​ Dear students,
Here we are at the end of our first semester, working online, and working to complete the semester well.  Some of you are finished, and some of you have a bit of work yet to do.  Just a couple more days, and then you’ll have a well-deserved break.  Congratulations on getting to this point!  As we prepare for the next semester, we sent you your new timetable and courses.  That timetable may have brought up a variety of responses – excitement for new things!, apprehension as you look at a heavy course load, or perhaps a desire to get back to school so that you can enjoy these courses in person.  In that timetable letter, I expressed to you my deep hope for you in the second semester, and I would like to share it with you again. 
My deep hope for you in this semester is that you will know yourself more as our heavenly Father knows you.  He has a perfect plan for you this semester and in all of your courses.  Will the semester start online?  It’s not what we might have picked, but it is according to God’s perfect plan for you.  Do you have a heavy course load?  Our heavenly Father knows that too, and He’ll be with you each step of the way.  Not only does He know, but He plans to mold and shape you through this semester.  Our God will be hard at work through the Spirit in you through the semester. 
A teacher once said, “When a student completes her education, she will be judged for the rest of her life not by her test scores, but by the quality of her character and the quality of her work.”  Will you remember that?  Your quality of your character and of your work is more important than your marks.  God delights in you when you reflect His perfect character and His excellent work in your character and in your work. 
I hope that you experienced a growing sense of Crew in the first semester.  I hope that as we enter the second semester that each one of us will experience more and more what it means to be enfolded in our school community and culture of Crew, both in our small crews and in the school community as a whole.  You are part of a “we” and an “us”.  And so, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). 
Over the next two weeks, may you finish well, rest well, and start well.
Blessings, MVD

Dear students, parents, and staff.
Crew has been an important part of our school year, whether it’s been our daily crew meetings, or whether it’s been the conversations that many of us have had around crew as school culture.  We are all crew members, not passengers, on this ship called Providence.  We all have a role and a job to do, and we do so together.  It’s part of living and working in community and loving and serving one another.  I’ve loved this part of school, and I miss our crew meetings.  I miss my crew.  We can do some of this online, and so I encourage you to keep up the conversations and the meetings and the face time.  Hopefully, we’ll be back soon.
On January 12, we listened to Premier Ford talk about COVID projections in Ontario, declare a state of emergency, and issue a stay-at-home order.  We will be listening again on January 20, when he’ll announce which regions can return to class on January 25.  Due to the uncertainty of next week, the board and administration has made a decision to cancel exams this semester. Here are some important details:

• Classes that had culminating assignments instead of exams are not affected.  Those culminating assignments are still happening.  The calendar has been adjusted so that all culminating assignments will be finished by Tuesday, January 26.
• If teachers had previously scheduled exam review for this week, they are being asked to use that time in a different way. Some teachers are planning to use that time for a smaller culminating assignment or unit task.  If teachers do add an assignment like this, it can only be worth up to 5 or 10% of the final grade, and not the 30% that exams normally are. 
• An updated calendar for each grade’s final assignments is included in this Post. 

 
Due to the cancellation of exams, we are also looking to make a change to the calendar for the first week of semester 2.We are planning to start the second semester a day earlier on Tuesday, February 2, rather than Wednesday.  This will give us a PD later on in the semester – the date has yet to be determined. We’ll have more details about the first week of the semester after Premier Ford’s announcement on January 20.
In the meantime, stay safe, call a friend, and enjoy a walk. 
Wishing you a blessed week.  MVD

As we return to learning in 2021, I want to wish you and your family a blessed new year.  My prayer for 2021 is that this will be a year of growing in knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and faith for all students and staff, and that students would grow in their understanding of what it means to live for the King and for His Kingdom. 
Our staff continues to meet each day for devotions (online), and we have started a study on the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. 
Ezra 1:1-4 ESV:

This is a great encouragement here, even in these opening verses of Ezra.  What a comfort to know that God holds the kings of the earth in His hand, and that He stirs the spirit of kings to accomplish His purposes.  He does so by His Word.  Remember that, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will” (Proverbs 21:1).
And then see how God uses His people to build His kingdom.  He calls these exiles out of Babylon and returns them to Jerusalem for a great Kingdom-building project – to build the temple.  Ezra 2 is a beautiful list of exiles – first the ‘laity’, and then the priests, Levites, temple servants.  Each family is named and each person is numbered.  Our God knows us by name and by number, and He takes us from exile for service in His Kingdom.
Look also at how He equips His people for service.  Each survivor was able to take silver and gold and goods and beasts, that they would be provided for in their service.
God still builds His Kingdom today, and He calls His people to service.  What role do you and will you have in the building of the temple?  What section of the city wall has been allotted to your family?  How is He providing for you today so that you can take up this task?
So, as we move online again (hopefully for just three weeks), let’s remember the big picture of what God is doing.  He is building, speaking, providing, and calling.  Let this continue to be a time of growing and working and serving.   ​