Welcome to the 2023-2024 School Year

Dear Parents, Guardians and Caregivers:

Happy September! 

We are excited to reconnect with you and your family for the start of the 2023-2024 school year and offer a special welcome to students and families who are new to the Durham Catholic District School Board.

Here in Durham Catholic, we are looking forward to a school year that will focus on listening, learning and living in faith as we embark on our new multi-year strategic plan, Inspire 2026. Through our recent consultations in the spring of 2023, participants reconfirmed the importance of our strategic priorities to support faith and well-being, advance human rights and equity, and improve student learning with a particular focus on literacy, numeracy and pathways for student success.

This year our spiritual theme is Speaking With the Heart, which stems from Pope Francis’s letter written on World Day of Social Communications in May 2023. Building on last year's theme, Listening With the Ear of the Heart, which spoke of the need to open our hearts to hear the words and experiences of others, this year's message focuses on expressing ourselves with compassion and sensitivity. Pope Francis writes, "listening without prejudice, attentively and openly, gives rise to speaking according to God’s style, nurtured by closeness, compassion and tenderness."Inspired by these words, all members of the DCDSB community are invited to reflect on what it means to communicate “according to God's style” and to welcome encounters with others as “heart speaks to heart.” We are also called to attend to the many ways we communicate with one another. Beyond spoken words, we express ourselves through gestures, symbols, icons, body language, online communication, art, music, dance, and more. We are proud of the work and learning that happens in our DCDSB schools and hope that this spiritual theme will serve as a beacon to guide us in our mission to be an inclusive Catholic learning community that inspires every student to achieve their full potential through faith and education. 

Parents, guardians, and caregivers are critical to student success. Please subscribe to the news and calendar sections on your school website to keep up-to-date on what’s happening. By working together, as home, school and parish we will support the academic and spiritual development of our students. The Durham Catholic Parent Involvement Committee (DCPIC) and your school’s Catholic School Council also provide great opportunities to engage with your school community through monthly meetings, events and activities.   

On behalf of the Board of Trustees and Senior Administration Team, we hope all families have a wonderful Labour Day long weekend. We wish everyone in our Durham Catholic learning community a safe and joyful return to school this September.

Yours in Catholic Education,  

Monique Forster                           Tracy Barill
Chair of the Board                        Director of Education