ST. PATRICK
St. Patrick Elementary School is a Catholic school located in Barrhaven. It serves students from Kindergarten to grade 6.
SKATING INTO THE NEW YEAR
January 29, 2026
January was a busy month for students at St Patrick Elementary who have been spending time learning to skate at the Walter Baker Centre. Also, to get into the winter spirit, students decorated the front display case of the school with snow men and snowflakes.
In Mrs Smith’s grade 1 class, students created posters to show how seasonal changes can affect people, plants and animals. They learned how the weather especially can play a huge role.
And in grade 2, students are finishing their matter unit. They watched and analyzed how snow turns into water. In Mme Horth’s class, students have been studying the solar system as part of their science unit in science. They have been hard at work creating and painting solar system models.
Also, in Mme Horth’s grade 5 class, students made bridges out of popsicle sticks. They will be testing them soon to see how sturdy they are.
GIVING BACK AT A YOUNG AGE
June 28, 2026
It's been a project with a goal that's been seven months in the making, and it's finally been reached. In December, grade 6 St. Patrick's students in Marlene Highnell's class decided they were going to take on an Entrepreneurial Adventure, with the intention of raising money for a charity of their choosing - while selling products they made in class. They set a goal of raising $3,000 for the Make a Wish Foundation, and by late June that goal was reached. But it didn't come easy... After choosing which charity they were going to raise the money for, the grade 6 students decided they would make bath bombs to sell, under their business name "Sixes for Wishes." On top of it being a fun thing to do for a great cause, it also included some thinking, and brought along some challenges.
"I think we worked really hard on the bath bomb recipe because the first one didn't work out so well so we had to try another one," said grade 6 student Ella Uhrbach. "It was a hit and miss and some didn't turn out, so we crushed them up and turned it into a successful project."
"We also tied in some math to our work with finding out the measurements needed to create the bath bombs," said Ella's classmate, Emma Hebert.
The class had to write persuasive essays describing what charity they wanted to donate the earnings too, and why. Emma says choosing the Make a Wish Foundation was near and dear to her heart because her grandmother recently passed away from cancer. In May, the students had the opportunity to take a field trip to the Museum of History in Gatineau, where they joined a long list of other schools who were also taking part in similar projects. At that point they had raised just over $200, but continued climbing to their goal after taking part in other projects.
"We had to figure out things to get more and more money," said Nora Collins, grade 6. "We sold freezies around our school and that actually made good amount of money and actually brought us closer to our goal."
The students also reached out to local businesses for support to get prizes to raffle off, and raised $2,000 alone in a raffle hosted at the Heart and Crown. The Ottawa Redblacks also donated tickets to be used in another raffle. The students went on to win a National Student Innovation award from the Learning Partnership and BMO, and was only one of around 12 schools to do so. The class presented their $3,000 cheque to the Make A Wish Foundation on Wednesday, June 26, and they still have $500 to donate to another charity. The students believe they will put that money towards a charity which helps the environment - particularly the oceans - because that was another key topic that came up when they were writing their persuasive essays.
Congratulations to these students on their successes. This just proves that you're never too young to do something good for this world, and this is just a start for this group of the future. The three students are going on to St. Joe's High School next year, and say they hope to start a club where they can continue to give back to the community.