It’s that time of year again. As soon as we head back into the classroom following the Christmas break, the 8th graders and I get to work planning the events and celebrations of Catholic Schools Week, which this year falls on January 30 through February 5th. The NCEA website has lots of great resources, but I also wanted to share some tried and true ideas from our school.
Our first two issues are these: although our school is a parochial school in governance, the fact is that the majority of our students travel pretty far to attend it. They are not parishioners at our church, so the parish school connection is not overwhelmingly strong. Our second issue is that our school week during CSW is only 4 days. For these reasons, we have to combine several of the 7 theme days to make all the activities work. Here are the two main ways we do that:
Monday: Our Parish and Community
Tuesday: Our Students and Families
Wednesday: Our Nation and Vocations
Thursday: Our Faculty, Staff and Volunteers
OR
Monday: Our Community
Tuesday: Our Students and Families
Wednesday: Our Faculty and Vocations
Thursday: Our Nation
(Sometimes we don’t focus on the Parish, but I am working to change this.)
In terms of timeline, here’s how we work:
Week 1 (January 3-7): Brainstorm ideas and assign students to plan specific days and their activities
Week 2 (January 10-14) Finalize plans and put out to teachers- start door decorating contest
Week 3 (January 17- 21) Film short videos for each day (this is a post Covid development, but everyone loved it.)
Week 4 (January 24-28) Finishing touches on plans, prayer services etc. Edit all videos and get them out to the teachers.
Week 5: CSW! Lots of fun themed dress, activities, videos and prayer services.
To see some of our amazing door designs from years past, click on the link below.
Throughout the next week, keep checking back in on the blog for ideas for each daily theme and how we’ve made it work at our school!
