Fall Reflection!

Greetings Ridge Families & Caregivers!

It is amazing to think that we have experienced the last official day of the summer of 2014 and that we are a good  3 weeks into our school year!

We are most pleased to welcome 1283 students to "The Ridge" this Fall and are very proud to let you know that our students, staff and Parent Engagement Team are in full swing with much that has happened and will continue to happen over the next several months.

Our Grade 9's - Class of 2018 have been fully immersed with our LINK Crew Leaders and have already experienced their orientation and first Collaborative Morning. By developing relationships with our senior students through LINK Crew, we hope that all of our Grade 9 students have some "go to" seniors should they need help or advice over the next year and beyond.

This peer-to-peer program is exceptional and we are proud to have the largest, most effective LINK Crew Program anywhere and are called upon on a regular basis by other schools and school boards to learn from us and how to replicate it's success.

The value in LINK Crew is the building and sustaining of relationships which creates a safe and inclusive environment for all of our students. We have been recognized locally, regionally and nationally for our work in Safe Schools and Safety & Wellbeing and take great pride in well over 92% of our students "feeling safe" and feeling a "sense of belonging."

In addition, this month, we hosted our Newcomer's Welcome Luncheon with well over 70 students attending this event hosted by Personal Career Counselling Services. This luncheon provided an opportunity for newcomers from many countries in the world and out-of province to network and become familiar with all of the supports available to them at our school. The goal, once again to ease the transition for our newcomers to our school and develop relationships with each other and important key folks, including student leaders and staff.

Our Grade 12's - Class of 2015, have already experienced their first post-secondary assembly and a field trip to the University Fair in Toronto. Sponsored by our Personal Career and Counselling Services Team, the majority of this class attended last Friday to begin the research and preparation for next steps beyond high school.

Our athletics, clubs and co-curriculars are gearing up for another successful year! It is important for all students to pay full attention to "Ridge TV" each day at 9:44am, to see and hear our announcements and updates of activities that run outside of the classroom. We encourage all students to get involved and our student-led, Ridge Council is fine tuning our list of co-curriculars for this year, having had two meetings already to get our teams, clubs and organizations started in a fine fashion.

Our Parent Engagement Team is already involved in collaboration with students and staff in preparation for our PINK Day on October 9th. This team plays an integral role in supporting this schoolwide and community event which showcases our Senior & Junior Football teams in action at 12 noon and 2 pm in support of Breast Cancer Awareness & Research. Our PINK Event this year marks it's 10th year anniversary so we invite all of you to come out on the 9th for this very important cause!

A last, important announcement is an open  invitation for parents & caregivers to join us for our first School Council Meeting on Monday September 29th at 7pm. Our school chair, Loris Dumanian looks forward to meeting as many of you who are able to attend to share important information both at the board and school level. We hope to see you in our Staff Room at 7pm!

As you can see, once again at "The Ridge" we are off to a usual, busy start and know that there will be a lot more to come soon, in the way of events and activities. We encourage all of you to come out and support our teams and special events in the coming year and know that your support indeed does make a big difference for student engagement, achievement and ultimately, success. We very much look forward to living up to our reputation as the #1 Halton Secondary School (both Public & Catholic) and look forward to our continued relationship as we support the success of all of our students at "The Ridge!"

Have a great year everyone!