This post was contributed by Jennifer Ryan, Admissions at Saint Bridget School in Framingham, MA.
Monday – Celebrating our Community. Saint Bridget School had an all-school service day. Here is what we did:
PreK & K – invited the 9:00am Mass parishioners to come over after mass for breakfast and coffee baked that morning by the students. They ate with the parishioners and sang some songs.
1st grade – Decorated the entire cafeteria for our all-school baby shower. During the month of January, we collected diaper and baby items for Birthright of Framingham, and A Place to Turn in Natick – both of which provide services to families in need. We collected over 6500 diapers and baby items. Rather than just have an ice cream social for the heck of it, we had a baby shower on Monday afternoon to reward all students for their service and to show Birthright and A Place to Turn all of the items we collected. The 1st grade made homemade baby shower decorations and decorated the entire cafeteria. The entire school met in the cafeteria and had blue and pink cupcakes as the Principal, Mrs. Cathleen Chaves, announced where everyone went (ie: their service field trips) and how much we had collected.
Tuesday – Celebrating our Students – On this day, our students, in grades Kindergarten – Grade 8 took part in a school-wide spelling football tournament. We had 4 divisions: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and each division had 4 teams (4 homerooms) and they competed in a 3-game round robin. The winner of each division then played in the semi-final to see who would got to the Spelling Football Superbowl at the end of the day. The two final teams were Kindergarten (KB) vs. 5th grade (5L). Kindergarten spelled Kindergarten words and 5th grade spelled 5th grade words. The final was watched by the entire school (complete with popcorn for those watching). Parents were updated throughout the day and the parents of the two final teams were invited to come and watch. Ultimately 5th grade won – with Kindergarten coming in a close second. It was a fantastic event full of cheering and wonderful camaraderie.
Wednesday – Celebrating our Nation – We invited our two Massachusetts State Representatives (one who is an alum of our school) and our Town Manager to come and speak about how they serve our community and Nation. Our youngest students greeted them with patriotic poems and songs and then the entire school sang our school song. Then, grades 3-8 stayed and listened to our guests speak about their jobs and were able to ask questions. It was a fabulous event and we were honored to have them attend.
Thursday – Celebrating our Staff – We had a week-long Staff Baby Picture contest where the students had to guess who was in the baby picture. The winners won a no homework pass or an out-of-uniform dress down day. Our wonderful PTO sponsored an all-teacher luncheon, allowing us an opportunity to eat together. The staff each received a travel coffee mug with our logo and a few Keurig k-cups as a thank for your all they do.
Friday – Celebrating Vocations – On this day we had scheduled local seminarians to come for a prayer service and receive a box of notes of encouragement written by each one of our students. Unfortunately, we had a snow day this day did not take place.
This year’s Catholic Schools Week was the best one yet and we are really proud of the amazing things we did.
