My youngest child (7) recently told me that he feels safest and happiest at home. He followed that up by saying "and also at school." I think for a young child to express that sense of comfort and safety at school is extremely important to their social emotional growth. I know that my child is well cared for and loved every day and you can't put a price on that. He feels this way because of the teachers and staff as well as the example that is set for children to treat each other with love and respect.

WELCOME PARENTS

Dear Parents,

Welcome to St. Michael Parish School! Our aim to is to make it "a great year!" When looking for inspiration for our Catholic schools today, we find great courage and confidence in the words of Pope Francis. We wish to share with you his words, as we believe they will inspire all of us, together, as we move forward to a new academic year. In an address to students and educators*, Pope Francis said,

School is one of the educational environments where one grows by learning how to live, how to become grown-up, mature men and women. ... [T]he main element in school is learning to be magnanimous ... This means having a great heart, having greatness of mind; it means having great ideals, the wish to do great things in response to what God asks of us. Hence also, for this very reason, to do well the routine things of every day and all the daily actions, tasks, meetings with people; doing the little everyday things with a great heart open to God and to others. It is therefore important to cultivate human formation with a view to magnanimity.

School does not only broaden your intellectual dimension, but also your human one. [Schools] take special care to develop human virtues: loyalty, respect, faithfulness and dedication. ... Love Jesus Christ more and more! Our life is a response to His call and you will be happy and will build your life well if you know how to answer this call. May you feel the Lord’s presence in your life. ... In prayer, in dialogue with Him, and in reading the Bible you will discover that He is truly close. You will also learn to read God’s signs in your life. He always speaks to us, also through the events of our time and our daily life; it is up to us to listen to him.

The Holy Father encouraged all of us adults, all the educators (the ordained, the teachers, staff in the schools, and parents), when he said,

Do not be disheartened in the face of the difficulties that the educational challenge presents! Educating is not a profession but an attitude, a way of being; in order to educate it is necessary to step out of ourselves and be among the young people, to accompany them in the stages of their growth and to set ourselves beside them.

Pope Francis asked educators to give our students hope and optimism by teaching them

to see the beauty and goodness of creation and of man, who always retains the Creator’s hallmark. But above all, witness with your life what you communicate. ...[Educators] pass on knowledge and values with their words; but their words will have an incisive effect on children and young people if they are accompanied by their witness, their consistent way of life. Without consistency it is impossible to educate! You are all educators, there are no delegates in this field. ... School can and must be a catalyst, it must be a place of encounter and convergence of the entire educating community with the sole objective of training and helping to develop mature people who are simple, competent and honest, who know how to love with fidelity, who can live life as a response to God’s call, and their future profession as a service to society.

At St. Michael Parish School (SMPS), we join together as educators, students, and parents, united in our mission, fortified by our Lord, Jesus Christ. We go forth inspired by our Pope, inspired by our Catholic union, inspired by our commitment to discipleship. We invite us all to do so with “a big heart” and “greatness of soul,” as urged by the Pope. May we do so together. Joyfully.

Mr. Adam Ferguson, Principal

Father Dan Hoehn, Pastor

SMPS School Board
SMPS School Staff

* Excerts from “ Address of Pope Francis to the Students of the Jesuit Schools of Italy and Albania ,” Friday, 7 June 2013