Today, as part of MDJH Spirit Week, we held our annual Pink Shirt Day. Presentations were made to the different homerooms on the origins and importance of Pink Shirt Day, and the need to be supportive of each other in the face of bullying.

Here are some of our staff showing their Pink Shirts.

Our school is participating in a Breakfast Blitz, to help fill our KES Cupboards, on Thursday, February 27, 2025. We are asking you to please send along a breakfast item or a donation to support our school’s Kids Eat Smart Breakfast Club.

If you wish, you may make your donation online at www.kidseatsmart.ca and designate our school to receive your gift.

Remember $20 is breakfast for a child for one month! It’s important that we fill our KES cupboards to ensure our children start their days well-nourished and ready to learn!

Dear families and caregivers,

From February 21 to March 21, MDJH will participate in a fundraising campaign supporting Home Again Furniture Bank, a non-profit organization that delivers free furniture to families in need throughout the Northeast Avalon. More information about our fundraiser can be found in this slideshow.

To encourage donations and participation, we will be fundraising by homeroom and competing to raise the most money. The homeroom that raises the most money will earn a Cineplex movie night on March 21.

Each homeroom has a unique fundraising link where donations can be made online. The donation link for each class will be sent in an email from your student’s homeroom teacher on Tuesday, Feb 25.

Donations can also be made through the MDJH Team page – look for the homeroom class under Team Members.

Students are encouraged to seek sponsors for trading their bed for a night on the floor – sponsor letter here.

Parents and students can share the donation link to anyone (friends, family, social media, etc.). Online donations from social media platforms, especially Facebook, are one of the best ways to reach others in our community and raise money for our local non-profits. A simple Facebook post, such as “My child’s school is raising money to support a local non-profit organization, Home Again Furniture Bank. Please consider donating online to support them here: (insert link)” goes a long way.

Your support will help deliver comfort, dignity and stability. Thank you!

Sincerely,
MDJH Staff

Dear Parents/Guardians,

As part of Food First NL’s province-wide Next Steps for School Meals Consultations
(https://www.foodfirstnl.ca/projects/next-steps-school-meals), we hope to engage your school community in gathering ideas and input on what an inclusive, non-stigmatizing, and accessible school lunch program should look like at your child(ren)’s school(s). We have partnered with the Department of Education to launch our surveys through the Thought Exchange Platform. The surveys are available online via the following link: https://tejoin.com/scroll/945926426.

We kindly ask that the surveys be completed by Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

Thank you so much for your help in shaping and informing our recommendations for a successful expansion of school meal programming in our province. Feedback from your family is essential to finding school lunch solutions that work for your school community.

Warm Regards,

Ashley Byrne
Next Steps for School Meals
Program Coordinator
ashley@foodfirstnl.ca
(709)237-4026 (voicemail)

1. If you are interested in participating in the Science Fair, please see your Science Teacher to be added to our Google Classroom.
2. Once you have decided on a project idea, you will need to submit a proposal to your science teacher for approval.
   *Before beginning your project, it is VERY important to go through your plan with your teacher first as there are certain expectations that need to be met to attend the Regional Fair.
3. The deadline to submit your proposal is Friday, Feb. 28th. You will need to complete the Google Form on our Science Fair Google Classroom.
4. All instructions on how to design your project are under the instructions section in our Google Classroom. You can also find information on the NL Science Fairs Website.
5. The Regional Science Fair is on Friday, March 28th at the Memorial University Core Science Building in St. John’s, NL. The public viewing and awards ceremony will be on Saturday, March 29th.
6. Prior to the Regional Science Fair, you will present your project to MDJH Science Teachers during lunchtime on Thursday, March 12th in Room 124. The purpose of doing this is so that we can provide feedback on your project and this will give you time to make any necessary changes prior to the Regionals.
7. Registration will open on the NL Science Fairs Website, March 1st. The committee is very fi rm on Registration deadlines as they need time to prepare for the fair. You will need to register yourself and pay your fees through the school’s Rycor as the school will issue a cheque on behalf of all students. Once we have numbers confi rmed, we will set it up on Rycor and let you know.
8. Details on the Regional Fair and the plan for March 28th, will be shared once we get closer to the date.

Due to the expected mixed precipitation rate and road conditions, schools in the St. John’s Metro Region will have a 3 hour delayed opening today, Friday, February 14, 2025.

We will be open at 11:05am.

This also means that buses will operate 3 hours later than the usual pick up time. 

School status updates can be checked on the NLSchools website. http://nlschools.ca

The Gonzaga High School administration team will be holding an in-person session for parents on Tuesday, February 11th at 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM at Gonzaga. During this meeting, they will go through the Level 1 course selection presentation/process for 2025-2026 and allow time at the end for anyone who would like to ask questions.

If any other parent of a current Gonzaga student is unfamiliar with the course selection process, they are also welcome to attend this information session.

Please click here to see the Grade 9 parent memo.

Due to the poor weather, schools in the St. John’s metro area – including MDJH – will be closed for the day. Have a safe snow day!

On Tuesday, Feb. 11th, MDJH will be celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science with MUN’s Robogals. Robogals is a student-led volunteer organization with chapters across the world, working with a common goal to increase the participation of women in STEM. Through educational workshops and events, they seek to encourage female identifying and gender diverse youth to pursue higher education and careers in traditionally male-dominated fields by cultivating self confidence and providing mentorship.

If you are interested in becoming a part of this program, please meet in Ms. Rigg’s classroom (124) at the beginning of lunch on Tuesday, Feb. 11th. Please bring your lunch.

Dear NLSchools community,

This memo is to let you know that the Provincial Government is seeking feedback on
proposed changes to the program of studies for students in grades 7 to 9. The program
of studies determines what subjects are mandatory and optional for students, and how
much time is spent learning those subjects.

The changes aim to increase student engagement, address attendance concerns,
improve educational outcomes, and make school more meaningful.

The proposed changes include:

• Combining certain subjects,
• Offering some subjects through a modular delivery format,
• Adjusting the amount of time devoted to some subjects, and
• Making some subjects fully or partially optional.

Further details on the proposed changes and what they mean for teachers and students
are available on the K-12 Professional Learning website.

School communities, including parents/guardians, teachers, administrators and
students, can share feedback using the online platform. I encourage each of you to
review the proposed changes and share your feedback, which will be accepted until
February 28, 2025.

In addition to the feedback provided through the online platform, fourteen schools in the
province have been selected to implement the proposed changes for the 2025-26
school year. School administrators from the selected schools will share further
information with intermediate grade families. These schools are:

Name Community School Grade Configuration

Bay d’Espoir Academy St. Alban’s K-12
Brookside Intermediate Portugal Cove-St. Phillip’s 5-9
Corner Brook Intermediate Corner Brook 7-9
Exploits Valley High Grand Falls-Windsor 7-9
Holy Spirit High School Conception Bay South 9-12
Holy Trinity High School Torbay 9-12
Juniper Ridge Intermediate Torbay 5-8
Laval High School Placentia 7-12
Lewisporte Intermediate Lewisporte 7-9
Mealy Mountain Collegiate Happy Valley-Goose Bay 8-12
Pasadena Academy Pasadena 7-12
Queen of Peace Middle School Happy Valley-Goose Bay 4-7
St. Lawrence Academy St. Lawrence K-12
Villanova Junior High Conception Bay South 5-8

Feedback and information from teachers, parents and students in the fourteen schools
implementing the changes next year will inform the final changes to the intermediate
program, which will be implemented in all intermediate grades for September 2026.

The Provincial Government is committed to transforming the education system and has
introduced a variety of measures to support a modern teaching and learning
environment for students and educators. Thank you for your commitment to the
educational journey of students in our province.

Sincerely,

Terry Hall
ADM, Education Operations
Superintendent of Schools