Dear Madonna Families,

We were thrilled to host Meet the Staff Night last evening, and it was truly incredible to witness the vibrant energy of our families being proudly guided through our expanding school by their students. It was heartening to see so many of you connect with the various community groups at the presentation tables. Thank-you to our community partners: Kathy Dekker from Apple Schools, Joanne HIlls our Family Resource Facilitator from Strathcona County and Jereecah and Catherine from Action for Healthy Communities. This is just one of many exciting events we have planned for the school year!

We are excited to share that this year, Madonna has welcomed three new classrooms and a new gross motor space for our Pre-K students. Our Kindergarten program has also grown to four classes, and we now have two preschool classes. Even the Boys and Girls Club has seen an increase in enrollment! Great things are happening at Madonna!

Looking ahead, next Monday we will have a special opportunity to travel to Archbishop Jordan, our students' future high school, for a shared faith experience on the football field with our teen buddies. Father Jim will lead us in this special Mass between the two Sherwood Park schools. We warmly invite everyone to join us for this meaningful event. Please see the information below for more details.

Looking forward to another great week at Madonna!

Madonna Catholic School Admin Team

Mrs Cathy Hinger, Principal

Mrs Fiona Wimmer, Assistant Principal

The newsletter is organized based on our four school assurance priorities for this year.

1. Faith Integration
2. Learners and Learning
3. Systemic Wellness
4. Community Engagement

Fr. Jim joined us twice on Thursday - first he popped into our three grade four classrooms to connect with our oldest students. We swapped stories about our summer adventures and he shared how he thinks this year's theme of Rooted in Christ is perfect for our growing school. Then he popped back into our gymnasium to welcome our families who came to our evening event. How blessed we are to have such a wonderful supportive clergy at OLPH parish that nurtures our students' faith needs.

Parents are welcome to meet us and worship with us on Monday, September 16 as we celebrate our first mass of the school year at Archbishop Jordan Catholic High School, 4001 Emerald Drive, Sherwood Park. If the weather permits we will be outside on the turf with our grade 12 partners on the football field with mass starting at 10:00am If the weather turns wet we will celebrate with our teen buddies indoors in the large gym.

Consent Forms are now due for your child. Please log on to our Parent Portal and use this link https://www.eics.ab.ca/parent-resources-including-technology-powerschool/parent-technology-handbook-powerschool-for-parents to access directions for submittig your Demographic Form and the Yearly Consent Forms. The submitted Field Trip Consent is needed for your child to attend Opening Day Mass on September 16th! Thank you

PowerSchool App: The PowerSchool app provides some access to student information but access to pay school fees, complete forms, view report cards and other important funcionality is not available via the PS app.

Pinned to the bottom of the dashboard is a message reminding users that only a small portion of the features available on the portal are also available within the app. If you click the post, it will give you a link to log into the full version of the portal.

Terry Fox set the bar high for himself when he started his Marathon of Hope, saying, “Nobody is ever going to call me a quitter.” Our school is proudly taking part in this year's Terry Fox School Run to continue Terry's legacy. This year, our fundraising goal is $500. Please support our school's fundraising efforts to raise much-needed funds for cancer research.

Our school will participate in the Terry Fox Run on Friday, September 20th starting at 1:30pm in the gym for an assembly followed by an outdoor run from 2:00-3:00. Families are welcomed to join us for the afternoon, don’t forget your running shoes!

Students can WEAR RED and/or WHITE.

Thank you for your support!

As the school year comes to an end, we would like to inform you that it’s time to update your child’s 2024-2025 Demographic Validation Form. Having the most up-to-date information about our students ensures that we receive all available funding to support your child's learning as well as current information to reach you during the day if necessary.

We ask that you please complete this form in PowerSchool

You can follow these steps to access, review and submit the form:

1. Log into PowerSchool at https://eics.powerschool.com/

2. Under the “Forms & Fees” menu click “School Engage Student Forms”

3. Students - Select your child’s name (please complete one form for each child)

4. Click on the word “New” beside the form name A.8) 2024-2025 Demographic Validation

Video tutorial link (**from 2021-2022) on how to complete the form https://www.eics.ab.ca/parents-and-students/powerschool-log-in

Thank-you for taking the time to complete these forms!

We’re excited to announce that the ability to submit student absences is now available in PowerSchool! Please log into your Parent Portal here to record an absence.

PowerSchool can also continue to be used to view grades and report cards, pay fees, and update student information (including medical information).

You can view the EICS Parent Technology Handbook for further details on these items.

OLPH (Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish)

Masses at OLPH will be livestreamed. Please join using this link. https://www.facebook.com/olphsherwoodpark/videos/

Visit OLPH Website for more information about the parish and in regards to sacramental preparation.

Visit www.facebook.com/olphsherwoodpark