Holiday Luncheon!

We are very thankful to have such a wonderful and active Parent Engagement Group at our school! Today we experienced one of the highlights of our school year, as our Social Committee (led by April Valera and Kevin McConvey) and members of our parent community, put on an amazing luncheon in our staff room. This is a unique tradition to "The Ridge" and very much appreciated by our staff, who get an opportunity to spend some time together during our common lunch, enjoying casual conversations and a holiday meal together. On behalf of our staff I would like to express our collective thanks for being appreciated and recognized in such a kind and giving manner. As this month celebrates the "Gift of Giving", it is appropriate to pay tribute to our "ever-giving", staff and  parent community for all of their hard work in support of our students and our school. This opportunity at lunch today allowed us all to take pause and be thankful that we continue to enjoy everything that  "The Ridge Community" has to offer as we continue to serve our school and community with great pride!

Luncheon of Champions

This past Friday many of us had the pleasure of celebrating the achievements and successes of our students. The Luncheon of Champions is an event sponsored and organized by our Personal Career Services Team. Teaching staff nominate those students who have really made significant improvements or have made a special contribution in their classroom or who have made a significant achievement through their co-curricular involvement. This is a special occasion where teachers speak on behalf of our champions in a truly authentic and meaningful way. Their heartfelt messages serve as a continued motivation and inspiration for the students who are recognized. Our champions are accompanied by parents/caregivers and significant others who enjoy a lovely lunch together in celebration of their success. Students also receive certificates for their special achievements.Special thanks to Nancy Anstett, Melanie Spelman, Rachel Stecca, Kris Reeve and Georgina Cook (our dynamic and wonderful PCC Team!) for all of your hard work in organizing this event. Additional thanks to our office team (Jennifer Flynn, Susan Cutler and Jane Greenhill) and to our custodial team (David Willis and Joseph Lefresne) for your support behind the scenes. We hope to celebrate with more "champions" next semester as this is truly a special and memorable celebration for our students, staff, parents/significant others and our school!

Student Directed One-Act Plays "A Huge Success!"

Congratulations to our wonderful student actors who presented very intelligent, humourous and thought provoking, one-act plays, last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday in our Don Marshall Theatre. "Nobody Famous", "The Apple" and "Mirror Mirror" were the performances selected by our talented casts and all three provided great entertainment for and reflection by a very appreciative audience. Student performers included: Laura Heyland, Maddie Ruton, Kassandra DiCosola, Masi Hamwi, Morgan Kingdon, Serena Schindell, Laura Smith, Kristen Oelke, Cheryl Tansony,Sara Anuseva, Manvir Brar, Emma Coates, Alex Coutin, Mike Cowley, Celine Goulart, Aleeza Ladhani, Hayley McDonald, Jacqueline Petitjean, Della Woodger, Lia Williamson, Maddie Rowe, Ryan Brock, Tessa Chalmers, Sean Coates, Madison Kilpatrick, Amanda McPherson, Angela Nethersole, Hayley Nethersole, Emily Richmond and Kaeylyn Schindell. Thanks to our AV crew: Kyle Hermann and Ryan Harvie and our "Front of the House" crew: Maddy Atherton, Alyssa Dryburgh and Christina Martini for your support of the performances. Special acknowledgement to April Valera, Anjay MacKenzie and Kevin McConvey for your coaching and mentorship of our student performers. Thanks also to our office team: Jennifer Flynn, Susan Cutler and Jane Greenhill for your behind the scenes support in ensuring three days of great performances and in addition, special thanks to Joe Lefresne and David Willis for looking after our theatre needs. Well done everyone!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our Junior and Senior Boys' Football Teams for their outstanding performances in the Halton Football Championships held at McMaster University. Our Junior Boys' gave their best effort throughout their game against Milton District but had to settle for the silver medal in a 21-6 loss. The score was not indicative of the solid play as our team had some good chances that bounced the other way in Milton's favour. Congratulations to this excellent young team on a great season and status as the Halton Finalists! Special thanks to our coaching team (Kris, Lawrence, Al and Mike) for your outstanding leadership, coaching and mentorship of our young student/athletes. You did us all proud! In the senior game against our cross-town rivals, Oakville Trafalgar, our team was at their peak performance, as they won the game by a wide, 43-0 margin. This was a fantastic win for our boys,who have played all year,with grit and determination. Led by a very solid coaching team (Mike, Scott and Junior), our seniors benefitted from a committment to hard work and exemplary sportsmanship in each and every game they played. You are now Halton Champions and Gold Medallists! Way to go, Ridge! A very special thanks to all of our parent, student and staff supporters and to Marie Guest and the Healthy Active Living Team for organizing ticket sales and seven bus loads of fans to the game. It was a very beautiful day for football and a great opportunity for our school to demonstrate their school spirit and pride in both of our teams! Truly awesome!!

Mid-Term Reflection

We have reached our mid-semester and have an opportunity to reflect upon our successes to date! With the mid-term report and our interview evening, students, staff and parents have time to look closely at student achievement to date, review and refine goals and set new targets for the balance of the semester. A close look at the "Learning Skills" portion of the report card may indicate an area of need. It is often in the learning skills area where students can really focus and work with their teachers to improve, as these skills are really the foundation for student success. Mid-term is also an opportune time to thank our very many students, staff and parents for a very successful start to our co-curricular program in 2011/12. Junior Girls Basketball made it to the play-offs against Georgetown; Senior Boys' Volleyball secured a play-off spot versus Kings' Christian College and our Junior & Senior Boys' Football Teams, finished first in their division, and now both teams head off to McMaster next week to compete in the Halton Football Championships. The Senior win over Burlington Central and the Junior win over Oakville Trafalgar were both come from behind victories which posed very exciting for the fans who attended this double-header play-off game. Thanks to Mr. Rob Harris and his class for marketing the event as one of our fundraisers for "Movember." Over 400 students purchased tickets for this "Buy-In" with the proceeds of over $2,000.00 going towards "Prostate Cancer Research and Awareness." In addition, our Cross Country Team sent a strong contingent to GHAC;we sent two golfers, Alanna & Anikka Haynes to the OFSAA Championships; our field hockey team made it to the play-offs and our Senior Girls Basketball Team and Junior Boys Volleyball Team played tough all season, representing our school with pride and enthusiasm. Great job everyone...we are proud of all of you! We are very thankful to our community for your support of our PINK "Vintage Fashion Show" and our recent Christmas Craft Sale. Your continued involvement and support of our students, staff and school is very much valued and appreciated. We will look forward to our parents and community members joining us in upcoming events which will include the trip to McMaster to support our Football Teams and the "Student Directed Plays", held in our Theatre, from November 30th - December 3rd. Your participation with us in these co-curricular activities means a lot to us and to our student athletes/actors and our staff coaches/mentors also appreciate your support. On a last note, I want to thank our staff for continuing to be so dedicated in support of our students' success. You are there for our kids whether in the classroom or outside of the classroom. Without you as excellent examples and role models for our students to aspire to we would not be as successful as we are! Thank-you for your committment and promotion of our curricular and co-curricular programs. You are the very best!

Festival of the Corn!

Great evening tonight at STUDCO's first ever "Festival of the Corn!" Not only did our students, staff and community enjoy the corn roast, but they were also treated to some great entertainment. Country music, our own in-house, teacher "Blue Grass Band" (Mr. Beck, Mr. Dahlinger, Ms. Grieve, and Mr. Schaffer), our newly formed student "hip-hop" sreet dancers, lots of games, treats and a scary movie to boot! Our Student Council also incorporated the act of "giving" as part of the evening. A "Wishing Well" was available for donations to build a well in Kenya; student reps of our PINK Campaign provided items for purchase to support our continue PINK Campaign for breast Cancer and donations were accepted at the door for our local food bank. The point of the evening for STUDCO was to combine a school event while also raising awareness in support of  a local, regional/provincial and global cause. Well over 200 folks attended this highly successful "First Festival of the Corn!" The first of many to come, for sure! Thanks everyone for your support of this event and special thanks to STUDCO, COMMCO and our staff, students and community for a job well done!

Ridge Spirit!

This past week at "The Ridge," truly exemplified our "Ridge Spirit!" Our Special Education Resource Team and members of our Personal Career Counselling Team held three "Learning at Lunch" sessions with our staff to review students in Grades 9 -12. The sessions were very well attended and are a tribute to the committment of our staff who came to  learn more about the learning needs and profiles of our students. On Tuesday September 27th, our whole school participated in the Terry Fox Walk/Run in support of cancer awareness and research. Thanks to the Healthy Active Living Team for organzing this event and setting the tone as we head into our "Pink Campaign" this upcoming month, which will focus on a full month of education, special events and fundraising in support of Breast Cancer awareness and prevention. On Wednesday September 28th to Friday September 30th, our Grade 10 Students headed to the Tim Horton's Camp near Brantford to continue to build relationships together with their Senior Synergy Leaders and Synergy Staff Team. Our Grade 9 students participated in their first dance, sponsored by our Student Council. This was a very successful event...with many more events to come through our Link Crew and Student Council Leaders. A "new teacher" meeting was held with all staff who we have been very fortunate enough to bring aboard. It was a pleasure to host this meeting as we oriented staff to our school and heard some pretty amazing and positive "first impressions" from them. At the start of the week, we had a very well attended School Council meeting which was chaired by Celine Steeves. This was a great opportunity to network together and share in discussion and feedback about our first month back at school, from a student, parent and staff perspective. We hope to see more folks out at our next meeting on November 21st at 7pm. Parents & caregivers are also reminded about the upcoming Tuesday at 10/7 to be held this Tuesday October 4th. Please check our website for more details! As we leave September and Ridge Spirit Month, we now begin October...our "Partners in Pink" Month. We hope to engage all of our school and community in the many activities and events that we will be hosting to raise awareness and funds on behalf of those afflicted by Breast Cancer. Together we can make a difference and together we will ensure that "The Ridge" leads the way in supporting this very worthy cause!