Fit to Learn Campaign

The following letter will be sent out next week with our "early-bird" report cards, but I thought I'd post it here so that all community members could also learn about our newest project.

FIT TO LEARN CAMPAIGN
healthy bodies = healthy minds

Every year our students and our staff raise a great deal of money for worthwhile charities in our community and this year is no exception. We have already raised money for the fight against cancer through our school-wide participation in the Terry Fox Walk/Run. We will, of course, continue to support our community throughout the year, but we have also decided to begin a fund-raising project that will directly benefit our own students by providing a modern fitness facility within the school that can be easily accessed by our students on a daily basis.

The emphasis on healthy living choices not only includes making good decisions about what we eat but also getting active. Currently, the equipment in our fitness room is quite outdated. Our staff and students, both elementary and secondary, are committed to updating this room and we have already raised over $6000.00 internally through staff donations, the Students’ Council, the technological studies department, the prom committee and the elementary division for the initiative that we are calling the “Fit to Learn Campaign”. Participation in this campaign is voluntary.

Another benefit of this campaign is that we will use it as a practical learning experience for some of our business students as well as other students who will be assisting with some of the actual renovations.

We are researching a variety of machines and the optimum set up of this room and one thing we have determined is that we would like to purchase new, industrial-grade equipment, and not equipment meant for personal use. Therefore, we will raise the money needed to equip this room rather than ask for community donations of personal-use equipment.

Our first fund-raising project will be a school-wide magazine sale campaign and we will get the information about this campaign to families in our community prior to Thanksgiving when families tend to gather.

If you would like to donate to this project, but you are not interested in taking part in the magazine subscription sale, we would gladly accept any monetary donation. Donations would be made through the Foundation for Enriching Education and donations over $20 would generate a tax receipt.

The attached form is for your convenience only. Please contact me if you have any questions about the campaign.

Deborah J. McNair
Principal

First Dance

The Students' Council hosted its first school dance of the year last Thursday night. Once again Northwestern's dance was a great success. The council hired a local, and very well known disc jockey known as "JJ the DJ" who seemed to know exactly how to get everyone in the mood to dance and have fun. The positive energy of over two hundred young people dancing and singing to their favourite songs is something that everyone should get the chance to experience.

A great deal of planning goes into every dance as each year's students' council tries to ensure that they give the students what they want. Of course, kids being kids, only a small percentage of the students buy tickets to the dance before the last minute and so the students' council members are always somewhat stressed as they worry about whether the dance will be a success (and will break even). Mr. Wybrow is the council's advisor and he too does a great deal of work to get ready for the dances. Mr. Wybrow also arranges for other staff members to attend the dances as chaperones and ensures that they know how much the students appreciate that the teachers help with the dances.

One question that has come up over the last few years is over our use of breathalyzers at the dances. Unfortunately, this has become a necessary precaution. We advertise the fact that every student entering the dance will be breathalized and so there's no guesswork about who should or should not be considered a risk. The purpose of the breathalyzers is to discourage students from drinking prior to attending our events and I'm always happy to see students having so much fun without the benefit of alcohol. It's also fair to say that our use of these breathalyzers takes pressure off some of our more junior students. The choice is clear, if you want to attend a dance, you can't be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and so students who are put in the position of having to respond to an invitation to drink can say no without worrying about how this will affect their friendships. The intent of our use of these breathalyzers is not to "catch" students, but to deter students from making poor choices.

Whether students in attendance at our dances are from our school or from one of our neighbouring schools, the same rules of conduct apply. By cooperating with each other, the principals ensure that students who are not part of our own student body know that they must respect our building and our student body just like they would their own.

I'm proud of our students' council for all of the work they put into events like dances and proud of the leadership they exhibit. Secondary school students are often judged by the behaviour of a few students who make bad choices. A night like last Thursday gives a much more accurate picture of today's young people.

Monday, September 14

Our gradual return to school means that today was the first "Monday" we've been at school even though it's the beginning of the third week of classes. As usual, things are up and running very quickly this year. The schedule of extra curricular activities for the week is shown below. As always, we encourage students to get involved and this list gives just a few of the activities that are going on this week. As shown below, we encourage students to go to the weights room for some training at lunch.

Monday, September 14:
Weight lifting - 12:00 - 12:25 in weight room

Wednesday, September16:
Girls Field Hockey - NWSS @ Goderich
Girls Basketball - St.Anne’s @ NWSS - 3:00 pm
Weight lifting - 12:00 - 12:25 in weight room
Emergency First Aid and Adult CPR - see Mr. Roth

Thursday, September 17:
Emergency First Aid and Adult CPR - see Mr. Roth
Ms. Fricker students to Blythe Festival - leaving at 11:20 am

Friday, September 18:
Weight lifting - 12:00 - 12:25 in weight room

Saturday, September 19th:
Sr. Girls Basketball Tournament at University of Waterloo


Annual Terry Fox Run

Every year Stratford Northwestern students and staff take part in the Terry Fox Run for a Cure for Cancer. This fun run/walk will be held on September 24 during period 2. Students are asked to raise pledges for this event. The pledges are submitted as students leave the school to walk en-masse around a pre-set path that usually goes through our immediate neighbourhood, continues across the river, through the park and back to school. The event usually takes about 40 minutes for those who walk the route. All students are asked to take part in this very worthwhile event.

Day 1 of the school year was a success

Despite the beautiful weather, and the fact that we're back in school before Labour Day, staff and students were all here and classes are back in session.

The grade 7 and grade 9 orientation and assemblies were informative and, we hope, allowed students to interact with new friends. Melissa Schenk from AChannel was our guest speaker and she highlighted the fact that school is only as good as a student wants it to be. Her message to students was that they should think about "how they want to be remembered". This message is one we've shared over the past few years with our students and we believe that if everyone would consider the impact that they are having on those they meet and would act accordingly, then there would be fewer conflicts in our community.

After Melissa's presentation, grade 9 students toured the club and sports fair set up in the cafeteria by senior students and staff advisors. We really do encourage everyone to get involved in something extra-curricularly. Even if you're not an athlete, you can help with yearbook, DIY club and many other activities.

Students Who Wish to Switch Classes

If a student wishes to change a timetable, he or she should make an appointment in the Students' Services Office to see a counsellor. As many classes are already full, it might not be possible to get the change you'd like to have on your timetable this year. For that reason we ask that you attend the classes shown on your timetable until the guidance counsellors have time to see you--otherwise you're missing instruction in a class that you might need to keep on your timetable and decreasing your own chance of success in that course.

This Week's Schedule

I'd like to remind everyone that this week's classes will run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We then have a four day weekend to celebrate Labour Day. Classes resume for everyone on Tuesday, September 8.

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.