Excellent Week!

We have certainly had a very busy and wonderfully, engaging past week at "The Ridge." Many of our coaches and student athletes are into the play-off season with many successes having happened and on the horizon! Our Boys' Hockey Team coached by Mike Tarantino & Tim Coe won the first of their two-game semi-final versus Nelson 6-2 last Friday. Next game is tomorrow for our boys who could advance to the Halton Final with either a win or a tie. Our swimmers and snowboarders are off to the OFSAA championships in the very near future. Congratulations to Coach Jeff Warner and Coach Deb Remo for their success with our team and best of luck to our provincial level swimmers Kristian Kannigan, Marnie Oldershaw, Saad Mobushir, Steven Ramsay, Christopher Green and Nathan Halliday. Our snowboarders are off to Ottawa this week for their provincial championships. The following student/athletes will be representing our school: Kelsey Wimbush, Nicole Klemenchuk, Charlie Glassman, Ashley Copeland, Kassandra Dicosola and Jeremy Lister. Two honourable mentions go out to Adam Cameron who qualified for OFSAA but is unable to go and to Natalie LaMarche who finished 2nd overall in the OFSAA qualifier, one place short of a trip to this provincial championship. Thanks to our Ski & Snowboard Team coaches for their dedication and committment: Karen Normet, Stephania Augello, Michelle McCutcheon and Virgina Gingras. Congratulations also go out to members of our Curling Team who recently competed in Halton Semi-Final and Final Competition. Our Novice Team: Riley Dane, Liam Gracey, Eric Hamilton, Dryden McComish and Ryan Woolcock represented our school in semi-final competition while our Intermediate Team: Matt McCallum, Lauren Mateyko, Jason Panthaky and Christopher Wright took the silver medal
in the Halton Finals versus Oakville Trafalgar High School. Kudos to Ellen Irving and Kristen McCoy for their excellent coaching and a great season! In the midst of all of our sporting achievements, 28 teams competed in the Inside Ride held in our gym this past Thursday. This event created a very positive and
spirited atmposphere in our school, as the teams, consisting of 5 participants each, cycled to raise funds for
youth with cancer. We raised well over $16,000.00. We are truly proud of this accomplishment as our goal was $7,00.00. Thanks to everyone who participated and cheered on our cyclists...you did a great job! We look forward to next year's event where we expect even more teams to get involved. Thanks to Christine Busby and Marie Guest for organizing this event which was a highlight for our school this year. Special thanks also go out to Kathryn Patterson for organizing the recent Create, Commit, Change Conference for over 300 intermediate students which was held at our school. This event highlighted many guest speakers and was facilitated by a number of our senior students and graduates from Iroquois Ridge, all with the goal of inspiring future student leaders in Halton. Student conferences such as this allow for student voice and opportunities for students from many schools in Halton to network and share their leadership ideas with one another. A fantastic day and event for our school. Well done everyone!

Welcome to Semester 2!

After an excellent Semester 1 for our students, staff and school we look forward to even greater achievement and accomplishments for this semester. At this time we would like to welcome new staff who have joined us and are really pleased that they come to us with outstanding credentials, enthusiasm and most importantly are all very "student centered." We know that they will add great value on behalf of our students and contribute greatly to the life of our school. Joining our English Team, we welcome Anjay Mackenzie and Gordana Panoska. For Canada and the World and Special Education, we extend a warm welcome to Paul Beck. Danny Devine returns to our school as a member of our Business Team. Stephanie Briggs will soon be joining our Math Team and we look forward to welcoming Phoebe Ching in the very near future to our Math Team. We will soon be hiring an Art teacher to our school for this semester as Karl Mustoe takes a leave.
I would be amiss if I didn't recognize the many contributions of Richard Bowering, who has recently retired as of the end of Semester 1. We will miss Richard and wish him the very best on his next journey...thanks for your support of students, staff and our school over the past many years. Nicole Brinton also leaves us as she immerses herself  in the business world. We wish her continued success in the future. As Semester 2 begins, I wish everyone the very best for a successful semester. We look forward to great things both inside and outside of the classroom by our students and staff. A special thanks to our parent community, who continue to support our students, staff and school in such a fervent manner. Together we are making a difference each and every day in support of success for all of our students. I look forward to our continued partnership as we ensure that "The Ridge" maintains its' status as one of the exemplary schools in our province.