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Students live by morals at St. Francis

St. Francis of Assisi is an exceptional school. It started as a small building, but over the years our population has grown, therefore we required a larger school. The school was founded in 1980 and has been at a few different locations. The new school that everyone is happily attending has been around since 2002 on Rudell Road.

Our school has many good special needs programs including the CASA class which is a classroom for autistic children where they learn life skills. They also attend a lot of regular classes too, like math. We have a Snoezelen room where they can relax. St. Francis and its community are very fortunate to have this facility to assist autistic children.

Our teachers at St. Francis are fantastic -- they are very educated and helpful. They encourage the students to reach their fullest potential.

St. Francis is a school that you could walk into and be greeted with open arms and a big smile. Our staff and students take great pride in their education. It’s a school where we live by our morals. There are a lot of things we could say about the school, like how we have so many clubs such as baseball, soccer, golf, chess, Lego and Think Bowl. Our intermediate volleyball team did really well this year coming up a couple points short in the semi finals, but that is good considering we didn’t win a game last year.

A quote from a friend perhaps best sums up our school: “I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework,” said Edith Ann.

This is what all of the students at the wonderful St. Francis School want!

Michael MacLellan and Madeline Zoelman are senior students at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School.

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Community service is key at St. Francis of Assisi

Apr 7, 2008 By: Moya Dillon

NEWCASTLE -- The motto at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic elementary school in Newcastle is “In peace, hope and joy,” something the staff takes to heart every day.

“Of those three the most important is hope,” said principal Violet Neheli. “We try to provide as much hope as possible to both our students and our parents.”

The school runs many unique programs and encourages its staff to develop new ideas. Right now they are running Prime, a pilot project designed by several staff members to improve the math teaching to increase student achievement.

The Centre for Autism Spectrum Assistance (CASA) also runs out of St. Francis and takes students from a family of schools in the surrounding area. As part of the CASA program the school constructed a Snoezelen Room, which is a sensory room that provides students with either a relaxing or a stimulating sensory experience.

One thing the school focuses on, in conjunction with its Catholic Virtues in Action character education program, is community involvement. A new program this year is Leaders Today, which looks at ways students can change things in the community.

“One thing that’s really important to our school is community service,” Mrs. Neheli said. “We want students to have a real sense of community. We hope they understand, when they get older, how important it is to serve your community, and that they are able to change things.”

As part of the school’s commitment to the community, each classroom organizes at least one community service project every year. These have included food drives and helping out in other areas around the school. The school also has a Fitness Friends program that teams special needs students with other students in the school to increase their physical activity. The three-year old program is popular, with 40 students participating this year.

A big project over the past few years has been the creation of their outdoor classroom, Tranquility Trail. When the new building was constructed, a reservoir had to be created for drainage purposes. Although the area was fenced off, teachers started to notice it was becoming naturalized and thought it could be a nice teaching space for the children.

“Over the last three years parents and staff got together and figured out ways it could be used for classrooms,” Mrs. Neheli said. “Now we use it for quiet reading time, art and science. We’re raising money now to build a little observation deck. The students are very proud of it.”

Another aspect of character education is having students take ownership of the school. They encourage this through programs such as the safety patrol, where kids patrol hallways and buses, or having students take care of putting up the flag or reading morning announcements.

“It really allows them to develop their independence and leadership,” Mrs. Neheli said of the program. “I’m very proud of the students here because they’re taking responsibility for their education and their actions.inclusive. So students are showing respect.”