Month: February 2019

Weekend Updates!

Congratulations to Maria, who placed first in The Telegram Spelling Bee! Congratulations also to Tanish, MDJH’s other competitor. It was a great day for spelling! For more information, click here to go to The Telegram’s article. Best of luck to Maria on her upcoming trip to Washington, DC, to compete in the National Championships!
(Photo from The Telegram)

Congratulations to the Grade 8 Girls Basketball Team for winning the “A” Provincial Basketball Championship!

Congratulations to the Grade 8 Boys Basketball Team on taking Silver at the “A” Provincial Basketball Championship!

Mini-Enrichment 2019

NLESD is once again offering Mini-Enrichment to students during the Spring of 2019. These mini-courses are held at locations such as Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic, and give students the opportunity to explore new educational areas.

The deadline for receipt of applications is Tuesday, March 12th. Each application must be accompanied by a $45.00 deposit (payable to Macdonald Drive Junior High). This deposit is non-refundable if the application is successful. Students attending a mini-course will be responsible for their own transportation to and from the location of the mini-courses.

Application forms are available from the main office, or can be downloaded by clicking here. Students are asked to choose four courses and list them in order of preference, and will hopefully be selected for one of these four. For more information, please refer to the application form.

Click here to view the course catalogue, or stop by the main office.

Spirit Week – Feb. 25 – Mar. 1

It’s Spirit Week! Here are the themes for the week:

  • Monday: Pyjama Day
  • Tuesday: Twin / Multiple Day
  • Wednesday: PINK day
  • Thursday: Pride Day
  • Friday: Jersey Day / Hypnotist

There will also be lunchtime activities organized for students. These are:

Monday – volleyball teacher team vs grade 9 girls

Tuesday – dodgeball teacher vs students

Thursday – grade 9 boys vs Gonzaga grade 10 team

Senator David Wells Visits MDJH

On Wednesday, February 13, two grade nine classes were treated to a visit by Senator David Wells. The program SENgage sponsored the visit as a way to communicate the role of senators in the Upper Chamber of the Federal Government. Senator Wells immediately connected with students through stories of his days attending MDJH and his adventures in mountain climbing. He then discussed the process of debate and passage of legislation in the senate. Students were surprised to learn that the Senator’s duties extended to the international stage as well through his participation on committees throughout the world.

Mr. Wells advised students on the importance of lifelong learning and the ability to be conversational on a variety of topics, even if those topics don’t interest them. This advice resulted from a discussion of events that led Senator Wells to the position he now holds. Great advice, indeed!

Grade 9 Course Selection – Holy Heart

For students and parents interested in attending Holy Heart in September, there will be an information session on Tuesday, Feb 26th at 6:00 pm at the Holy Heart Theatre. This session will cover such topics as course selection, the transfer process, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program.

Request for WISH Donation

Every year in Newfoundland and Labrador, children of life threatening sickness/disease hope to be granted their WISH from The Children’s Wish Foundation. In Newfoundland and Labrador, we have approximately 71 children on the WISH list. Back in 2018, the Children’s Wish Foundation decided to implement a WISH School Campaign. What that entails is that schools across the province can work towards becoming a designated WISH school. That means, their school has granted a child’s wish to someone throughout our province. We, at MacDonald Drive Junior High, have WISH children in our very own building! We have been working towards becoming a designated WISH school and granting our very own wish to one or even two of our very own students, as soon as possible, our goal is to grant this by June 2019. We have various activities taking place throughout our school with funds being held towards our primary goal of $10,000 per WISH, however, we really need your help! Since last May, we have raised only approximately $3200. Please consider donating to this very worthwhile cause. As stated, we hope to grant our wish(es) as soon as we are able and certainly hope to achieve this, by June 2019. When we are successful, the event will be held live in our gymnasium with media personnel available to publicize granting the wish but also, the acceptance of the MDJH WISH School Banner that will proudly be posted in front of our main foyer indicating that MDJH is an official WISH School. Wouldn’t it be just so heartwarming to grant our own students their wish(es)?

In addition to this, we are also a designated WE school that contributes to many community projects around the world, as well as, here in our own province. WE, all of us in the community, must work together to achieve a continuous goal while instilling empathy, compassion, morality, and kindness in our youth so that they may continue becoming productive citizens of society. The WISH School venture falls under the umbrella of our WE school initiatives in our WE Create Change Campaign, as well. Every donation helps in this cause, so please use the attached form below to contribute to this worthwhile event! WE really appreciate all of your support – together, WE can create change and we can make this a reality!

For donations of $20 or more, please make your cheque or cash payable to MDJH (WISH) with your name and address on the envelope. The WISH Foundation will issue you an official receipt once the donation has been processed.

If you require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at carolynstacey@nlesd.ca or (709) 753-8240.