Saints Speak from Mrs. Marshall - 8/24/2023 - A Great Start to a New School Year
School is now in full swing, and we are having a great first week! With the arrival of our preschool and kindergarten students yesterday we are getting into our “normal” routine. It has been so nice to see the students’ smiles in the hallways and hear their excitement from the classrooms. Thank you, parents, for sharing your children with us this year! Keep reading for lots of important updates as we near the end of our first week.
If you haven’t already done so, make sure you mark your calendars for next week’s Curriculum Nights! Tuesday evening is for Kindergarten-5th grade families, and Wednesday evening is for Preschool and Junior High families. Both nights will begin in the gym at 6:30pm with a brief presentation, followed by teacher presentations in the classrooms. For Preschool and K-5, teachers will give two presentations for families that have multiple children. For junior high, you will follow your child’s schedule to meet all of his/her teachers. This evening is for parents only, so please make arrangements for childcare if both parents would like to attend.
This year I will continue to share words from Pope Francis in my weekly communications to give us some spiritual inspiration for the week.
This week’s message from Pope Francis:
“Jesus’s attitude is striking: we do not hear the words of scorn, we do not hear words of condemnation, but only words of love, of mercy, which are an invitation to conversation.”
As Pope Francis reminds us, Jesus loves us unconditionally. He invites us to bring every part of ourselves to Him – our strengths, our challenges, our successes, and our failures. He wants to be part of our lives in every way, but it’s up to us to let Him in!
FACTS Family Portal Updates
I hope you are all getting more comfortable navigating FACTS Family Portal. Please continue to reach out with questions or concerns as we learn how to use the new system together. As the school year gets underway, there are two other features of the Family Portal that I’d like to share with you: grading and behavior.
Parents with children in grades 4-8 may now view homework assignments and grades in the Family Portal. When you log in and click “Student” on the left side, you will see an expanded menu including these options. We are also in the process of setting up the system to notify parents automatically if your child has a missing assignment or failing grade. Students in grades 5-8 will be able to access the portal themselves as well; we are teaching them how to do this over the next few days.
We will be using FACTS Family Portal to track and communicate student behavior this year as well. If a student makes a choice that is not appropriate for school and violates ASCA’s behavioral expectations, they will be issued a Respectful Reminder, Minor, or Major (visit the ASCA handbook if you have questions about these levels of behavioral infraction). As the parent, you will receive an email with the subject Confidential: Behavior Notice sharing the details of the infraction.
We can now also use Family Portal to share POSITIVE behaviors with you! At ASCA we recognize kind, virtuous behavior through Saintly Acts. We’ll continue to announce Saintly Acts over the PA on Thursday mornings and share in Saints Speak, and now they will also be tracked in Family Portal so you can receive an email when you child receives a Saintly Act! It will have the same subject as discipline notices (Confidential: Behavior Notice), so be sure to open the email as it may be sharing good news!
Arrival and Dismissal
Thank you for your patience as we all adjust back to school routines at arrival and dismissal! We met with Naperville Police Department today to discuss our procedure and the safest way to get cars on and off campus. We are considering a few changes to our procedure and at the advisement of the NPD we will be making one change immediately to ensure the continued safety of our families. Beginning Monday, there will only be ONE lane used to exit campus during arrival and dismissal, turning RIGHT onto Aurora Ave. The police department was very concerned about the safety of the double right turn off campus and has suggested we make this change immediately. We know this will slow down the process of exiting campus and ask for your patience. We will continue to monitor arrival and dismissal and may make additional changes in the coming weeks if we (and the Naperville Police) find them necessary.
At arrival and dismissal, please continue to be mindful of these procedures:
- All cars should enter using the west entrance and exit using the east entrance, turning right from one lane.
- At arrival, K-8 students may use Door 1 OR Door 7. Please use both lines to avoid letting traffic back up.
- All students should arrive using the car lines; please do not park in the lot and walk your child(ren) up to Door 1. If your child needs help getting out of a car seat, use Door 7 and pull all the way up by the electronic sign where you can assist them without stopping traffic.
- At dismissal, you may use the car line at Door 7 or the park and walk up option at Door 1. If you park, please walk to the coned area to meet your child, regardless of his/her age. All students must be accompanied by an adult while walking in the parking lot by Door 1. If you are using the car line, please have your name sign visible and pull up all the way to the car in front of you so we can load multiple cars at one time.
- Refrain from using cell phones on school property.
- Be respectful when merging and maintain the 5mph speed limit throughout the parking lot.
Thank you for partnering with us to ensure the safety of all our students and families!
First School Mass
Please consider joining us tomorrow morning at 8:15am for our first school Mass! Fr. Alex Lorang, our new chaplain, will be our celebrant. As in past years, parents are invited to enter at Door 1 and sit in the gym bleachers.
You’ll notice at Mass that our students sit with Faith Buddies; younger and older students are paired up to sit together throughout the year. After Mass beginning next week, classes will spend time together with their Faith Buddies learning about our monthly virtue. September’s virtue is Hope. Click here for some suggestions of ways you can learn about the virtue of hope at home as well!
Saintly Ballers
We are so excited for our first Saintly Ballers 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament! This fun family event will be held on Sunday, September 24th. Registration is now open! Click here for all the important need-to-know information, and click here to sign up today. There will also be Saintly Ballers t-shirts for sale (check out the awesome logo here!), which can be ordered here and can be worn on Spirit Wear Wednesdays. Registration and t-shirt orders are due next Thursday, 8/31, so sign up now!
Educating the Whole Child
At All Saints we educate the whole child and believe in partnering with you so each student can grow physically, academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. In September we will continue with our monthly social-emotional learning (SEL) lessons taught by our school social worker, Mrs. Magana. Click here for a letter from Mrs. Magana introducing herself. Click here for a letter about social-emotional learning and what will be taught this year. All lessons are aligned with the Diocese of Joliet SEL standards and support our goal of creating kind, compassionate, faith-filled young adults.
We are also blessed at All Saints to have Mrs. Aloisio as our Student Services Coordinator. Mrs. Aloisio, along with Mrs. Carden and Mrs. Kujawa, help support diverse learners and assist teachers in meeting all students’ needs in the classroom. Click here for more information on student services at All Saints.
Mrs. Aloisio has also begun providing additional lessons on executive functioning to students. Executive functioning skills support student learning in ALL subject areas and helps ensure they are successful when they leave ASCA for high school and future careers. Click here for more information about executive functioning, what skills are being emphasized at ASCA this year, and how you can support your child at home.
Stay cool today!
Warm regards,
Margie Marshall
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A Tremendous Thank You to the Cornerstone Sponsors of our 2023 Dinner Dance Auction (DDA): Great Gatsby Gala
Cornerstone Sponsors
We hope that you will support these generous benefactors of All Saints with your business. Please thank them, and let them know that you are an All Saints school family.
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