September 2017 Father of Light and Wisdom, thank you for giving me a mind that can know and a heart that can love. Help me to keep learning every day of my life-- no matter what the subject may be. Let me be convinced that all knowledge leads to you and let me know how to find you and love you in all the things you have made. Encourage me when the studies are difficult and when I am tempted to give up Enlighten me when my brain is slow and help me to grasp the truth held out to me. Grant me the grace to put my knowledge to use in building the kingdom of God on earth so that I may enter the kingdom of God in heaven. Amen.
Principal s Message September 2017 Dear Parents/Guardians: Welcome back to another EXCITING school year! MAC has a long-standing tradition of academic excellence while concurrently offering exceptional wellbalanced complementary course work. As a graduate of MAC, I understand this culture and intend on maintaining the school s traditions while also striving for continuous improvement in meeting the needs of our students and their families. As a school community, we are continuing our journey on the road of High School redesign. In addition to what has been put in place already, we are taking the next step and creating advisor groupings for all of our grade 10 s. The intent of the advisor system is to provide the student an opportunity to create a personalized connection to a teacher in the building that they can go to for help with anything that they may need. September has proven to be a busy month thus far as we processed many registrations and course request changes. During the registration process, we fielded many inquiries about school fees and transportation fees. Detailed explanations regarding all fees can be found on our website. However, there needs to be some clarification regarding ETS bus fees. Please be aware that: Ecole Archbishop MacDonald is a school of choice and does not have an attendance area. The government s current fee reduction program reduces transportation fees for students attending their designated school but not for students attending a school of choice. Enrollment at MAC is at 985 students, the highest that is has ever been in the school s 50 year history. We are honored and look forward to working with your children as we prepare them for their post-secondary and life s aspirations! Upcoming events include: MEET THE TEACHER evening on Sept 20 @ 6:30 p.m. MAC it Up - Sept 15-11:07-1:02 Club day Sept 19-1:14-2:14 Parents and guardians play an important role in the overall success of their children s education. To this end, I encourage all to access their respective PowerSchool parent accounts to keep in contact with their child s assessments and attendance. More importantly, I encourage all stakeholders to keep in communication with the school with respect to your child s educational needs. Working together as a unified team is paramount in creating a culture of academic success and integrity. My best wishes to your son/daughter for continued success in education! Sincerely, Mr. John Fiacco Principal
September Events Sept. 5 Sept. 6 Sept. 8 Sept. 12 Sept. 13-15 Sept. 19 Sept. 20 Sept. 21 Sept. 22-23 Sept. 28-29 Sept. 29-30 Gr. 10 Orientation First Day of Classes-All Students School Opening Celebration IB Retreat Grade 10- M 10 Group PLT Grade 11 & 12 Assembly- PLT Physical Education Camping Trip Club Day- PLT Meet the Staff Evening at 6:30 pm PD DAY: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS Junior Boys Volleyball Tournament Peer Support Retreat Junior Girls Volleyball Tournament
Archbishop MacDonald Awards Night Archbishop MacDonald s Academic Awards Night for the 2016-17 school year will be held on Thursday, October 5, 2016 in the gymnasium.the grade 10 & 11 awards program will commence at 6:30pm while the grade 12 program will start at 7:30pm. Invitations will be mailed out shortly. Business Office Reminder: SCHOOL FEES **Parents can go onto their PowerSchool Account to make payment of school fees. **
Scholarships: Every year Student Services gets many inquiries as to how to find and apply for scholarships. Scholarships are normally applied for in your Grade 12 year, prior to entering post-secondary education, and are the responsibility of the student. Scholarships applications are available to graduating students starting in the fall and continuing on right to the end of the school term. Students are encouraged to do their research early and stay on top of application deadlines. Although academics play a part in winning scholarships, students with extra-curricular involvement, community service and leadership experience are often more likely to win a scholarship over someone who doesn t have these experiences. The more involved you are, the better. You should also make sure you check with the post-secondary institution you are planning on attending. Often they provide Entrance Scholarships for students who maintain a high average or are involved in leadership activities in their school and community. The Rutherford Scholarship is awarded to graduating Grade 12 students from Alberta who have maintained a minimum 75% average. The student only applies ONCE in Grade 12 for all three years of high school. This award is applied for online and the application can be found at http://www.studentaid.alberta.ca/scholarships/alberta-scholarships/rutherford-scholarship/. The student should be accepted into a post-secondary institution and have their final grade 12 marks available before applying. If you are interested in getting scholarships to help fund your post-secondary education, and are currently in Grade 10 or 11, help yourself by getting involved in your school and community and taking the time to do your research. The counsellors are here to support you in this process. If you have any questions about your scholarship search, please do not be afraid to ask. Post-Secondary Applications: Student services will be holding mandatory PLT sessions for all grade 12 students starting in September. These sessions will address the procedures as well as applicable dates and information students need to be aware of when applying for post-secondary. We will also be reviewing graduation requirements with all grade 12 students and discussing how to apply for scholarships. Our counsellors are always available to answer questions, but would like to remind students that they are responsible for applications and all applicable deadlines.
Post-Secondary Planning at MAC The vast majority of MAC s graduating students will go on to attend a university or college in the Edmonton area while others may venture further to university and college programs across Canada or abroad. Student Services endeavors to ensure that all students have access to information about post-secondary programming so they are able to make the best decisions possible about their post-secondary experience. Listed below are some of the sessions and information available to students throughout the year. 1. Beginning September, 2017, Student Services will meet with ALL grade 12 students to ensure they have their graduation requirements as well as to talk about upcoming applications to post-secondary Institutions. Most post-secondary institutions in Canada start taking applications for the following school year on October 1. 2. Monday, September 25, 2017 (8:30am) Simon Fraser University and University of Victoria will be holding a student information session at MAC. 3. Tuesday, September 26, 2017 (during PLT) University of Alberta will be presenting to all interested students in the Atrium at MAC 4. Tuesday, October 3, 2017 (during PLT) University of British Columbia will be holding a student information session at MAC. 5. Tuesday, October 10, 2017 (during PLT) MAC is hosting an Out-of-Province University Fair in the Atrium for all interested students. Attending this fair will be: Dalhousie University, University of New Brunswick, Mount Allison University, Concordia University (QC), University of Toronto, University of Waterloo, Western University, University of British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan, and many more. 6. Wednesday, October 11, 2017 (beginning at 6:30pm) University of Alberta will be hosting a Parent Information Evening for parents of MAC students. This event will be held in the Atrium and is for MAC parents only. 7. Friday, October 13 and Saturday, October 14, 2017 NAIT Open House www.nait.ca 8. Saturday, October 21, 2017 University of Alberta OPEN HOUSE www.uab.ca/openhouse. All interested GRADE 11 and 12 students should plan on attending. 9. Friday, November 3, 2017 an all afternoon event MAC is hosting a post-secondary fair for all Alberta post-secondary institutions. All MAC students are required to attend this event. 10. Saturday, November 4, 2017 (10am-3pm) MacEwan University Open House www.macewan.ca 11. Wednesday, November 11, 2017 (during lunch) MAC is hosting a BC Universities mini-fair in the SRC. Most BC universities will be represented. 12. University of Toronto student information session TBA MAC Student Services continually adds to the list of post-secondary events throughout the year. Please feel free to check back with us regularly. You can email our school counsellors Lisa Reeves (lisa.reeves@ecsd.net) or Kary Laplante (kary.laplante@ecsd.net) if you have any questions surrounding post-secondary information.
MAC Athletics Both senior volleyball teams are off to a great start, training hard in preparation for the season ahead. The senior boys possess great potential in their young squad and the senior girls are showing true promise with a bronze medal win in their first tournament. Regular season starts up next week! Go Marauders! Cross Country Team The Archbishop MacDonald Cross Country Team started their season on Tuesday, September 12 th, 2017. Any student that would like to get FIT, or compete for their school are welcome to join. Practices will be Monday and Tuesday afterschool (3:30-4:30pm). Competitions will be Wednesday afterschool. The season will go until the middle of October. If interested, please talk to Mr. Myskiw in the office. French Immersion & IBDP Newsletter You will find our French Immersion Newsletter on our website under the Second Languages tab. As well as our IBDP Newsletter will be located on our website.
Happy New School Year Welcome to the 2017-2018 School Year. In the Eastern Catholic Churches (Byzantine Rite) the liturgical year has a formally designated beginning on September 1st, rather than the first Sunday of Advent (Roman Rite). What a blessing it is that we are starting a New School Year at the same time as the Eastern Christians are starting a New Church Year. We read in St. Paul's letter to the Colossians, Make the best possible use of your time (Colossians 4:5). The key word in this statement by St. Paul is the word "time." New Testament writers use two Greek words for time: chronos and kairos. Chronos time is chronological time, calendar time, time that moves along moment by moment, day by day, year by year. But kairos time is another kind of time, a special kind of time; time which is crucial; time which determines history. Jesus lived a life of kairos time. He never ignored a single moment or opportunity for doing good, for serving, for healing. He used time to the fullest: teaching, comforting, loving, preaching. Even when He was alone, He spent His time in prayer, communicating with God as to how best use the time that was left in His life. The Lord gave us chronos time, calendar time, that we may turn it into kairos time, salvation time, time filled with opportunities for us to respond to God's gracious invitation to the Kingdom; time for bearing in our lives the fruit of faith, hope and love. The principal meaning of the word kairos in the New Testament is: the right time, the ripe time, the proper time, the opportune time for salvation. It is in this sense that St. Paul uses the word kairos in the second letter to the Corinthians: "Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation" (II Corinthians 6:2). Because the Church does not want us to lose the kingdom, it takes chronos, calendar time, and turns it into kairos, salvation time. It does this through the liturgical year which we also call the church year or the church calendar. Every day in the liturgical calendar is dedicated to the memory of some event or saint in the history of salvation. The Church has taken the Bible and placed it, planted it into the chronos or calendar time in order to turn the calendar into the kairos of our salvation. So let us live out our salvation by taking the words of the theme for this school year Rooted in Jesus... Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve and make them into actions filled with opportunities to respond to God's gracious invitation to serve and to love Him, our students, and one another. Have a Blessed 2017-2018 School Year! Fr. Julian Bilyj District Chaplain