As another year of learning comes to a close we wish to Thank You again for choosing to be part of the Saint James School family, and for the various ways that each of you help make Saint James School such a special place! While this has been a year unlike any other in our school’s 97 years of operation, we hope your family has been able to experience and enjoy some of the silver linings that have come out of the pandemic.

Please take a moment to view this video message from Mrs. Zorger:  Click to Play

We wish everyone a healthy and relaxing Summer Vacation and look forward to seeing you back at Saint James School on August 27th.  Please keep an eye on your email throughout the summer as we will be communicating details and information about the 2020-2021 school year as soon as it becomes available.

Important notes/reminders:

Summer Hours: The school office will be open M – F from 9:00am – 1:00pm.

Teacher Assignments: Class assignments will be e-mailed a few days before school starts.

Documents, Forms & Calendars: Documents, forms, and calendars will all be available on our website under the Forms/Docs page of our website. This includes the following, which are also noted below for your convenience:

2020-2021 Dress Code

2020-2021 One Page Calendar

Supply Lists & Online Ordering Info:

2020-2021 K-5 School Supply List
2020-2021 Gr 6-8 School Supply List

This summer you again have the option to order your child’s school supplies online and have them delivered directly to your home! In addition, Saint James School receives a percentage of every sale – convenience for you and a great way to support SJS! Plus, if you already have supplies left over from prior years, you can choose not to include those in your purchase. Visit the School Toolbox Website (click to access) and type in St. James School Manchester, CT in the search box.  Boxes by grade should be ready for ordering shortly.  Please remember to order supplies well in advance to ensure they arrive before the first day of school.

Mindful Activities:

Lastly, we thought you might enjoy reading about these mindful activities that you can do with your child/ren this summer:

Summer Mindful Activities

 

It was nice to see so many families enjoying our 2020 virtual field day! Here are a few pictures:

As we close out our final virtue of the school year, we wanted to leave you with this beautiful prayer written by 8th grade student Annabelle Krueger.

Gratitude in the Face of the Coronavirus

Dear God,

Even though times are uncertain,
I thank you for the many blessings I have.

My family and I are home together
and we can enjoy each other without interruption.

I thank you for this gracious blessing of being with the ones I love most all the time,
for we see each other every day but sometimes I feel that we are always going in opposite directions and not getting the time to understand or help each other.

I thank you God for giving my family the chance to become one united group of love.

The pace of life has slowed itself down so I can notice and appreciate the small moments and beauties of nature that surround me.

I thank you for this blessing of opportunity since life goes by so fast,
we often overlook the little things
like a swim in a pond on a seventy degree day when everyone says I’m crazy but I  like the feeling of the cool water on my body and the sentiment of being totally free.

Or watching our magnolia tree slowly unfurl its purple flowers.

These are the things that are often forgotten but can now be seen in the spotlight.

With nothing else to think about, the small things count more than ever.

I thank you God for letting us see that we should treasure all things, big or small, in our vast memory.

Technology allows us to stay connected with friends, family, classmates and teachers.

It allows us to have virtual human contact when we can’t physically spend time with people.

I thank you for this blessing of being able to stay connected with others.

Humans are social creatures who need to have contact with others,
and technology now allows for this to happen even when we are quarantined.

I thank you God for giving us the gift of technology to communicate with others in a time where everything is uncertain.

So even though the situation is not ideal,
I am grateful for all the blessings God has given me.

Amen.

 

Some great examples of our virtue of the month – Gratitude – from Mrs. LaMarche’s 2nd grade class.

Our 6th graders have spent some of their at-home STREAM time learning to use an online graphic design platform called Canva.  Each student was tasked to showcase an inspirational Bible passage or favorite quotation as a “desktop wallpaper.”  We would like to share a movie of their creations with you.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0B-iJ6Fb4

If you would like to download any of the images to use as the wallpaper on your own desktop, you can access the individual image files here:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pM7iLnvOPT1YJLOFpu3qxekV1usamnhY?usp=sharing