Our Lady of the Wayside | Case for Support 2023-2024

CASE FOR

SUPPORT OUR LADY OF THE WAYSIDE

2023–2024

OUR

MISSION Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic School seeks to preserve the innocence of childhood and form Catholic leaders for the future by fostering a rich, nurturing, faith-filled environment that rigorously and holistically educates the mind, strengthens the body, and tends the soul.

Our Lady of the Wayside provides a traditional, classical education centered on the Catholic faith.

GOALS

To prepare the school for the next stage of its growth by stabilizing the school financially, obtaining professional assessments of our building and property, and ensuring the affordability of our model of education for more families.

MATCHING CAMPAIGN

Wayside is aiming to raise a total of $300,000

by June 30, 2024. Two donors have committed to matching all donations to this campaign, up to a total of $150,000.

PURPOSE

• Offset growing operating costs, including such things as: heat, books, sewer, wages • Increase bursary funds so that more families can afford to send their children to Wayside • Obtain professional assessments of our building and property to prepare for growth

CASE FOR

SUPPORT In 1994, six Peterborough families who desired a different model of education—one that would support them in their efforts to raise joyful men and women of virtue and character—founded a homeschool co-op.

The following year, with the blessing of their bishop, these families founded a classical, Catholic school.

Initially, the school operated out of the hall of Assumption parish, in Keene. However, it quickly began to grow, with students spanning kindergarten through grade 12.

In 2006, Our Lady of the Wayside purchased our current school building on a beautiful five acre campus in the north end of Peterborough, Ontario.

In 2019, the high school became part of the burgeoning Chesterton Schools Network, joining forces with a classical education movement that is transforming the face of high school education in North America.

In 2023, to lead the school through the next stage of its growth, the board hired Dr. John Jalsevac, an expert in the Catholic liberal arts tradition with significant executive experience, as its new headmaster.

Case for Support 2023-2024

WHO IS OUR LADY OF THE WAYSIDE?

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THE MATCHING CAMPAIGN

In 2023, enrollment at Our Lady of the Wayside exploded.

Our student body grew by nearly 50% in a single year, to 86 students. Much of this growth is driven by families moving to the area from across Ontario to send their children to Wayside!

Clearly, the secret is out: there is a challenging, joy-filled, authentically Catholic and affordable classical school in Peterborough!

All signs point to continued growth. We project that our student body will grow to over 100 students by next year.

Some classes are already full, creating a need to establish wait lists.

Currently, Wayside’s board and administration are deep in the process of determining how best to expand our facilities and staff to meet this surging demand.

Case for Support 2023-2024

As a next step, we are launching a $300,000 matching

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campaign.

Two donors who are thrilled by Wayside’s growth and bold vision for the future have pledged to match all donations, up to a maximum of $150,000. That is, if we raise $150,000, these two donors will donate an equal amount, bringing us to our $300,000 campaign goal.

The success of this campaign will put the school on strong financial footing, giving us the firm foundation needed to make the leap to the next stage of our growth.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

What is a child? An immortal being, made in the image and likeness of God, called to greatness, and destined to spend eternity with his or her Heavenly Father.

For we who are parents, the stakes couldn’t be higher: the hearts and minds of our children.

But, we are not naïve. We know that there are forces in the world today that want to steal our children's innocence; to extinguish their God-given hunger for goodness, truth, and beauty.

"The universal call to holiness means that every person, regardless of their state in life, is called to grow in holiness and become a saint."

— ST. JOHN PAUL II

Our Lady of the Wayside was founded by families who understood what is at stake in education, and who were willing to fight for their belief that every child is called to greatness, i.e. to become a saint.

To help their children achieve the fullness of their God-given potential, they founded Wayside upon three firm pillars: 1. Catholic 2. Classical 3. Family-Centered

Case for Support 2023-2024

And so we pray with our children. We curl up on the couch and read them stories about saints and heroes.

We challenge them, teach them, correct them and encourage them.

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PILLAR ONE

CATHOLIC The heart of the school is that it is authentically Catholic.

Under the patronage of Our Lady of the Wayside, students and staff of the school strive to draw near to Jesus daily and follow the encouragement of his Mother: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Case for Support 2023-2024

Each school day starts with the Holy Mass in our chapel, the heart of the school. Children return to the chapel at various times during the day and throughout the week, for private prayer, for the Angelus, for the Rosary, and for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Every day concludes with the singing of the Marian hymn for the season, in Latin.

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Students also study the Scriptures and the Catechism, sing hymns, and study the lives of the saints. They grow in virtue and character through peer encouragement, acts of service to neighbour and encounters with religious art and other treasures of our Christian heritage.

We are also blessed to have the children experience closeness to those with religious vocations. Several members of the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate (SOLI), a habited religious order, teach at the school. Various priests regularly come to celebrate Holy Mass, hear confessions and make classroom visits.

“When the Headmaster mentioned, “We start each day with the Holy Eucharist,” we knew we'd found it. We found a match in Wayside and it literally feels like home.”

— JOSEPH, WAYSIDE PARENT

“Daily Mass, weekly Adoration, a community of families, teachers, volunteers and donors, all striving for a common goal — our children's holiness.”

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— CHRISTINA, WAYSIDE PARENT

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PILLAR TWO

CLASSICAL The tragedy of much modern education is that it aims too low. It tells students that their highest purpose is to become better economic producers.

Case for Support 2023-2024

Catholic, classical education, however, aims to form humans who are fully alive: who are intellectually curious, passionate, disciplined, and virtuous; steeped in the very best that culture has to provide; capable of deep, meaningful relationships; committed to being forces of good in the world; and convicted of their fundamental dignity as children of God.

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Wayside’s classical curriculum is built around the three arts of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric —i.e. the Trivium—first described by Aristotle nearly 2500 years ago. That is, we begin by training students in the fundamentals of language (i.e. grammar). Then, we train them in precision and rigour of thought and argumentation (i.e. dialectic). Finally, we teach students eloquence and the art of persuasion (i.e. rhetoric).

Such a curriculum produces well-rounded, clear-thinking leaders, rooted in truth, and capable of changing the world.

“Wisdom begins in wonder,” Socrates said.

We agree. To wonder is to be astonished in the face of God’s creation. A student consumed

by wonder can’t help but learn. At Wayside, we foster wonder through such things as the Socratic method, immersive nature study, and exposure to beauty through training in music (especially sacred music) and the fine arts.

In the few years we have our students, we refuse to waste their time on the trivial, fleeting or mediocre. Instead, we prioritize whatever is truly great, noble, excellent and lasting: whether that be Grimm’s Fairy Tales, the masterpieces of Dante and Shakespeare, or the great discoveries of astronomy, mathematics, chemistry or physics.

Our school is deliberately low-tech. Cellphones are prohibited. By removing the distractions of digital technology, we create the space for students to notice and attend to things: whether that be a beautiful line in a poem, the elegant solution to a difficult equation, or God speaking to them in silent prayer in our chapel.

Ironically, however, by aiming beyond the pragmatic, we also produce students who are more “useful” as employees! This is because our students have not just committed to memory a collection of useful facts; rather, they have learned how to learn. And, they are men and women of character: disciplined, driven, diligent.

“It is remarkable to me that things as simple as times tables memorization, handwriting, basic grammatical instruction, are so unique at Wayside, when it should be commonplace! It is encouraging to me that the young adults who have made their way through the school are decent, productive members of society who, by and large, still practice their faith.”

—

Case for Support 2023-2024

MAUREEN, WAYSIDE PARENT

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PILLAR THREE

Case for Support 2023-2024

FAMILY-CENTRED

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“Since parents have given children their life, they are bound by the most serious obligation to educate their offspring and therefore must be recognized as the primary and principal educators. This role in education is so important that only with difficulty can it be supplied where it is lacking.”

— SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, GRAVISSIMUM EDUCATIONIS Twenty-eight years ago, the founding families made the decision to make Wayside a fourday school week. The goal was to maximize student time in the home, and to encourage direct parental oversight and involvement in their children’s education.

In this way, the conviction that the family is the rightful center of education is built into Wayside’s DNA. As primary educators, parents are responsible for the Christian formation of their children. This is a sacred duty and privilege which none can remove. The way we see it, the fact that parents entrust us with their children is a great privilege, and a grave responsibility.

One consequence of this emphasis on the family is a sense of seamlessness between home and school. Parents and visitors alike frequently note the unique “familial” culture of the school, so much so that the school feels like an extension of a healthy home. Older students routinely look out for and mentor the younger. And parents themselves are encouraged to be present within the school, whether as volunteer assistants, or at our many family-friendly events.

“Something that has surprised me from the school is the involvement from parents in their children's education. I feel that it is encouraged to partake in the education of our children both by inviting us to activities and by keeping them home on Fridays. Alongside this, the clear and consistent communication regarding my kids' education and the activities they are engaging in in class is amazing. There's no room to worry, and lots left for us to work on when we are together.”

“Coming to Wayside was the most confident decision I have made as I knew that it was what Our Lady had prepared for us as an answer to my desperate prayers.”

— ESTHER, PARENT

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— ANA-MARIA, WAYSIDE PARENT

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“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

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– WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

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DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR

MATCHING Two generous donors, who are excited and encouraged

by Wayside’s recent growth, have offered to match donations up to a total of $150,000.

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Every donation you make to the school will be doubled!

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Your tax-deductible gift towards the matching campaign can be made by: CHEQUE

side Catholic School, but only as asked and infrequently. Now that the school is planning, growing, and has demonstrated that it is committed to maintaining its Catholic identity, I wanted to help stabilize the school and support the building phase of the school. Walk through the halls, attend an event and you will see that the joy and hope of our faith is firmly rooted at

CREDIT CARD One-time and recurring donations can be made via credit card at olwayside.ca/ campaign

E-TRANSFER E-transfers can be sent to donate@olwayside.ca

Wayside."

QUESTIONS?

— MATCHING GIFT DONOR

JOSH CANNING Donor Relations Director & Campaign Manager 705.798.3180 jcanning@olwayside.ca

Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic School is a non-profit, charitable organization. All donations are tax-deductible.

Our CRA # is 894588953RR0001.

DR. JOHN JALSEVAC Headmaster 705.749.3658 headmaster@olwayside.ca

Case for Support 2023-2024

"I have long supported Our Lady of the Way-

Cheques should be made payable to Wayside Academy and sent to 575 Centre Line, Peterborough, ON K9J 6X5

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"The purpose of education is to reveal the beauty of truth and the truth of beauty.”

POPE BENEDICT XVI