St. John's Students Design Their New Playground!

Students at St. John's are currently deciding what they want to have on their new school yard!

Classes from kindergarten to grade six have been voting in the Let Them Be Kids Dot-mocracy program. This exercise encourages each child to be involved in designing the actual play equipment that will be installed on BUILD DAY (May 29, 2010)! The children VOTE for playground items they would love at a playground. Voting will be finalized on Tuesday, Jan. 5!

St. John's new playground equipment will be designed and installed by Belair, a company located in Paris, Ontario. Belair will take our students' votes and will put together the designs based on what our students want! We are very excited to see the results...... stay tuned!

Save the Date: May 29, 2010 is St. John's BUILD DAY!

St. John's Catholic Elementary School is getting a new playground!

Saturday, May 29, 2010 is BUILD DAY!

Save the date, mark it on your calendars now, and join hundreds of community volunteers as we build a new playground at the school!

St. John's Receives National LTBK Award!

See the reaction of some of our excited students! They just found out that St. John's is getting a new play yard! Yeah!

We are so excited and proud to announce that St. John Catholic Elementary School has received a Let Them Be Kids "Believe" award! This award will allow us to build a much needed playground for the wonderful kids at our school and in our community.

St. John's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. O'Neil, announced today at a special "Terrific Kids" assembly that the school will receive a new playground thanks to the Let Them Be Kids Award!

Each dollar raised by our community for the playground will be matched by Let Them Be Kids! A BIG "Thank You" to Let Them Be Kids!

A View of the Yard at St. John's Now

We can't wait to transform the school playground!


Our current yard at St. John's School is pretty bleak looking.
The photo above shows part of the primary yard facing the rectory and church. The photos below show the kindergarten yard and another section of the primary yard.
Extreme makeover needed!

Project Goals

On a mission....

The St. John's Playground Committee is made up of eight moms. We all have children who attend St. John's, and we would love to have a playground for all the students, but it is about more than a playground.....

Project Description\Purpose
The St. John Catholic Elementary School Playground Development Project is a home-school-parish initiative that will build a fabulous play area to enhance the use of the property! Through this initiative, we want to bring the people of our community together. This will show our children how important it is to work together, and that by doing this, we can achieve anything! This project will also demonstrate to our children that they matter to us, and that we want to “let them be kids” and enjoy their play time! This May 29, 2010, the Perth community will gather at an inspiring celebration where we - students, parents, grandparents, siblings, parish members, business owners and employees, and other community members - will build the playground together!

Project Goals
• To improve the relationships within our school, home and parish community
• To provide a FUN, safe and accessible playground for all, while promoting health and physical activity
• To increase parental involvement in school activities
• To provide our youth with leadership and volunteer opportunities that will lead them to a life time of leadership and community involvement
• To create a sense of pride and ownership by having our students and community members involved in the planning, financing, and construction of the playground project

Diane Jackson, Donna Poole, Louise Bron, Brenda Noonan, Julie Barr-Dowdall, Erin Crain, Melanie O’Neil, and Beth McNally have joined together to create the St. John's Playground Committee.

We hope you will register to help show your community pride on May 29th and be part of something great!

Please contact us at any time! We'd love to hear from you!
Diane Jackson
Email: bdjackson@my.lhnet.ca
613-267-7606

St. John's Creates Playground Committee

For a long time now, St. John's students and teachers (especially kindergarten teacher, Mrs. O'Neil!) have wished for improvements to the school yard. The small kindergarten yard is practically bare and all water and dirt drains into that section of the yard, and the space for junior and intermediate students lacks quality playground and sports equipment.

Tonight, a sub-committee of the School Council (Parent Council) was created to bring together the community to give the current school yard a face-lift! A small group of moms volunteered to help, and the first priorities are to create a plan and submit applications for funding. Wish us luck!