Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter

Transcription

1 W E Y B U R N C O M P R E H E N S I V E S C H O O L Spring 2014 Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter Inside this issue: School Clubs 2-6 School Sports 6-9 Ski Trip 10 Mission Trip 11 School Calendar 12 New Address 13 It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. Oscar Wilde Administration Message: W.C.S. Administration Team I hope you enjoy the spring edition of our WCS newsletter. We have had an extremely busy and exciting year thus far. As you read through our newsletter, you will be exposed to a taste of life here at WCS. We hope you enjoy it and if you have any questions or comments, please call our main office ( ). We sincerely hope that your conferences have answered your questions about your child s academic and social progress this semester. If you are a grade 12 parent, we hope that you are helping your son/daughter prepare for their next step as June is fast approaching. We also hope that you have enjoyed the portfolio that we ask all grade 12 students to produce and share at their last interview with us. It is a great reflection of all their hard work and accomplishments to date. As a staff, we continue to work with our students to promote academic success. We have developed many programs to help meet their diverse needs and are very proud of the vast array of supports for our students. Please understand that we will do everything possible to help our students achieve to their potential, but ultimately, we need students to take responsibility for their learning. We would like to take this opportunity to commend our staff as they go above and beyond to ensure every student can achieve their potential and look forward to working together to ensure success for each student. As you read the newsletter, the success of our extracurricular activities will stand out. Not only do we offer a huge number of activities for our students, but it is done at an elite level. The diversity of these programs makes WCS a wellrounded school. Our staff and community members, who spend their time and energy working with our students and your children, are exceptional and we need to express our appreciation by thanking them. As you are all aware, WCS is undergoing major construction. Contract One is nearing completion and Contract Two has begun. Contract One encompassed the Library, Daycare, New Main Office, Science and B Hallways, Commons Area, Band, Choral and the New Gym/ Performing Art Center. This phase will be up and functional for the school year. Contract Two includes taking down the old wing (all the red brick), renovating the Shops, Old Gym, C and D hallways and construction of the new Grade 7 and 8 wing as well as the Southeast Regional College. With this major renovation, WCS will be on an Alternate School year again next year. This means that we will lengthen our school day, follow the same calendar as the rest of the school division, but wrap up final exams in early June. With that, we hope you all have a terrific spring! We encourage all parents to come into our building and participate in your child s education. Hope to see you soon!

2 Page 2 Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter SIP Goals The Weyburn Comprehensive School has developed a School Improvement Plan (SIP) with two initiatives. The first is to increase the graduation rate of our students (the number of students that graduate within three years of starting grade 10). The second initiative is to improve basic math skills for all students. WCS is presently collecting data on the number of students that are successful in subject-specific classes. The analysis of this data will lead to the development of interventions designed to support those students that have not been successful. The math department collected data on each outcome in each math class to try and determine if there are any patterns in the achievement. The teachers hope to illustrate if the achievement is related to best practices or associated with gaps in the students understanding of math concepts. Please stay tuned for updates on these two SIP initiatives. WCS SIP: Graduation Rates Basic Math Skills Theatre Club Theater club is an amazing club filled with dedicated members who enjoy a variety of theatre based activities, such as improv, snacks, teaching Jordan fractions, and examining films of different genres. Our club meets every Tuesday after school until 5:00, and is advised by Mrs. Kennedy-Allin and Mrs. Torgunrud. This year our club has viewed many movies, including Les Miserables, Grease, Pride and Prejudice, The Producers, and Frozen. Our group has also delighted in watching a variety of youtube videos with sophisticated humor, such as Baman and Piderman, Harry Potter Puppet Pals, and Sad Cat Diaries. One of the highlights of this year was writing and performing our own skit, A Halloween Carol, for the Weyburn Communithon. We look forward to our future endeavours as a group. Art Update Art Classes are looking for National Geographic Magazines. Interior Design is looking for Design Magazines. If you have any that you want to recycle, please bring them to the art room. Art 10 Classes are finishing up their shading finals and working on Lino cuts and the Elements of Design. Art 20 Classes have just finished Pastels. Stay tuned for the date of our annual Art show. Pear in Pastel by Kenzie Klein

3 Page 3 Music All of our music groups from WCS have been busy getting prepared to perform in the Weyburn Rotary Music Festival. This takes place the week of March 9-14 with soloists, ensembles, choirs and bands taking part. The Grade 10, 11 and 12 Choirs as well as STARS Girls Choir sang at Grace United Church on Tuesday evening. Our Jazz Band and Concert Band will be performing at our school on Friday, March 14. Various soloists and ensembles performed at TC Douglas Center on March 9 and 10 (vocal) and March 12 (instrumental). Everyone has worked hard to reach performance level and they are excited to share their music with their audiences. On Sunday, March 16, the STARS Choir and Girls Choir, as well as vocal ensembles, will be performing at a concert at Grace United Church. This event is a fundraiser for students going on the mission trip to Peru. There is a free-will offering at the door and treats will be served following the performance. Everyone is welcome to attend. Come out and support a very great cause! You are the music while the music lasts. This years music trip will include 200 music students and chaperones travelling to Minneapolis, Minnesota in May. Everyone is very excited for this awesome opportunity! The trip will include performing at American schools, attending a musical and a dinner theater, spending a day at an amusement park, watching a Twins ball game and shopping at the Mall of America. Should be a great trip! T.S. Eliot Pastel by Angie Kretschmer Coloured pencil by Nicole Corrigan

4 Page 4 Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter Astronomy Club The Astronomy club started off the year by gazing at the stars outside of the city. Our main focus was identifying constellations and Jupiter. We also looked at the surface of the moon through the telescope. However, once it got cold outside we started to gaze at stars though the computer. Right now many of the planets are visible in the early morning and night sky. In the morning Venus, Mars, and Saturn are visible from one horizon to the next. The night sky boasts the strong appearance of Jupiter. The club has decided to stay up late on April 15th and watch the lunar eclipse. On that Monday night/ Tuesday morning, from approximately 1:00 am to 2:30am, a full lunar eclipse will be visible from most of North America. We are hoping the weather cooperates so we can have a starbeque and enjoy the sky show! It is going to be out of this world!!! The Club meets every Friday after school to discuss the sky events for the coming week, life beyond our own planet and the occasional Astrophysics topic. Gravity, black holes, and dark matter are topics that challenge conventional thought. Did you know that at this very moment there is more evidence that the earth is accelerating up, rather than gravity pulling us down? Astronomy's much more fun when you're not an astronomer. Brian May Image credit:

5 Page 5 SRC The SRC has been very busy in Semester 2 planning numerous activities for our student body. We held our half -day planning day at the Canalta in February (a big thank you goes out to them for letting us use their space!) and spent all day brainstorming so we could provide students with an exciting, activity-packed Semester 2. In February, an Olympic themed scavenger hunt took place challenging our students to find Canadian themed items throughout the school. February Fruit Sales this year were a huge success, selling more orders than estimated, with proceeds going to Telemiracle and WCS student activities. We are proud to support this worthy fundraiser each year. Prizes were given out for the highest sellers in each grade as well as three draws for anyone who sold and a dessert treat went to Mrs. Moffatt s period 6 class for being the highest selling class. March Spirit Days include Duct Tape Day on March 13th and Green Day on St. Patrick s Day. If students dress up they receive a Spirit Ballot which means their name is entered into a year-end draw for some great prizes including a Ticketmaster gift card, luggage, or even a mini fridge! This year the SRC has decided to take on the challenge of holding a Relay for Life in our community. With the help of Caroline Gillies, we hope to put on a great event and raise money for a very worthy charity the Canadian Cancer Society. Please keep your ears open for more information. We will be looking for teams to participate and volunteers to help with organization. We hope to have a great turn out from our student body as well as our community. We are very excited to take the reins on this event and look forward to hosting this year s Relay for Life at WCS in May! Watch for more fun SRC planned events in April and May! Students can watch the halls for posters or they can subscribe to Remind 101 to get notifications of upcoming SRC events by to (705) This is a free service and the SRC does not receive your cell number from Remind 101. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. John Quincy Adams Golf News from the Golf Team: Mr. Lueck will once again be co-coaching with Mr. Nieviadomy. Thanks to Mr. Biss for filling in while Mr. Lueck was completing his Master s degree. We are expecting a larger number of grade 10s this spring season so hopefully golf is on the rebound. Everyone is welcome! We will be attending four tournaments in the spring. Practises will be Tuesdays after school. Mr. Nev

6 Page 6 Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter WCS Bands The WCS Bands had a great Winter Concert at WJHS last December! It was fun to perform as a Mass Band with grades 8-12 all playing a Christmas selection together. The WJHS and WCS Jazz Bands also combined to perform Tequila for a great audience! January and February have been spent getting ready for the upcoming Weyburn Music Festival! This year the Bands will be performing in the new Bandroom for the festival because the Performing Arts Center will not be available yet. Both Bands will perform Friday March 14 after school around 4:00pm with the Concert Band first and the Jazz Band second. Please come out to see how hard these amazingly talented musicians have worked on their songs! Next up will be our Spring Music Trip to Minneapolis on May long weekend! We are really looking forward to it! Badminton Our season is getting underway with our first team practices scheduled for the beginning of March. We will be going to tournaments on March 15 in Midale, April 5 in Yellow Grass, and April 12 in Estevan. Pre-district playdowns will be held in Weyburn on April 22. Marlin Flavel will be our returning coach. There's sketch, improv, writing, acting, music, and badminton. Those are the seven forms of comedy. T. J. Miller

7 Page 7 Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter Track With Basketball season almost complete, Track and Field will begin its indoor training sessions for the 2014 season. Listen to announcements for a meeting to sign-up and get some information. At that point we will also indicate when training sessions will begin. If you have any questions please talk to Mrs. Gall or Mr. Johnson. Some track meet dates to remember: April 26 Swift Current Invitational May 3 Moose Jaw Invitational May 10 Weyburn Invitational May 21st Pre-districts Weyburn May 28th Districts-Weyburn June 6th /7th Provincials in Moose jaw Hope to see you out for Track and Field!!!! Junior Boys Basketball The Junior Boys Basketball team was composed of mainly grade 10 & 11 players. We participated in several tournaments throughout the season. We placed third in Swift Current, won the consolation final in both Estevan and Moose Jaw, and ended our season with a second place finish at a senior tournament in Stoughton. The team had a lot of speed and heart. They never quit, no matter the score. I wish the best of luck to all players in the future. After winning the consolation final in Estevan with a short bench

8 Page 8 Senior Girls Basketball The Weyburn Eagles senior girls basketball team worked very hard throughout the season, improving their skills and teamwork. We started our season in November and attended tournaments in Estevan, Caronport, Swift Current, Moose Jaw Peacock, Moose Jaw Vanier, North Battleford, and Notre Dame. Our home tournament was held in January, and we took third place after losing an intense semi-final game to Swift Current by one point. Other highlights of the season were taking first place at Vanier and winning both games of the McLeod Series. In Conferences we battled hard and brought our game to Junior Girls Basketball a new level, making it possible to place second and advance to Regionals, held at Moose Jaw Peacock. The experience, knowledge, and leadership of the returning players allowed the entire team to learn and build from their peers. Thanks to our coaches, Ms. Johnson and Mr. Oberg, for inspiring us to set goals, challenge ourselves, and become the best players we could be. Overall, we pushed each other, worked hard, and found much success in our season. Madison Kot There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either. Michael Jordan The junior girls basketball team had a great season. Watching the growth and improvement of these young players was a rewarding and wonderful experience. We participated in five tournaments this year starting in December and ending in March We traveled to Estevan, Yorkton, Lumsden, Moose Jaw, and we also organized a home tournament. Our greatest accomplishment was placing 2nd in Estevan. The girls played very well in this tournament. Our greatest strength in this tournament was playing defense. The girls played man-on-man defense, making it difficult for anyone to get past them. Although we didn t place as high as we would have liked to for our last tournament in Moose Jaw, the girls played some of their best games in this tournament. We played against teams of very high caliber and the girls did a fantastic job. We lost our first game, won our second, and lost our third game to the Moose Jaw Peacocks by a very small margin. Even though we lost our last game, the girls felt they had played their best game, which I agree with entirely. I d like to commend the Junior Girls Basketball team on a successful and hard-working season. We will miss our grade twelve girls next year (Jessica Bonneau, Emma Grainger, Meagan McLeod, Megan Tessier, Gracyn Kravanya and Ashley Kaip) but we wish them all the best! Good work this season Junior Girls!

9 Page 9 Weyburn Comprehensive School Newsletter Cheer Team The WCS Cheer Team is in the middle of their competitive season. Our first competition was on February 8th at the Campbell Collegiate Icebreaker in Regina, where the girls placed third in the Senior Level 3 category. Mother Nature decided that we should not attend Warman Cheer Classic by throwing windchills of -50 our way! Our next action will be March 15th at the University of Regina Cheer classic we hit the mat at 3:15 and would love to see lots of Weyburn faces in the crowd. Together with the team from Weyburn Junior High, we will travel to North Battleford to attend the Cheerleading Provincial Championships on March 22nd. Coaches Mrs. Kyla Moffatt and Taryn Moffatt are very pleased with the progress the girls have made this season. We will be hosting our Show and Share evening with the Weyburn Junior High team sometime in April, and will be holding spring tryouts for next year s squad in late April or early May. GO EAGLES!! Curling The three curling teams at the WCS had a very busy year. The teams played in the Monday and Tuesday evening leagues at the Weyburn Curling Club as well as practising once a week. Many of the students were involved in volunteering with the after school programs as well as bonspieling on weekends throughout the South. The girls team of Laurel Oberkirsh, Haley Anderson, Erica Culbertson, and Rachel Ryan finished their year in Carlyle at Districts losing a very close game after two wins the day before. Jaedon Miller, Noah Arndt, Garrett Hoffart, and Cody Cooke had a good season, doing well in Monday afternoon curling as well as Monday night league curling. The road to high school provincials did not treat them as well, losing the B final in Maryfield and not advancing to regional playdowns. Tyson Verbeem, Dexter Happ, Daylan Swanson, Randy Pederson, and Eric Shanaida also had a successful season. They were in the top four in their Tuesday night league. The road to high school provincials was not easy, winning the B final at districts in Maryfield and winning the B final at regionals in Southey which lead them to provincial playdowns. The Verbeem rink advanced to Provincials in Southey where they came in fifth. Tyson, Daylan, Jaedon and Noah also entered a curling team in the Winter Games. In their districts playoffs there was only one team advancing to Winter Games playoffs in Prince Albert. The boys won the A side and Maryfield won the B side. The A - B playoff was exciting with the Verbeem team coming in second place. All of our curling teams were very busy on and off the ice, representing themselves and our school with pride. Ms. Hale and the curlers would like to thank Danette Tracey, Jaime Miller, and Ray Colbow for all of their help and sage advice. Not once, in everything I've done, have I ever felt the same wonder and humanity as when I'm playing the game of curling. ~Men with Brooms

10 Page 10 Weyburn Comprehensive School Ski Trip 2014!! Destination: Fernie Alpine Resort and Kimberley Alpine Resort Jan 31 - Feb 2 This year the trip returned to Fernie, with 45 students and 9 teachers/ parent supervisors loaded on the bus for a 10 hour trip! Everyone enjoyed mountain-side accommodations at Timberline Lodge in Fernie with a view of the slopes every morning! The first day students were enrolled in lessons at Fernie and then were free to experience the mountain landscape they had been waiting for since they signed up in early November! With several new to the sport, there were numerous wipeouts and a few yard sales but fun was had by all. That evening Mr. Forsgren arranged a night on the town with shopping, ice cream, and candy stores available to the vy teens! After finding some deals and loading up on treats we headed back to the hotel for some hot tub time and putting the feet up! On day two, after getting a few new bruises and some achy bones on day 1, we departed early in the morning for a 1 hour drive to Kimberley resort! After our arrival and orientation with the hill, the students, parents, and teachers were treated to a great day of light snow and powder over our boots for most runs. For the adventurous there were a few tree runs and some face wash plunges into snow banks for the others, calm and soothing carving on the main runs! After a few more bumps and bruises, we headed back to Fernie and the hotel. On day three we all dragged ourselves out of bed, sore and tired, but wanting to make the most of our time in the mountains. Just a half day remained at Fernie to hit a few favourites then give back the rentals and board the bus for home. Some chose not to ski, knowing their limits, and the rest powered through! We boarded the bus at noon and headed for home where the -12 with light snow slowly changed to -30 plus the wind YAY! We were happy to bring everyone home and proud to say that our school and city were well represented by our 45 student ambassadors! There were praises from the Hotel and the bus company (Stagecoach) for their behaviour and conduct the entire time!! We are already looking forward to next years trip planned for Lake Louise and Sunshine Village! See you on the Slopes!!! Mr.Kerr

11 Weyburn Comprehensive School 629 King Street WEYBURN, SK S4H 2S5 Phone: Fax: WCS is a comprehensive community consisting of Grade 10, 11 and 12 students, which supports quality education in a safe, caring and respectful environment. That is our Mission and we are very proud of the education offered to our students in both the curricular and extra-curricular sense. We back our Mission with seven Values statement that is succinct with our Success for All attitude. As you enjoy our newsletter, we hope you begin to realize just how dynamic and diverse the WCS really is. Check out our division website: Mission Trip During the March break of 2014, six WCS students and two teachers will participate in a Mission Trip to Peru. The participating students have completed their second course of study in the Christian Ethics program. Participants include: Haley Anderson, Rekina Browatzke, Ashlee Adacsi, Jamisen Johner, Chelsea Hoffart and Connor Racicot. Together with staff members Steven Clarke and Margot Arnold as well as eleven students from Estevan, one from Radville, a few Holy Family RCSSD #140 staff members and parents, the group will travel to Pamplona in the district of San Juan de Miraflores to work on some projects to make life a little better for the villagers of the district. The group will be building an outdoor concrete staircase that will allow the people of the district better access to fresh water. They will share a dental hygiene lesson with the children and will adopt-a-family for a day of fun in the local zoo and parks. The entire group of 28 individuals has spent a significant amount of time this year raising funds for the journey and would like to say a THANK YOU to all who have supported them through donations of money, attendance at variations functions and the generous gift of time. Departing at 2:30am on the first day of the spring break will be a bit of challenge for the group but, with the ad- venture that awaits in Peru, they know that it is worth it!

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