« Back
Font Size:
50 years of golden education for St. John the Evangelist
Apr 24, 2007 By: This Week staffMar 30, 2006
WHITBY -- St. John the Evangelist Catholic School has come a long way since it opened back in Whitby's centennial year, 1955.
Just a four-classroom facility then, and run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Giffard Street school opened to a 160-student body ranging up to Grade 8. Over the past half-century, the school has grown and expanded and now has 320 students in junior kindergarten through to Grade 8.
The golden anniversary was big at St. John the Evangelist and the school celebrated the milestone back in October with exciting events that even saw the very first principal of the school, Sister Leona, return for a visit.
For Principal Lynda Morrison, the establishment of Catholic values is a critical function of the learning experience. And it all starts by building BRICS.
BRICS stands for Building Respect In the Community and School.
"It's a program we began to implement last year," said Ms. Morrison.
Its central focus is to eliminate bullying in the school system by involving the victim, the bully, and perhaps most crucially, the bystanders.
"BRICS tries to teach children how to react as bystanders when they see bullying taking place. We talk about the difference between getting people into trouble and getting people out of trouble. We encourage bystanders to say something to the bully at the time the incident happens. If that doesn't work, then, they can tell an adult about what happened," said Ms. Morrison.
The whole idea is to build a community where children are respectful.
Ms. Morrison, on a play of words with respect to the traditional three Rs, says the new Rs at the school are respect, responsibility and reliability. And students, of course, are encouraged to work hard on their reading, writing and arithmetic, too.
To that end, the school is focusing on literacy, numeracy and character development in hopes of producing well-rounded students capable of meeting all manner of challenges in life.
As the school's program marking the 50th anniversary said, "St. John the Evangelist Catholic School is not only bricks and mortar. It has been a school blessed with dedicated families, staff and administrators, caring clergy, trustees and a Catholic School Council committed to Catholic education."
And the school will hope to continue growing and being a vibrant part of the community for the next 50 years too.
