DIRECTOR’S ANNUAL REPORT
faith moves mountains GROWING IN
Faith
ENHANCING SPIRITUALITY IN OUR LIVES
On our first day back together after a long time of distance, we announced our spiritual theme for the year: “We are people of faith”’ Staff participated in a virtual commissioning service where this theme was highlighted. Our Faith Development Day was postponed until February in the hope that we could be together. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the day had to run entirely virtually. Despite this, it was an inspiring and deeply spiritual event for our staff and we experienced the healing power of our faith. David Wells, our guest speaker, spoke about going after the virtues and gave specific examples of how faith, hope, and love can make us well. Catholic Education Week continued to play a major role in our growth, though it looked a lot different again this year. Catholic Education Week was bursting with faith-driven and inspiring events for everyone. This year, we continued to be creative in finding ways to include everyone and bring everyone together virtually. The theme “Nurturing Hope”. Throughout the week, students, staff, and their families came together virtually to participate in activities for all ages which included prayer, reflection, and other suggested activities to do at home. We launched a social media campaign and asked people to reflect and share a response to two questions: What does Catholic education mean to you? or how do you nurture hope for the future? People were invited to share their thoughts and pictures using hashtags: #mytbayCatholic #Nurturing Hope #CEW2021. We created a digital library and David Bouchard did a virtual read-aloud of his book: “We Learn from the Sun”. Retreat kits were created for teachers to use with their classes in grades 7 & 8 and 9-12. The theme focused on the importance of supporting small-scale farming and included interactive activities and a virtual guest speaker from Development & Peace. Social media kits were created for principals which included a message for each day of the week about the sub-theme and suggested activities for families. We launched our “Ask a Priest” video series where we saw a local priest answer questions from some of our students. We closed out the week with a board-wide virtual prayer service. We did a lot in one week towards strengthening home, school, and parish connections. It was an incredible celebration of our faith and the gift of Catholic education.
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