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    September Newsletter

    9/7/2016

     
    PLEASE READ CAREFULLY - THIS EMAIL CONTAINS CRITICAL INFORMATION
     
    Hi Parents,       

    Welcome to another wonderful year of Religious Education.  We are excited to be a part of your child's faith formation experience.  Please read through this email in its entirety as it does have important information about the upcoming year.

    CLASS PLACEMENT NOTIFICATION
    – letters have been/will be mailed to your home, according to your registration date, indicating where your children have been placed – if you registered before August 1 and have NOT received a placement letter, please notify us IMMEDIATELY:
    • NLT July 15 – for all who registered before June 30;
    • NLT August 15 – for all who registered during July
    • NLT September 18 – for all who registered August 1 - September 11. 
    • September 11 is the last day to register in order to start class on September 25. 

    Class lists will be posted on the RE Hallway Bulletin Board on September 18.

    CHANGE REQUESTS

    • Once your placement letter has been received, Change Requests must be submitted on a Change Request Form which can be found on our Website or at the Parish Office.  
    • Changes will be considered on a case-by-case basis dependent upon space availability.
    • Acceptance of a Change Request Form does not indicate approval of the request.  You will be contacted by the appropriate Coordinator if we are able to accommodate your change request.
    • Lists posted on the bulletin board on September 18, will be FINAL and no further Change Requests will be accepted.

    POINTS OF CONTACT
    :  All communications should be addressed to re@gs-cc.org and will be answered by either Christina or Stacy.  In addition, please review the Faith Formation Elementary website.  We have an FAQ page in addition to many other resources on our website.  Please utilize this as much as possible for expedient answers to the most common questions. 

    ORANGE FOLDER:
    Every child will bring home an Orange Folder called the “take-home folder” every week.  This is an important means of communication between parents and catechists, so please send it to class each week with your child and check it after each class for new information and weekly homework assignments.

    FIRST DAY OF CLASS
    : Mark your calendar for the first day of class which is September 25, 26 and 28.  The full RE calendar is currently available on the parish website under Faith Formation Elementary or here.   We will not be sending home a paper copy in order to reduce waste.  Our calendar will also be posted on the bulletin board in the RE hallway.

    FAMILY EVENTS
    : In order to promote the family as the primary place for handing on the faith, we provide monthly family events or children’s Masses.  This calendar of family friendly parish activities is available on the website.  Be sure to mark your calendar now!

    SAFE ENVIRONMENT
    : Our most important objective is to maintain a Safe Environment for all our parish children.  Accordingly, ALL children under the age of 18 must be escorted by an adult while on Good Shepherd premises.  No child should be walking on the premises (alone or with other children) without an adult present.  Please bring each of your children, no matter their age, to their assigned class and pick them up at the classroom door at the end of class.  If you need a non-parent pick-up form, you may download it from our website, or receive one the first day of class.  No Child or Teen will be released from the classroom without their parent or approved adult.

    ‘FIRST DAY OF CLASS’ PROCEDURES
    - If you have moved or have new contact information since you registered this spring, please stop by the check-in table on the first day.  We will update your information. 

    This table is where you will pick-up your non-parent pick-up form.  If nothing changed from last year, you can initial and resign last year’s form. 

    VOLUNTEER NEEDS
    : Please click here to see what volunteer role best fits your family’s schedule.  Unfortunately, , if we do not have enough volunteers, we may need to cancel some classes and events.  Please take a moment to see how you can support your children's faith formation program.  You will be contacted with more details once you sign up, including the process for meeting the Diocesan Safe Environment requirements.  We need all parents to volunteer at least 2-3 hours this year to make sure we can provide our children with a great faith formation experience.

    PARENT MEETINGS
    - Mark your calendar for the 2016 General Parent Meeting.  Attending the Parent Meeting is the best way to ensure your children get the year off to a good start.  You have three options: Monday, October 3, 5:00 pm or 7:00 pm and Wednesday, October 5, 5:00 pm.  Please plan to attend one of these sessions.  You will receive important information about the policies, events and activities for the coming year.

    SACRAMENT MEETING
    : If you have a child in his or her Second Year of preparation for First Communion, one parent must attend an additional meeting on Wednesday, October 26 at 7:00 pm.  These parent meetings will last no more than one hour (children do not attend).

    CATECHETICAL SUNDAY
    – Sunday, September 18 is Catechetical Sunday - a special day when Catechists are recognized and honored through a special blessing at Mass.  To show our appreciation in the classroom, we invite your children to fill out a spiritual bouquet after Mass available in the commons.  A spiritual bouquet is nothing more than a card the child could sign and/or draw a picture on and then give to the Catechist.  The card would symbolize prayers that the child would have made for the Catechist.  We will have them available all weekend after Mass.  The child can bring one to their Catechist on the first day of class.

    CHILDREN’S LITURGY OF THE WORD
    If you attend 9:00 Mass, please consider volunteering for CLOW.  They are in desperate need of volunteers.  If they can’t get enough adults, they may have to limit the number of kids that participate.  Please contact Claudia Evans, chandal_69@yahoo.com for more information.

    UPDATES:
    Please follow us on twitter @gsffk6 or download the parish app for weather updates in case class is unexpectedly cancelled.
     
    If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.  We look forward to seeing you when classes begin the week of September 25!
     
    Blessings,
    ​
    Stacy and Christina

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    Good Shepherd Catholic Church
    8710 Mount Vernon Highway Alexandria, Virginia 22309
    Phone: (703) 780-4055    FAX:
    (703) 842-8232    Email: office@gs-cc.org
    Office Hours: M-F 9:30am - 5:00pm  Closed Saturday  Open 1st,  3rd and 5th Sundays 8am - 4pm 

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