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The grades 7 & 8 were busy at work as the school year came to a close planning a Medieval Fair. The event included three live performances by the students, recounting different events in King Arthur’s life. Additionally, there were activites such as jousting, axe throwing, potato sack racing and tapestry making in which all participated. Later, even the servants (grade 9 and 10 volunteers) joined in a concluding banquet feast.
The love for literature has been rapidly expanding at SJCS! Mrs. Rochford’s passion for teaching this subject can truly be seen at work through her students’ initiative to surprise her on March 15th.  Also known as the “Ides of March”, this day marks the anniversary of the murder of Julius Ceasar in 44 BC. In honour of this date, the students prepared an excerpt from Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar to mark the momentous occasion. The grades 7 /8 and 9/10 literature classes have started their study of Shakespeare’s work. Focusing primarily on Julius Ceasar and The Merchant of Venice respectively, this week they had the joy of re-enacting these materpieces in class. Connie and I, united in a scholarly pursuit, made our way to Newman Theological College this past June to “seek the things that are above.” Its annual Fides et Ratio seminar is just the forum for such goals and for the people who hold them. As expected, we enjoyed a week of mass, Great Books, and discussion in the presence of company that humbles me, in a place of prayerful repose and beauty. The fulfillment of my expectations is, I hope, embodied in my classes this year. At the Schola, we purport to embody the transcendentals – truth, goodness, beauty – as things that intrinsically help us to know our Creator. And yet we live in a world that treats beauty like a luxury. If you should happen by Room 2, you’ll witness my retort to that post-modern presumption. Chief among the lessons I hope to convey is a posture of intellectual humility. I stand in receipt of the academics who discussed books with me this summer. It’s my goal to convey a sense of indebtedness to the minds who crafted the works we read and discuss in class. Curiosity and gratitude should be our initial stance towards them. TS Eliot once happened upon a young man who claimed that “the dead writers are remote from us because we know so much more than they did.” The poet stopped, then retorted, “Precisely, and they are that which we know.” -Ms. Giesbrecht
 We were blessed to have the grade 8s come in to watch our Readers' Theater (with some costumes!) of the Trojan war and its aftermath. |
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May 2024
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