that if they reach their fundraising goal, selected students will have the chance to throw a pie at a few volunteering teachers.

A St. Paul student shared their excitement: “I am excited to participate in the Terry Fox Run. I like seeing how our school is making a difference.”

Terry Fox continues to represent the best qualities of Canadians—courage, determination, and resilience. His legacy serves as a powerful reminder of the potential we all have to make a lasting impact. To date, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised over $850 million, providing hope and essential support to cancer patients and their families. The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is proud to play a part in keeping Terry Fox’s dream alive through our continued support of the Terry Fox School Run.

National AccessAbility Week & Red Shirt Day

Posted on May 25, 2023 by admin

May 28 to June 3, 2023, is National AccessAbility Week!

National AccessAbility Week (NAAW) is an annual initiative that celebrates, promotes, and showcases the diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in our country, and highlights some of the important initiatives aimed at creating an accessible Canada. Since 2019, Easter Seals Ontario has recognized the Wednesday of National AccessAbility week as the Red Shirt Day of Action for AccessAbility and Inclusion. Everyone is encouraged to wear a red shirt to raise awareness for accessibility and disability inclusion and make a pledge to help remove physical, attitudinal, and systematic barriers in their schools, workplaces, and communities.

The following educator resources are available:

Elementary: English | French

Secondary: English | French

Red Shirt Day

Red Shirt Day is an Easter Seals initiative and was first celebrated in 2019. The 2023 Red Shirt Day takes place on Wednesday, May 31. Sudbury Catholic District School Board (SCDSB) students and staff are encouraged to wear red on Red Shirt Day to promote messages of support for people and families living with disabilities.

About Red Shirt Day

Red Shirt Day of Action for AccessAbility and Inclusion is a day when people across Canada come together and wear red in schools, workplaces and spaces everywhere in order to create a visible display of solidarity: to show their support for persons and families of those who are living with disabilities, celebrate the achievements of people living with disabilities, and to pledge their commitment to help create a fully accessible and inclusive society that honours and values the contributions of people of all abilities in all aspects of life in Canada. Learn more!

Resources

Red Shirt Day Resources

Easter Seals Website

Rick Hansen Website

Poster

Handout

Pledge

Pledge Examples

Colouring Sheets

Books & Reading Materials for Kids

Films & Documentaries for Adults

Ted Talks

Register Now for SCDSB’s Annual Carousel Event!

Posted on April 11, 2023 by admin

Registration is now open for Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s (SCDSB) annual Carousel Event hosted by the Parent Involvement Committee (PIC)! Learn about different topics, network with others, and engage in great conversation.

When: Tuesday, May 2^nd, 2023, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Where: St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School

Address: 2993 Algonquin Drive

Carousel topics will include:

Supporting Mental Health & Well Being, Cyber Safety, Building Resiliency, Homework Support, Special Education, Coding, Preparing Your Child for Post-Secondary, Literacy: Supporting Reading @ Home, and Learning About Secondary Programming. Click here to view our session descriptions!

*FREE CHILDCARE & LIGHT SUPPER WILL BE PROVIDED.

Click Here to Register!

Be Heard! We Invite you to contribute to our 23-24 Budget Consultation

Posted on March 21, 2023 by admin

In preparation for our budget discussions, we invite our staff, parents/guardians, community partners and students to provide feedback regarding our programming and resources. Your feedback is important to us to ensure that we are representing your priorities as we engage in the budget process. We are asking that you identify areas that have been working well and your top priorities for the next school year. We are using ThoughtExchange so that everyone has a chance to share their perspectives and understand what’s most important to the group. These thoughts will help guide our discussions before we move ahead together.

Feel free to include as many thoughts as you like. Click the Participate button to share your thoughts and then rate at least 20-30 of the thoughts that others have shared. Your participation is confidential, so no one will know who shared or rated which thoughts. Please come back often until April 14 to rate new ideas.

High ratings tell us you strongly support the idea and low ratings tell us you strongly do not support the idea; both are important.

Quick Tips:

1. This exchange is confidential. Your thoughts will be shared, but not your identity.

2. Please be polite and respectful as you share and rate thoughts.

3. If you see a thought that is rude, hurtful or identifies a person or group, you can report it by clicking in the upper right corner of the thought.

4. You do not need to rate all thoughts in this exchange. It is appreciated and recommended that you rate about 30 thoughts over the time the exchange is open.

Budget Consultation ThoughtExchange

St. Paul School Hosts Successful STEM Night for Families

Posted on March 2, 2023 by admin

In partnership with Science North and learning support staff from the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, the Catholic School Council at St. Paul School hosted a one-hour STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) session. St. Paul families and students enjoyed a night of hands-on learning activities as they rotated through several stations.

Students and family members were able to try out all the activities and went home with some of the things they built and a pamphlet of STEM activities they could try at home.

The night was a huge success and students left feeling inspired!

“It was really fun! I really liked making the catapults to throw the pompoms. I made it from popsicle sticks, elastics, and a plastic spoon,” said Catherine McAvoy, Grade 3 student.

“STEM night was awesome. I really liked the connector magnetic blocks that Science North brought. I built a vehicle,” said Maxx Roy, Grade 5 student.

“You could build things with marshmallows and toothpicks. I made a chair. STEM night was awesome!” said Quentyn Robillard, student in Grade 4.

“Family STEM Night brought our school community together where families were engaged in learning while having fun at the same time. STEM activities spark curiosity and prompt questions about how the world works around us. It was great to see so many of our families get involved,” said St. Paul Principal Cara Soehner.

2021-22 Director’s Annual Report

Posted on February 3, 2023 by admin

We are very pleased to present the Director of Education’s Annual Report for the 2021-2022 school year.

We thank our Board of Trustees, Senior Administration, staff, students, families, volunteers, community partners, and our parishes for their continued support and commitment to Sudbury Catholic. Together we are providing a caring, progressive, high quality Catholic school system that is nurturing our students – mind, body, and spirit.

Click here to read our 2021-22 report!

Treaties Recognition Week 2022

Posted on November 4, 2022 by admin

At Sudbury Catholic Schools, we are called to strengthen our faith-based, inclusive, and equitable community. In preparation for Treaties Recognition Week – an annual commemoration which will be honoured on November 6-12th, 2022, the Sudbury Catholic District School Board community is participating in learning opportunities that teach and uphold the importance of treaty rights and relationships to both indigenous and non indigenous communities.

What is Treaties Recognition Week?

In 2016, Ontario passed legislation declaring the first week of November as Treaties Recognition Week. This annual event honours the importance of treaties and helps students and residents of Ontario learn more about treaty rights and relationships.

We look forward to honouring Treaties Recognition Week at Sudbury Catholic Schools every year, and 2022 is no exception. In Ontario, treaties are as much a part of today as when they were first created. They are living documents and legally binding agreements that set out the rights, responsibilities and relationships of First Nations and the federal and provincial governments. Furthermore, we also acknowledge that Indigenous Nations had Treaty Agreements with one another before Europeans arrived, and that treaty-making itself, precedes North American settlement.

Whether Indigenous or not, treaties matter to everyone in Canada; we are all Treaty People. They represent a mutual commitment to building a prosperous future for everybody and Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities are responsible for knowing and upholding Treaty obligations. In between the personal activities being planned by our schools, we’re pleased to share that Sudbury Catholic’s Indigenous Education team has curated resources and materials to help students, staff, and community members commemorate this important week. A summary of these resources is provided below.

Resources for 2022 Treaties Education Week

Robinson Huron Waasiidamaagewin – Virtual Presentations

It is our pleasure to share that the Robinson Huron Waasiidamaagewin is offering virtual presentations during Treaty Week. Their website contains event agendas that identify the variety of virtual presentations that will be offered throughout each day. To access these resources, visit the Robinson Huron Waawiindamaagewin Treaty Week resource page.

Click Here

The Government of Ontario

In addition to online presentations, Sudbury Catholic Schools have been provided with a wide range of video resources suitable for different grade levels to provide students with an opportunity to hear from Indigenous Elders or knowledge keepers. In these activities, students will learn about treaties and their importance in an age-appropriate way that’s flexible for teachers’ lesson planning. This opportunity allows Indigenous speakers to share their knowledge about the importance of treaties, treaty relationships and rights in Ontario.

The Government of Ontario has also supplied a number of teaching resources that can expand upon this topic. This includes a Treaties in Ontario infographic (PDF), which shows the number of treaties in Ontario, the regions they cover and the populations within treaty areas.

Videos: Indigenous Voices on Treaties

Treaties in Ontario Infographic

Treaty Teaching & Learning Resources

Ma Francophonie, j’y tiens!

Posted on October 31, 2022 by admin

We are proud of our Francophone heritage.

On September 25th, 2022, Sudbury Catholic Schools celebrated Franco-Ontarian Day! This celebration is an annual opportunity to learn about Franco-Ontarian culture and history in real life and bring awareness to this wonderful community on an occasion that combines education, fun, language, and history. As the number of FSL students and families continues to grow, it is important for Sudbury Catholic to infuse French Culture into the classrooms.

In our video that highlights our Franco-Ontarian celebrations, we use the phrase, “Ma Francophonie, j’y tiens!”, which translated from French means, “We are proud of our Francophone heritage!”

In addition to annual celebrations, FSL teaching and learning is being further supported in our community through our FSL Plan. One of the most important goals of Sudbury Catholic School’s three-year FSL Plan is improving student confidence and proficiency. We’re committed to providing french language learners with the support they need, and to continue to offer programming that is evidence-based and engaging.

“With what we currently know about how kids learn to read, our Board has committed to shifting from a balanced to a structured literacy approach. Structured literacy provides explicit instruction of the key components of literacy so that students develop excellent pre-reading and reading skills. This approach also guarantees early identification of students at-risk through assessment. The best interventions can then be used to support and move students along. With purposeful reading instruction and interventions, students will demonstrate increased achievement in the FSL program. Literacy leads to proficiency, confidence, and an enthusiasm for life-long learning. And that’s the best gift of all” – Camille Heaton, FSL Consultant.

Sudbury Catholic Schools Give Back to the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee

Posted on October 31, 2022 by admin

Staff and students at the Sudbury Catholic District School Board raised $1,923.10 to support the Junction Creek Stewardship Committee. Leaves of Change: Binaakwe Giizis is a fundraiser which took place on October 14, 2022, to promote environmental stewardship.

The goal of the fundraiser is to engage in civic and environmental responsibility by bringing attention to climate change and better understand how we can protect the earth for future generations. Throughout the day and the month of October, students and staff are encouraged to make more sustainable efforts. This includes cleaning green spaces by picking up trash and litter, recycling, using a reusable water bottle and reducing day to day waste, where possible.

In addition, October is known as Binaakwe Giizis – Moon of Falling Leaves. The fundraiser also served as an educational opportunity to understand, acknowledge, and respect Indigenous perspectives on caring for Mother Earth (Shkagamik Kwe).

“As a school board, it is our responsibility to create opportunities that teach the importance of protecting the earth for future generations.Environmental degradation affects the health and well-being of all peoples of North America and the world in many ways. By participating in this fundraiser, and the many planned activities, we help our community engage in volunteerism and create hope through environmental restoration,” said Joanne Bénard, Director of Education for the Sudbury Catholic District School Board.

An Education That Inspires: Register Now for the 2022-2023 School Year!

Posted on July 6, 2022 by admin

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board invites parents and students in all grades to register with Sudbury Catholic Schools for the 2022-2023 school year!

Parents can register their children for Kindergarten (for children turning 4 years of age on or before December 31, 2022). There are both regular and French Immersion programs available. For a full list of English Catholic elementary schools, please go to the following link.

Parents and students are also invited to register for secondary schools. All of our secondary schools offer grade 7 to 12 programming in both Regular and French Immersion. For a full list of English Catholic secondary schools, please go to the following link.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board offers Catholic education to 6200 students in 18 schools across Greater Sudbury. With a strong foundation based on the Catholic faith and traditions, all schools offer a comprehensive range of programs and services with a commitment to excellence in learning for students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. Sudbury Catholic Schools provide inclusive, caring and innovative learning environments that promote student growth and well-being. The Board has a strong focus on the arts, athletics, academics and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math), established community partnerships, an active Parent Involvement Committee, and a growing International Education Program.

For more information about the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, including how to register, please click the button below!