All Saints Robotics Team Places 2nd in Tournament

We are so proud of the All Saints Robotics Team! They participated in the DMV Catholic Schools Cup Robotics Championship at Bishop McNamara High School this weekend. Our teams came in #2nd place, #4th place and #20th place. In an exciting ending, our 2nd place team (Duro) took the first place team from St. Peter’s School into overtime! Mr. Roy noted that many of the hosts/coaches commented on our students’ outstanding sportsmanship and positive attitude. We believe this is the greatest compliment we can receive as a team.
 
We wish to thank our students for their hard work and dedication, our team parents for all of their support, Mr. Kreitzer for his on-going assistance, and Mr. Ben Roy for directing our Robotics Program at All Saints!

(Reported provided by Bishop McNamara High School.)

The 1st Annual DMV Catholic Schools Cup Robotic Championship was held at Bishop McNamara on Saturday, March 16, 2019.  Fr. Brady (92 years old) from St. John’s offered the opening prayer. Overall, 24 teams participated in the tournament: 8 teams from St. Peter’s, 7 from St. John’s, 3 from St. Mary’s Piscataway, 3 from All Saints Catholic School in Virginia, 2 from Holy Family, and 1 from St Mary’s of the Assumption.  There were 48 rounds and each team participated in 4 qualification matches.

At the end of the 48 rounds, the  following 10 teams qualified for the finals:

Ranking Team # Team Name Grade School
1 10373A The Fantastic 4 8 St. Peter’s School
2 63876A Duro 8 All Saints Catholic School
3 82645A The Shooting Stars 6 St. Mary’s Piscataway
4 82645B St. Mary’s Roboteers 8 St. Mary’s Piscataway
5 11747A Maleagent 7 Holy Family School
6 11601A Greek Memes 8 St. Mary’s Assumption
7 95104B Eagle Bot 8 All Saints Catholic School
8 10373B Omegarares 8 St. Peter’s School
9 26088J Derple 5 St.  John’s
10 10373F Storm Engineers 7 St. Peter’s School

The format of the finals was that the team in position 10 went against 9, 8 against 7 and so forth.  Teams 10373A and 63876A earned the highest number of points.  These teams then went head to head.

Team 63876A was unique design, but it was not able to hang from the bonus bar like t0373A so everyone assumed that St. Peter’s and the Fantastic 4 would win the cup.  63876A went first and scored 6 points.  Jackie & Amulya drove their robot in an apparent victory.  However, when they reached up to hang from the bonus bar, the hook on their robot broke.  Their score for this match was also 6.  The team was given time to repair their robot and this time they were able to hang and scored 4 more points than the Duro Team from All Saints Catholic School.

Mr. Buckley presented the Cup to all of the St Peter’s students present at the tournament. Each of the team members was given a specially designed medal for their accomplishment.  A great day was had by all!

Kindness to the Community

As part of our “Year of Kindness,” we will continue with Kindness to Community.  Our focus is now on community helpers.  The school will be adopting the City of Manassas Police Department and all grades will participate in showing our gratitude and appreciation for everything they do for our community.  The classes will all participate in different aspects of a gift to the police department.  At home you can talk with your children about all the helpers in our community and how you can show kindness to them.

Also, our kindness to community “confetti house” is touring the classrooms this week. The students will fill it with kindness confetti that represents all the different “kindness to community” activities they have done in December, January and February (i.e. food pantry donations, toy drive).  It has been great to see all the different ways the students have given back to the community.

Spelling Bee Winners Announced

Congratulations to the following students who participated in last week’s Spelling Bee and to Robert Gasser, our school champion. We wish Robert every success as he advances to the next level of the Prince William County competition.

  • 1st Place – Robert Gasser
  • 2nd Place – Jesus Santos
  • 3rd Place – Anthony Olivera

Class Representatives:
Luke Rebholz, Christopher Sheeran, Grace Karcher, Aoife Haggerty. Chimanga Mubanga, Brielle Appiatse, Robert Gasser,  Andrew Horgan, Savanna Loy, Mikayla Loy, Amelia Webb, Jesus Santos, Sofia Villatoro, William Odell, Camden Short, Leona Kun, Joseph Corrigan, Liana Rodriguez, Anthony Olivera, Macallan Greissinger

Major Expansion Planned for All Saints Robotics

Now that we’ve reached 75% of our Annual Fund goal, we would like to share some exciting news about our Robotics Program. As noted previously, proceeds from this year’s Annual Fund will be used to purchase two Next-Generation ActivBoards and expand our Robotics Program.

If we attain 100% of our Annual Fund goal, the Robotics proceeds will be used to introduce Robotics to the elementary grades and expand our existing program in the middle school.

Fall of 2019

  • The middle school Robotics Club will expand to include sixth grade students along with seventh and eighth graders.
  • We will begin offering Robotics as an after school activity for students in fourth and fifth grades. These students will work with Lego® More to Math and utilize our VEX IQ equipment.
  • All Saints will host a Robotics middle school tournament together with Seton School which will host the high school portion of the tournament. Details about this event will be announced in the fall!

Fall of 2020

  • Our middle school Robotics Team will transition from VEX IQ to VEX EDR, a higher level experience for middle and high school students that will allow our students to compete at VRC competitions. This Robotics platform will better prepare our students for STEM opportunities in high school and beyond. If we meet our goals for the Annual Fund, we will begin administrator training and the purchasing of kits and related equipment in the fall of 2019. The All Saints Robotics Team will then transition from VEX IQ to VEX VRC competitions in the 2020-2021 school year.

DONATE TO THE ANNUAL FUND

Uniform News: New Navy Polo

In response to parent feedback, I am excited to announce that we will be introducing a new navy polo shirt as part of the summer uniform and phasing out the white polo shirt. It is our hope that this new color will be much easier for parents to maintain and keep clean over time. Additionally, the navy blue shirt will be more modest in appearance.

The new navy blue polo shirt will be available for purchase in advance of the upcoming academic year. The white polo shirt will be “grandfathered” for one year (2019-2020) after which it will be discontinued as part of the uniform.

At All Saints we are also pleased to offer a “Uniform Exchange” program by which parents may purchase gently worn items at affordable prices. As we plan for the year ahead, there will be several modifications to this program that will increase efficiency
while continuing to provide a valuable service to our families.

Beginning in the 2019-2020 academic year, we will host three pre-scheduled sales per year, i.e. August, October and one sale during the spring. “On demand” sales will only be available for new families transitioning into the school and at the request of administration to assist families in need. Parents may continue, however, to drop off used uniforms at the front office at their convenience.

In an effort to streamline procedures and in recognition of the affordability of items, the use of credits for those making donations is being discontinued. Those families who have already received credits may, however, use them through the close of this academic year. The price of items ($1.00-$4.00) will remain unchanged in the year ahead.

I wish to thank Mrs. Danielle O’Neill for her continued management of the Uniform Exchange program. With great attention to detail and dedication to her role, she provides a wonderful service to our school community. Additionally, I wish to thank those parents who shared feedback regarding the polo shirts and the PTO for their efforts in revising the Uniform Exchange procedures.

Science Fair Winners Announced

Congratulations to the following winners of All Saints’ Middle School Science Fair. Thank you, Mrs. Cottingham and Mrs. Woolfrey, for your dedication and guidance throughout the process.

Behavioral & Social Science
1st place: Amara Collins – “Is it Really Childproof?”
2nd place: Krysta Drone – “What Makes Teens Stress?”
3rd place: Macallan Greissinger – “Does Sight Affect Taste?”

Chemistry
1st place: Luke Tessier – “Science is HOT HOT HOT!”
2nd place: Mehek Jamil – “How Bright Can It Glow?”
3rd place: Mary Collins – “Mary’s Cheesecake Factory”

Computer Science
1st place: Robert Harvill – “Chill Out”
2nd place: Matthew Kreitzer – “Fortnite Building Battle”

Earth & Space Science
1st place: Anthony Olivera – “Water Temperature and Hurricanes: What is the Connection?”
2nd place: Jessica Berger – “Surf’s Up”

Engineering
1st place: Kevin Balagtas – “Chugging On Air!”
2nd place: William Odell – “How Much Mass Can a Bridge Sustain?”
3rd place: Taylor Henman – “Does Length and Width Affect Distance?”

Medicine & Health
1st place: Nolen Kristiansen – “See That in the Corner of Your Eye?”
2nd place: Sofia Villatoro – “What You See After an Image”
3rd place: Ryan McGinnis – “There’s No Place Like Home”

Microbiology
1st place: Chris Mills – “The Sugar Wars”
2nd place: Jeffrey Crocker – “Can I Eat That?”
3rd place: Brian Varghese – “Faucet Wars”

Physics
1st place: Will Foster – “Windmills in Motion”
2nd place: Camden Short – “Produce Power”
3rd place: Maggie Horan – “Black is the Warmest Color”

Overall Champions
Grand Champion – Will Foster
1st Runner Up – Nolen Kristiansen
2nd Runner Up – Camden Short
3rd Runner Up – Anthony Olivera

Representing All Saints at the Diocesan Science Fair:
Kevin Balagtas, Amara Collins, Will Foster, Robert Harvill, Mehek Jamil, Nolen Kristiansen, Chris Mills , Anthony Olivera, Camden Short and Luke Tessier

National Geographic Bee

All Saints students in grades four through eight recently participated in the school-wide round of the National Geographic Bee.

Congratulations to our school champion, Robbie Gasser, who will complete an online assessment to determine whether he will qualify to advance to the state level competition. Congratulations to Lucia Miller who won second place, Krysta Drone who won third place, and to the following students who represented their classes in this academic event:

  • Luke Rebholz
  • Cruz Liu
  • Grace Algeier
  • Robert Gasser
  • Declan Martinez
  • Lucia Miller
  • Emily Sherman
  • Camden Short
  • Krysta Drone
  • Lavish Ghori

All Saints Passport to Reading Book Fair!

Mark your calendars to catch a flight and travel with books November 12ththrough November 19th as All Saints Catholic School Library gets ready to bring you the year’s best reading selections at the Bookworm Central Book Fair. Happy travelers can search for good reads that leads to an outstanding week of book discussions and surprises.  This year the Book Fair will be open during Parent/ Teacher Conferences.

Students also will visit the Book Fair during their regular library class to make purchases and Wish Lists. Parents are welcome to accompany their child during their library class to guide them with their selections.  Students can purchase merchandise independently and pay with cash or checks made out to All Saints.  Adults are allowed to make purchases with a credit card. The system does not accept gift cards.    All sales are final.

Book Fair Dates:     November 12th-19th
Shopping Hours:    School Hours 8:00 am – 3:00 pm
School Events:  

Nov. 13th-FAMILY NIGHT/Passport to Reading! 4:00-7:00 pm
Nov. 19th – Thanksgiving Luncheon/ – 10:00 am-2:00 pm

Don’t forget to look for your Teacher’s Wish List and add a book or two to your order for their classroom library.  Look for the special display in the library that will provide you with great ideas.

House of Blessed Chiara

Today is the Feast Day of Blessed Chiara Luce Badano. Our middle school “House of Blessed Chiara” is honoring their house saint by writing and placing stickers with kind messages onto lollipops and distributing them to each of our students in middle school. The lollipop theme ties into a leadership video the House of Chiara watched earlier this year and supports Blessed Chiara’s focus on love and kindness.

Facts about Blessed Chiara:

  • She was born in Sassello, Italy. Her parents had prayed and hoped for a child for more than 10 years.
  • Blessed Chiara is known for her big heart. From the age of four, she began giving away her favorite toys, inviting those less fortunate into her home, and visiting the elderly and sick.
  • She died of bone cancer at the age of 18. Before she died, she said, “I have nothing left, but I still have my heart and with that I can always love.
  • Pope Benedict XVI declared her “Blessed” in 2010.

VIRTUS Requirements

As part of the diocesan initiative to maintain a safe environment for all of our children, all volunteers with children are required to complete a background check prior to working in the school and to complete VIRTUS training within 45 days of commencing service.  To register for an upcoming training, please visit www.virtus.org.

As we begin a new year, in accordance with diocesan policy, only those parents who have completed the criminal background check are eligible to volunteer in the school.  Those who have not yet completed the background check process may request a packet of forms from the front office.