School Starts Tomorrow! We're ready.

This year marks a first for all of us in that we're returning to classes prior to Labour Day. With the advent of "Family Day", school boards found themselves with too few instructional days to meet the requirements of the Education Act. The Avon Maitland District School Board has chosen to have students start school on Tuesday, September 1, 2009. We will have classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. As many people may have chosen the Labour Day weekend for holidays, there will be no classes on Friday, September 4 or on Monday, September 7. Full classes resume on Tuesday, September 8.


Grade 9 Special Schedule for the First Day

Grade 9 students will all assemble in the gym which is located on the left side of the hall just inside the front door. The teachers, vice-principals and principal will all be there and we'll organize students into their homeroom classes. Homeroom teachers will then take their students to the appropriate classroom where they will receive timetables, lockers and any information they'll need for the first week.

In the past, we've had an orientation day for incoming grade 9's prior to the first day of school. Because of our early start, we are holding the orientation events on the first afternoon of school. Students in grade 9 will attend their regular classes in the morning, and will have lunch at the regular time. Students will then go to their period 4 class and their teachers will get things rolling in the class before taking the students to our specially-scheduled orientation events. At the end of period 4, students will proceed to period 5 to meet their teachers and then will be accompanied to our final events of the orientation.

We are very grateful to Mrs. Ritsma and her committee of teachers and students for all of the work they have put into this orientation afternoon.


Grades 10 to 12

As usual, students in grades 10 to 12 will find their names and homerooms posted on the printouts on the windows in the tech hall. Students are asked to find their names and proceed to the homeroom indicated. There will be full classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week for students in grades 10 to 12.

Grade 7 Orientation

On Wednesday, August 26, from noon until 2:00 p.m. we will welcome our incoming our grade 7's. Staff members, senior high school students and some representatives of our school community will be on hand to introduce our new students to Northwestern.

The first introduction to any new school is both exciting and, to be honest, stressful. Over the last few years our students have told us that being able to get to know the layout of the school, the location of their classes and the location of their lockers before the halls are full of other students is one way to make new students feel more comfortable.

We invite all of our new grade 7 students to come to the school on Wednesday tosee old friends, meet new friends and just have fun.

The week before school and we're ready

The secretarial and administrative staffs have been back at school all week and we've seen many teachers as they too get ready for that all-important first day of school. There are still a few things to be done, but, rest assured, the most important aspects of beginning a new year are all in place.

Once again this year we have some new faces in the office. The principal of the intermediate panel is Jane Morris. Mrs. Morris has experience as both a secondary and an elementary teacher. She has worked as a secondary vice principal and, most recently, she was the principal of Arthur Meighen Public School in St. Marys. Mrs. Morris has been busy most of the summer getting things ready for the influx of grade 7 and grade 8 students on September 1.

Chris Smith is returning for his second year as secondary vice principal at Northwestern. This is also his second year with our Board and his expertise is much appreciated.

April Smith joins us as the other secondary vice principal. Mrs. Smith has worked at Stratford Central and has come to Northwestern after having been the vice principal at Mitchell District High School in Mitchell.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith are not related, nor are they married to each other. The obvious comparisons to the movie by the same name should provide some great entertainment. Perhaps there's an overlap of skills needed for spies and vice principals and the movie could provide our vice principals with some great ideas.

This is my ninth year as principal of Stratford Northwestern. That seems very hard to believe as the time has literally flown by. Every year brings new plans and fresh ideas from our innovative and dedicated staff and also from our students. This year will be no exception. We already know that we want to improve the equipment in the weights-room and finish the show cases in the hallway. Of course, we also want to get started with all of the activities that make being in grade 7 to 12 some of the best years of our students' lives.