As the new academic year begins, the Queen of Apostles School student council for year 2017-2018 was ceremoniously commissioned by Principal Marty Chargin at the opening school mass held on September 5, 2017. The student council consists of a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Commissioner of Religion, Spirit & Ecology Representative, and a Sports Representative. They pledged to lead, serve, and represent the student body throughout the academic year.

Additionally, the school wide theme of ‘Practice Kindness’ was announced during this mass. The pastor, Father Thuc asked the students to absorb the parable of the Good Samaritan into their lives and treat others as they themselves would like to be treated. While each class put forth its own views about expressing kindness by sharing, showing support, spreading joy, and putting others before themselves, Father Thuc expressed three things that display kindness encouraging the school community to speak kind words, express kind deeds, and live a kindness-filled life.

“Catholic Schools Week was celebrated at Queen of Apostles School starting January 29, 2017. The highlight was the school’s Authors’ and Artists’ Faire which displayed more than a thousand pieces of the student artwork from this academic year. Various paintings including water colors and pastels, as well as models and sculptures were on display. The various pieces of artwork came from the dedicated effort of each student through the year under the patient guidance of the Queen of Apostles Art teacher, Mrs. Theresa Knight. This wide range of work also included recreations of history lessons while some others depicted interesting aspects of stories read in class. The James and the Giant Peach projects from the fourth-grade students was a real treat for the viewers!

Apart from the work created in the school’s art program, original pieces were also showcased, which included essays, short stories, and poetry. These were all proudly framed, labeled and displayed in the Father Jim Mifsud Community Center over the course of the Catholic Schools Week celebrations for the community to view.

Gingerbread men from around the country arrived at Queen of Apostles School throughout the months of December and January. The first graders and their teacher anxiously awaited each one and could not wait to learn about where the gingerbread man had traveled from and the stories of its creators.
Mrs. Anna Rodriguez, the first grade teacher, at Queen of Apostles heard about this gingerbread man exchange online and soon the first graders were busy creating gingerbread men on their own. At the end of the exchange, she learned that nearly 300 schools had participated. Students created everything from scientist gingerbread men, to Sharks hockey gingerbread men, to Princess Leia and Darth Vader gingerbread men, each of these representing something special about the Bay Area. They also wrote accompanying letters to tell first graders across the country, who would be receiving these, what makes the Bay Area unique.
Not only did the students learn the geography of the United States of America, but they also learned how vastly diverse a country, it is. They were surprised to learn about schools with less than ten children per class and about schools where they could see cows from their classroom windows. As each letter was received, the accompanying gingerbread man was attached to the classroom map.
For the first batch of letters, the first graders enjoyed cookies and milk and heard about other first graders, who as one first grader put it, “Are just like us!”