Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Saint Mary's Church, Nutley, NJ
Faith Formation Program
Registration for 2020-21
We are busy putting together our virtual Faith Formation program for the 2020-21 school year. We will be starting training with our Catechists and looking into the best way to help our families and students grow in faith during this upcoming year. We know things will not be the same with a virtual program, but we are striving to put together a program that helps our students and families to grow in their relationship with Jesus.  

You can use the button below to access the Online Registration form for Grades K-8. Registration for those making their Confirmation will be sent home in a few weeks. Therefore, do not add your 9th Grader using this form.
REGISTER FOR CLASSES
Registration is simple and can be done online in just a few minutes. Through John Patrick Publishing (JPP) and Parish Giving, you are able to register your children for classes and pay using your credit card or checking account through the secure site that we also use for our parish online giving. 

We ask that you please register your children for classes by September 1st. This will give us the opportunity to better plan our sessions. It will also allow you to relax and take one more thing off of your to-do list! Thank you for your support and we look forward to walking with you and your family in their journey of faith!
A few things you may notice...
There is no choice of days for our classes yet. We are still trying to figure out when our classes will meet virtually and how that will work for everyone. So you do not need to choose a day (Sunday or Tuesday) because there are no in-person classes. We will update you of our plan for "live" sessions as soon as it is finalized.
We lowered our fees. 
We did this because we want to meet the needs of all of our families.
We know that shut downs, furloughs, and layoffs are something that many of our families have had to deal with during the past 4 months. In an effort to make sure that all of our families can afford to have their children receive religious education, we reduced our fees for the 2020-21 school year.

If you are experiencing financial difficulties at this time, please do not hesitate to contact me for payment options.
We can still use help! We are looking for teachers to help us provide quality religious education to our students and families. 

We are also in need of teachers who can assist our catechists with technology.
We do hope that those families that are able to can continue to be generous in their support of the parish through our Online Parish Giving and envelopes. 

Saint Mary's Parish | 17 Monsignor Owns Place, Nutley, NJ 07110

Friday, July 17, 2020

Faith Formation Update #2

These past few months have not been easy, I pray that during these next few months of summer, you can find opportunities to rejuvenate, relax and recharge. 

I wanted to update you on our program for the 2020-21 school year. 
As you know, the governor and state government have given school districts guidelines for reopening. It has been left to each school to come up with their own plans accommodating their school, teacher, and student needs.  In order to allow the Phoenix Center the flexibility to create a plan for their students and staff and to help keep our students and teachers safe and healthy, we have decided to go with a virtual learning program for the 2020-21 school year.

It was not an easy decision to make, but we feel it is the best one for all of our students, teachers and families, as well as those who are a part of the Phoenix Center.  We are still working on the specifics of how things are going to work. We do know that classes will be conducted virtually using Google Meet. Students will have physical books, but submit assignments electronically. In order to better serve our students and families, we are standardizing our program for Grades 1-6. We will be using a new program from Sadlier called Christ In Us. Grades 7-8 will continue using the RCL Benziger series for Middle School students.

While the delivery method is changing, our goal has not: We want to help our students and families grow closer to Jesus. We also understand that your time is valuable, so we are not looking to overburden you, our parents or overload our students with screen time. Our hope is that virtual learning will give our families the opportunity to learn and grow in faith together.  We are still putting together our plan for how this will all work. I will update you as our plan comes together.

This is new territory for our program and many of our catechists, so we are looking for help. We can use more catechists to help teach via Google Meet. We need some help with the technical side as well. If you are proficient in Google Meet and other Google Suite products, we can use your help to be a support to our catechists and families. If you are a teacher who has been using this technology, we need you!! We would like to team you up with our catechists so that they can focus on the teaching and not get caught up in the technical side. If you are interested in sharing your gifts and skills, please email me so that we can get your insight to help us plan.
Hopefully by next week, you will receive re-registration emails. If you know of any new families who have a child who is going into 1st Grade or who have older students that need to begin classes or come back to classes, please pass on my email (armandoa@stmarysnutley.org) so that they can receive a new family online registration form.

Thank you for your continued support. We will continue to pray for all of you and look forward to walking with you and your children in their journey of faith.

Peace,
Anthony Armando
Director of Faith Formation - St. Mary's Nutley