Mrs. Damuth's Notes
What's New at St. Valentine for 23-24
Working to fulfill our mission
St. Valentine School's Mission is to provide a Catholic Education based on
Values Rooted in Catholic Teachings
Academic Excellence
Love and Respect for All
Strong Community in Christ
All planning and decisions are made with this mission in mind.
Values Rooted in Catholic Teachings
Our 23-24 year theme is "Building God's Kingdom" with a focus on the fruits of the Holy Spirit: Love and Kindness, Gentleness, Generosity, Peace and Joy, Self-Control, Patience, Faithfulness, Goodness, and in the month of May a special focus on Mary, Mother of God.
Virtuous Spirit Awards
As students are taught the virtues and what it means to be a follower of Jesus, they may be recognized for times they especially show a "Virtuous Spirit". These can be given by any community member at any time when a student is found to be especially living out a virtue in a particular moment. The student's name is announced for the award during our all school daily morning video and he/she gets a certificate to take home. We have had this award for years, so all of our returning students are very familiar with it.
Faith in Action Award
New this year each teacher will be nominating one student a month for our Faith In Action award. This award will be given to one student in each grade who regularly demonstrates the virtue of the month. For September this is Love and Kindness. Students will be announced at the Monday Morning Prayer circle and will have a special lunch period with the pastor and principal later that week.
Blessed Mother's Birthday
On Friday Sept. 8th we celebrated the Nativity of Mary the Mother of God. This the is day the church recognizes as Mary's birthday. Each classroom had some of their own activities they did. In addition we had a school birthday party with a game for everyone to play that involved a fun search of the school and faith facts about Mary. The day ended with students visiting the grotto in front of the school and an ice cream treat on the church porch for all students.
October Learning about the Saints
In the month of October all classes will be learning about the saints as our Catholic heroes who are models for us of how to become closer to God. Students in all grades will complete an age appropriate Saint project that is completed by All Saints Day Nov. 1st.
Monday All School Prayer Circle
Beginning Sept. 25th we will have an all school prayer circle each Monday morning. While we do a morning all school video together each day for prayer, pledge, and announcements that is watched in each homeroom, Monday prayer circles are a way for us to pray and celebrate our week to come together in person as a whole school. This will be held in the gym from 8am-8:10 each Monday.
Notes for Academic Excellence
Updates for the new school year
Math Initiative
We will welcome a new Math interventionist to our building who will be starting soon. This certified teacher will work closely with Mrs. Maes our middle school math teacher to design small group and whole group instruction that targets individual and whole group math skills for grade level proficiency for all students.
In addition students will have the opportunity for twice a week virtual math tutoring through a program at Grand Valley State University called K-12 Connect. Students will qualify for this service from teacher recommendation and from STAR testing results. We are happy to be able to offer these programs to our students due to special EANS funding we received.
Reading initiative
Mrs. Slevin is working with students who need additional support in reading and/or writing this year. She will be joined in the learning lab by a new teacher from GPS who will work on Tuesdays and Thursdays with students identified in the STAR testing or from teacher recommendation as needing extra language arts support.
Great news- our students scored too high in reading for us to need the Beyond Basics Reading program back for fall 23-24. Many of our students had a huge benefit from this program this past year, however in order to have Beyond Basics Literacy Program with us there is a minimum amount of students that must need this reading support. While we still have needs for reading support we will meet these in other ways. This is good because it means our programs last year are working and our K-4 reading program in the classroom is setting students up for success!
At this time Mrs. Slevin and the learning lab Title team will be supporting those students.
We will consider K-12 Connect for additional reading intervention in January if needed. This will depend on our monitoring of work in the classroom and STAR scores.
Support for Students with Special Needs
We are in the process of connecting with the guardians of all students in the building who have been identified for an accommodation plan with St. Valentine or with Redford Union on a Non Public School Service plan. We will be having in person speech and language services offered at St. Valentine this year. This is a change from the virtual services that were offered last year.
Family, Student, Teacher Contract
Thank you to all who were able to attend our parent curriculum night. All parents who attended were given a home to school contract for all students, parents/guardians and teachers to sign. This contract is reminder to all of our mission and the important work that all of us must do together to carry our the school mission. If you were unable to attend a copy of the contract is in your VIP folder.
IXL
This year we will use a paid subscription with IXL.com for reading, math, science, and social studies online practice both at school and at home. Your child's teacher will give you information about how this will work for your child.
Study Skills and Leadership Classes
Students in grades 6-8 will be divided between a Study Skills Class and a Leadership and Academic Enrichment Class. This is taking the place of the study hall time from last year. Students in Study Skills will learn more about academic habits, goal setting, organization, time management and more. Students in the Leadership and Academic Enrichment class will learn about applying the virtues in daily life, and will explore academic content with engaging enrichment projects. Students will take one of the classes in the fall and then switch to the other class in January. We are hoping to soon be able to bring the Reaching Higher Leadership program in for the Enrichment Class for grades 6-8. We are exploring sponsors to fund this inspiring program. If funding allows we may also be able to offer the leadership class to our 5th grade later in the year.
STEM Class
Students in grades 1-5 will now have a Science, Math, Engineering and Technology (STEM) class with Mrs. Stone. This class is meant to content grade level content learned in regular science and math to current technology. This class meets once a week.
Love of Reading
In 23-24 we will no longer be using the Accelerated Reading program as we found it was not encouraging reading as much as we had hoped, but insead making extra reading (outside of regular reading class) a chore students did not want to do. As a teaching team we put our minds together in the spring and put together a very specific plan to encourage a love of reading across all grade levels. This means in addition to regular reading class, students will be read to by the teacher and be reading more than ever before in a way that we are hoping they will enjoy and look forward to. When students get immersed in a good book, or enjoy a book the teacher reads to them, they want to read more. In addition we are removing the screens for students who finish work early, they will be given enrichment opportunity instead or time with the book of their choice. We will work on this goal of helping everyone enjoy reading as school all year long in a variety of ways.
Field Trips
All students in grades preschool through grade 8 will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of field trips throughout the year to enhance their learning through experiences in our broader community. Chaperones must have PGC and a background check on file.
Love and Respect for All
Circles
New this year our staff has had training for restorative practices. A letter about this went home in the VIP folder at the start of the year. We will be using the format of "Circles" throughout the year for students to be able to express themselves and share positive and negative feelings. We are teaching students how to actively listen to each other and are striving to model active listening ourselves. The Circle approach to behavior incidents does not replace our behavior rubric, however it does help to restore our learning community when challenging circumstance come up. Please ask your child about circles and their first experience with them. This approach is being used in preschool through grade 8.
Bullying prevention program
On October 23rd, New York Times bestselling author and bullying survivor turned activist Jodee Blanco will deliver a bullying survival and prevention seminar at St. Valentine School for parents, educators and students.
Students at St. Valentine will have a presentation with Jodee during the school day the afternoon of Oct. 23rd.
Teachers of St. Valentine and St. Linus will have a teacher presentation at 4:15pm Oct. 23rd.
Parents and Guardians are invited Oct. 23 at 7pm in the school gym.
The event is co-hosted by St. Valentine and St. Linus Schools and appropriate for children of all ages. Highlights will include:
• Jodee’s own story of her struggle as the target of severe school bullying, as well as what her parents and teachers did that helped; what didn’t and why; and insights from the thousands of students she has worked with across the nation.
• Specific, practical advice for adults on how to intervene with a victim, bully or bystander, from the rare point of view of someone who has lived through it.
• Insights into the plight of the Adult Survivor of Peer Abuse™ and suggestions on how to overcome those open wounds from the past. Families will have the opportunity to speak with Jodee following the presentation.
For Families of St. Valentine and St. Linus the event will take place on Oct. 23, 2023 at 7pm in the St. Valentine gym.
Strong Community in Christ
Working together at St. Valentine
Parent 2 Principal Days
Our first Parent 2 Principal (P2P) day was held in Mrs. Damuth's office on Sept. 8th at 2:45. Thank you to the parents who attended. Our conversation was excellent and connecting with you was the highlight of the week for Mrs. Damuth.
Our next Parent 2 Principal day is scheduled for Oct. 6th at 2:45pm. This will be in Mrs. Damuth's office again, unless we have too many to fit in the space, at which time we will move to the meeting room. Those who attend may go to the classroom at the end of the day to pick up their child.
The goal of P2P is to have an informal time to chat about all that is going on in our St. Valentine School community to promote home to school relationships for the good of our students.
Protecting God's Children
ALL St. Valentine family members who want to participate in ANY way with the school must take the Protecting God's Children Workshop by Nov. 1, 2023.
New in 23-24 any adult who already took the PGC workshop BEFORE 2020 MUST take a 40 minute refresher program by Nov. 1 to be allowed to volunteer at the school or church in ANY capacity.
ALSO new in 23-24 an I-chat form must now be completed annually before any adult can work with students in any capacity. (previously this was done once every five years)
PTC
Our first Parent Teacher Club meeting will be held Oct. 4th from 7-8 pm in the school meeting room. Babysitting will be provided for school aged children. All students who have a parent or family member present will earn a dress down day for Oct. 5th. One hour of volunteer service will be given to those who attend.
U of D
High School seniors from University of Detroit will be volunteering every other Wednesday in our school. These young men will be working with teachers to support learning in the classroom. Our students always love having the U of D seniors with us each year and can not wait to meet our new group who will be assigned to us in 23-24.
Counseling and Support
Our new counselor, math interventionist, and Detroit Title tutor will be meeting with us Monday, Sept. 18th and will begin working with students shortly after that. In addition we will have Mr. Andre McNichols regularly in our building to support teachers and student in implementing circles, and restorative practices. Introductions to this team will come out soon.
Circles and Empowering God's Children
A letter went home in the first VIP folder explaining the new circle process we are using for students in classrooms to discuss topics of interest, and to help restore community after students make mistakes. Please ask your child about his/her experience with "circles".
In addition we are reinforcing for students how to establish personal boundaries and to speak up when a classmate (or adult) does not respect a boundary. We are teaching students the importance of listening when a classmate tells us "please stop".
Extra curricular opportunities as of Sept. 2023
- Tennis (Fall)
- Golf (Fall)
- Soccer (Fall grades 1-2 only)
- Drama Club (already in process)
- Altar Serving (training to begin soon)
- Children's Choir
- Chess Club (grades K-8)
- Peer Mediation (MS)
- Broadcast Club (MS)
- Student Ambassadors
- Safety Squad
- Yarn Club (student lead)
- Basketball (coming late fall for the winter season)
- Cheer (coming late fall for the winter season)
- Softball and Baseball (spring)
School Volunteer Opportunities
See buttons below
Volunteers to help promote reading- Sign up here