Angels Helping Angels "Shout Out" video

MAY PASOK BA BUKAS?

                                                       

HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY, MONSI MANNY (JULY 30)

02 LTP-PERSONAL DATA FORM

June 24, 2013

 

 

Dear Parents,

 

Greetings of Peace!

 

PO-02-06/24/13

As we enter the second week of classes, we would like to make sure that communications between your home and the school are smooth and functional. Attached is a STUDENT’S PERSONAL DATA FORM which will be our basis for contacting you and making sure that we are communicating with you, or your designated guardian or representative in the event of your absence or incapacity, regarding your child’s welfare and progress. This form will be filed in the Office of the Prefect of Students and will be kept confidential.

 

Please fill up the form completely, and return to your child’s section adviser not more than three days from receipt of this letter. If there are pertinent changes, i.e. contact numbers, address, etc., please inform us immediately.For concerns about this form, you may contact me at 8424158, 772-4626, or send an email to veritasps@gmail.com.

 

Thank you very much for your cooperation. See you at the Parents  Orientation on Saturday, June 29^th!

 

 

Yours in the Risen Christ,

 

 

Mellissa R. Espiritu

Principal

 

 

 

01 LETTER TO PARENTS SY 2013-2014

June 17, 2013

Dear Parents, Greetings of Peace! We warmly welcome you to Veritas Parochial School, to a brand new school year, 2013-2014! This year’s theme is “Spirits High. Hearts Open. Minds Sharp. Bodies Strong”, to signify our commitment to provide holistic Catholic education, Multiple Intelligences, and appreciation for different learning styles. We know that our “small but great school”, in the words of our School Director Monsignor Manuel Gabriel, will provide the most student-friendly learning environment for your children, whom you have entrusted to us this year. Please take note of the following: 1. Relocations & Rehabilitations -Gate 1(along Elsie Gaches St): Entrance for all, Exit for students fetched by parents -Gate 2 (along Gil Puyat St): Exit for commuters and bus riders -Gate 3 (former entrance along Escoda St): Emergency gate only In the attached Reply Slip A, please check only one of the options for your child’s EXIT FROM SCHOOL EVERYDAY. They will receive color-coded stickers on their IDs indicating your preferred manner of exit. If you wish to make other more specific arrangements, please check OTHERS (e.g. different situations / fetchers everyday ) and schedule a meeting with our Prefect of Students Ms. Maricon Emperado as soon as possible. Your child will not be allowed to leave the school without information about their manner of exit. Please avoid changing preferences unless absolutely necessary. For changes in the manner of exit, personally inform Ms Maricon immediately, as, for security reasons, we will not entertain such changes requested over the phone or via text message. -Business Office (Reception, Cashier, Finance, Human Resources): Near Gate 1 Please be reminded of the following: 1. All parents, alumni, and visitors must first go to the Reception room to log in and get a Visitor’s Pass. 2. Wait for the receptionist to call the person with whom you wish to see or have a prior appointment with. That person will either come for you, or you will be directed to that person’s office. All meetings with parents, alumni or visitors will be in the ground floor offices only. -Library & Scholastic Reading Center: at the back of the former Business Office -Registrar’s Office: front part of the former Business office -Boys’ and Girls’ comfort rooms on the 1st and 2nd floors have been completely rehabilitated to ensure our students’ safety and comfort. 2. We will provide color-coded stickers to signify if your child is a commuter, a bus rider, or fetched by a parent or designated “fetcher”. Stickers will be placed on the IDs. While the IDs are not available yet, the stickers shall be placed on the cover of Notebook 1 (N1). 3. Mass of the Holy Spirit & School Opening Program : June 21, 8am at the Resurrection of Our Lord Parish. Parents are invited to join in the Eucharistic Celebration which is our first Holy Mass of the school year, and watch the special program after the Mass. 4. Please see attachments: Class Schedule (2 copies – 1 for the student, 1 for the parent), School Activity Calendar for the 1st Quarter (June-August) 5. Please follow the No Styro policy of the school Please avoid leaving packed lunch/ meals with the guard to avoid spoilage. There is a full service canteen open until 2pm everyday. 6. Parents of Grades 1-2 and all new parents may stay inside the school campus only on the first and second day of classes. Parents with special concerns about their children are advised to direct these concerns with the Principal, Ms. Millette Espiritu or the Guidance Coordinator, Ms. Dess Lacupanto. 7. Parents’ Orientation-June 29, Saturday, 9am-12nn . IT IS REQUIRED FOR ALL PARENTS AND OFFICIAL GUARDIANS OF KINDER TO YEAR IV STUDENTS TO ATTEND THIS VERY IMPORTANT ORIENTATION. Agenda: Veritas K-12++ Enhanced, Enriched Curriculum Proposed Veritas Leap-over Program (Acceleration Program ) Meet & Greet the Teachers Academic and Co-curricular programs for the current school year OK Kindness Anti-Campaign Level Meetings & Small Group orientation Organization of VESPA (Veritas School Parents Association) SY 2013-2014 8. The bookstore, uniforms and school supplies store will be open until July 15 only. Please ask the Receptionist for assistance. 9. The 2013-20114 Student Handbook will be distributed FREE to the students by the second week of classes. Subject Checklists for the 1st quarter will be distributed on June 21. 10. We can be contacted in many ways: Landlines : 7724626, 8424158 Facebook: Just like our official pages to get updates and ask questions. Veritas Parochial School Preschool House Veritas Parochial School Elementary Portal Veritas Parochial School High School Zone Veritas Global Peace Program Twitter: Just follow our account- http://twitter.com/veritasschool E-mail: veritasps@gmail.com (Principal, Prefect, Academic Coordinators) Also, please check out our website: http://veritasschool.edu.ph for updates, activity photos, complete information about the school and all our academic, religious, and co-curricular programs. Let us make it a habit to return reply slips within 3 days after the letters are received. Your replies are urgent and necessary to achieve a smooth flow of information between the home and the school. Thank you very much! We pray for a truly productive school year and we are counting on you, dear parents, to be our partners in “Education in Christ’s Truth.” Yours in the Risen Christ, Mellissa R. Espiritu, M.A. School Principal

2013-2014 school year theme

Thank You & Merry Christmas, The Veritas Family Way

Many Veritans know that I lost my Mom this year--barely a month before Christmas. Many students, teachers and parents know how close I am to her--like a sister, a BFF. I thank the Veritas family for seeing me through the roughest and toughest part of my life. All of you were my strength. Your words and thoughts of comfort and sympathy have given me even more reason to help build and nurture our Veritas family. Family is what Veritas is all about. We are a small school. We call each other by our first names. We work and play together--from volleyball with parents and teachers to facebook chats to robotics. We eat at McDonald's together, and when budgets allow it, sip Starbucks fraps together. We visit each other's homes. We can't even hide anything, with all those CCTV cameras around:) Most of all, we PRAY TOGETHER. That's what family is all about. So as we spend this Christmas/New Year season with our own families, we are sustained by that concept of togetherness--giving, loving, serving, praying. Monci Manny has composed some very beautiful and meaningful prayer services for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. We sent you those prayer booklets before the holiday break. We hope you've had time to pray them with your families, as we usher in the Church's Year of Faith. Again, from my family to yours--Thank you for being with us in our time of grief. Now, we thank you for being with us in celebration of Christ's birth, and in looking ahead to 2013. A Blessed Christmas and New Year to All!

RAIDING THE READERCON

What do you say to publishers, authors, and educators of both local and international reknown? How do you connect with people 20 or so years your junior who have read twice, even thrice, the number of books that you have read?

I got the answers to those questions during the 2nd Filipino Reader Conference on Aug 18, at the Filipinas Heritage Library, Makati City. My free ticket to the event was my 10:40am 15-minute panel presentation on "Reading Programs That Work in Schools". I shared the panel with a Master Teacher from Ayala Foundation's Center for Excellence (CENTEX), and the Reading coordinator and program designer of the award-winning POWER Reading program of Kalayaan National High School in Caloocan. Two of my online friends and prolific book bloggers invited me to share our school's reading programs and activities, and of course I jumped at the chance to represent our little school and its big programs.

photo by Mr. Rhett de Jesus, via facebook

I am both happy and humbled by the experience. Happy? Nay, ecstatic! It has always been my dream to mingle with published writers of this generation. It was a pleasure talking books with enthusiasts and teachers. Humbled, as I listened to the trials of public school children, whose hunger for books are hardly filled by the education budget, prompting their own reading teachers to beg and source for books just to feed that hunger. I was so moved by that presentation that I promised the teacher, Ms Asuncion, that I will donate my personal copies of The Hunger Games trilogy to their POWER Book Club.

In the afternoon, I caught part of the book discussion on "Pacific Rims" by Rafe Bartholomew, who interacted with his "fans" live from the United States. If not for an emergency, the teachers and I would have stayed until the end (According to the program, A Readers' Choice awarding ceremony would cap the conference).

Kudos to the organizers and volunteers of the 2nd Filipino Reader Conference! Truly a heroic thing you are doing to propagate the love for books and reading in this country.:)

My loot from the ReaderCon 2012

More on the ReaderCon:
http://filipinoreadercon.wordpress.com/

STILLNESS, SILENCE, SIMPLICITY

Today I had the privilege to attend a conference on Christian Meditation at De La Salle-Taft with 9 faculty members and 20 student-members of the Veritas Parochial School Catholic Action organization. Entitled "The Power of Stillness and Silence", the conference (there were three, but we attended the one for educators)highlighted the experience of the Diocese of Townsville in Australia. Our resource speakers, Dr Cathy Day, Director of the Townsville Catholic Education Office, and Mr Ernie Christie, Deputy Director of the Catholic Education Office and a veteran Principal, walked us through the process, the power, the fruits and the benefits of practicing Christian Meditation in schools. The duo was joined later in the day by the Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB, and our very own Msgr. Manny Gabriel, also the Director of WCCM-Philippines. Implementing CM in Veritas is fairly easy. I imagine our Kindergartners--5-year-olds--sitting in a circle during their Center Time, eyes closed, sitting up straight, and saying 4 syllables in their head, over and over again for five minutes: MA-RA-NA-THA. I imagine the restless first graders,sitting still on their armchairs (a miracle!). I imagine the fourth graders, sitting quietly, respecting each other's space. I imagine the high schoolers-- de-stressing, letting go, finding a safe place. It isn't hard to imagine. But is it doable? Monday's frenetic schedule, the lunch hour crowd, the rush to the gym, endless meetings and practices, the exodus from classroom to school bus. It does get on everyone's nerves--teachers' nerves, especially. That is why I believe that for CM to be successful in all our classrooms, this "Prayer of the Heart" should first be launched in the hearts of Veritas educators. We must all believe that Silence, Stillness, and Simplicity CAN AND MUST HAPPEN in our school NOW. I believe that this is the best way to address the bully-problem, the short attention-span-problem, and other issues related to undesirable behavior and poor academic performance. But these are just the "benefits", as Mr Christie reminded us. It is the "fruits" that are worth harvesting from the CM experience. Patience. Kindness. Self-control. Love. These and the other fruits are developed through consistent and devoted practice of CM. Most importantly, we are assured of young people whose spiritual lives are nourished through that stillness and closeness to God. This has to be a WAY OF LIVING OUR FAITH--Christian Living in a very personal sense. It should permeate everything that we do as a school, where we hope we could all be kinder, gentler and more loving of each other.

Yes, it's doable, and as Veritans, we are DOING THIS TOGETHER.

Harvard & MIT Freebies?

Free. Online. College Courses. Harvard. MIT. These words don't usually go together, at least in my book. But now they do! Click the link below to read exciting breakthrough news from two of the world's leading and most respected academic institutions. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/harvard_university/index.html?inline=nyt-org I haven't explored it myself, in my excitement to share it here, but feel free to discover for yourselves how Filipino students like you can possibly earn a Harvard/MIT certificate without spending a single dollar. Imagine being part of the emerging MOOCs, or Massively Open Online Courses! It's also very timely, as four years hence, this year's freshmen will be the first batch of 11th and 12th graders. Veritas may or may not offer 11th and 12th grade, but these levels are inevitable, and particularly useful to earn international degrees and qualify for international certificates.

YEAR-END VIDEO

Cheer up, Veritans! Relive your BEST MOMENTS of 2011-2012 and look forward to school year 2012-2013!

K-12, here we come!

These are tough times for Philippine education. Much like its American counterpart, the DepEd continues to parry the slings and arrows of critics as it unfurled early this year the K-12 banner that is supposed to save the Philippines from mediocrity. It has weathered the storms of dismal TIMS scores and UbD, but can it survive the onslaught of the likes of everyone from esteemed UP scientists to parents horrified at the prospect of 2 additional years in high school? Veritas has not been sleeping under a rock while all this is happening. We have done our research well in anticipation of K-12. We know it will happen, as it is already happening around the world. We are preparing our 6-year-olds to skip the Prep level and hopscotch their way to Grade 1, through intensive readiness programs in Reading, Math and Filipino. DepEd may insist on using the mother tongue (in our part of the Philippines that would be Tagalog) in the early grades to teach all subjects, but we decided to continue teaching in English.Like we do on a yearly basis, we revisit the curriculum of grade school and high school, redirect certain things, and innovate. Next school year, we will give a name for the flagship English program that has brought our students so much linguistic confidence and proficiency: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), where English is not just a subject, but a learning methodology of Math, Science, Social Studies and the Arts. The CLIL framework is popular amongst European countries where demonstrable gains in student engagement and progress have been reported. In Veritas, we have actually been implementing CLIL, with English as the second language used to make meaning in other school subjects. Our choice of English textbooks-- Voyages in English (Loyola Press), English in Mind (Cambridge University Press), Grammar and Composition (Prentice-Hall)--and our teachers' dedication to using the language, have motivated students to use the English language more. Authentic, communicative, high interest books for the English subject have effectively contextualized learning for our students. For the Reading strand of English, we are finalizing a deal with the world's largest publisher of books for children and young adults to provide us with scientifically sound Reading programs---and tons of books, of course--that will ensure that everyone is reading, and reading well. We will also be teaching Science in the first and second grades. Kids are never too young to explore and discover. CLIL shall also set the stage for Foreign Languages learning tentatively starting in 2012-2013. The FL program includes Language and Culture clubs, direct communicative instruction, and in the near future, student exchange programs. Target languages include Mandarin, Korean,Spanish, French and Italian. Studies are consistent on the importance of foreign language in the curriculum: students generally become better citizens of the world--more sensitive to the needs of others, more responsible for their actions, more open to advocate for something they believe in, more sure of themselves and what they can do. These are exciting times for Veritas. Changes are coming, and they are all for the better.