A triumph of teamwork, energy, and talent
As I walked to work earlier this week I was confronted by a rather aggressive nesting goose who made its unhappiness about my presence clear! As a result, I spoke to Junior School students about the need for caution and we decided to curtail our learning activities in our outdoor classroom for now. Nevertheless, many learning lessons are taking place outside of our classrooms. Here are just some of the highlights, with my grateful thanks to Ms. Campbell, Mme. Patella, Mrs. Powell, Mrs. Ragot, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Wright for their assistance with this week’s post.
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This term has already been busy for SJR's debaters. In the first two weeks of the term, Adam Morrison, Sukhcharhat Dhillon, Owen Brown, and Liam Brown represented Canada at the World Debating and Public Speaking Championships in Cape Town, South Africa. All did extremely well. Adam was a finalist in Debating, Sukhcharhat was in two finals, and Liam was in three finals. Adam and Liam were Grand Finalists in Debating, and overall Liam finished third in the world. Liam said, "Attending the World Championships in South Africa was phenomenal - the highlight of my high school experience." We applaud them all.
A record number of SJR students qualified for the Senior Nationals in Newfoundland the following weekend although the students who went to South Africa chose not to take part because they needed to catch up on their schoolwork. Ryan Kuhn, Keerat Bhullar, Kristin Smith, Maddy Ritter, Parasar Thulasiram, Fady Shenouda, Jonah Perlmutter, Ethan Burnell, Arshia Vosoughi, Alfred Zhai, Ereeny Zakhary, Marie Sutherland, David Gui and Arjun Khandelwal competed. All did well with Parasar and Fady making it to the quarterfinals. The next weekend saw 11 SJR students competing at the Donahoe Cup in Halifax. Nathan Bains and Jack Karpinski were in the novice semifinals. Anya Aaron and Sandali Vithanage were in the novice finals and placed second in a very close debate. Ethan Burnell and Ethan Harms were quarterfinalists in the advanced category, as was MacKenzie Forsythe as part of a hybrid team with a student from another school. Arshia Vosoughi and Alykhan Kabani won the finals in the advanced category and so won the tournament overall. Jonah Perlmutter and Spencer Bubis won the Law Day Debate at the Law Courts and I understand this is at least the 10th time in a row that SJR has won this debate.
We are hugely proud that roughly 50 students have qualified this year to represent Manitoba and Canada at national and international debating and public speaking competitions. SJR debaters will compete at the Junior National Debating Championships and the Junior National Public Speaking Championships and will represent Canada at the ESU Championships in London. We wish them well.
Middle School students recently arrived back from Bogota, Colombia where they represented SJR at the Round Square Conference of the Americas: ‘Breaking Barriers and Building Bridges’. The conference made a real impact on the SJR contingent with Paige Reid commenting, “To break barriers you must understand people’s views and perspectives… what they did and why they did it. To build bridges you have to take everyone’s views and combine them to create one big idea and use that idea to create a more peaceful and diverse country.” Chase Morhart observed that, “The most amazing feeling in life is the one from helping others.”
John Janzen, Director of Education at Siloam Mission, was looking for help from SJR to design games of empathy for the ‘7 Types of Power’ workshops they deliver to Manitoba schools. Ms. Ragot immediately thought of the combined credit courses (English and Global Issues) where Grade 12 students explore a variety of literary works, visual material, and non-fiction through the lens of the 10 Areas of Inquiry outlined by the Manitoba curriculum for the Global Issues course. When Mr. Janzen came to present to the English and Global Issues students, they were already well into the design process. They had brainstormed ideas and developed Google surveys for Grade 4/5 and Grade 7/8 students. Mr. Janzen’s presentation was informative and engaging. The Grade 12 students quickly began to see him as their ‘client’ and understood that their games would be used by students from all over the province. Students continued their design thinking using segments from John Spencer’s Launch process and were able to play each other’s games and provide feedback. The next step was to invite the target audience to test the games and our Grade 4 students were happy to take part! The Grade 12 students were required to respond in the forms of written reflections on understanding power relationships in our community and designing games that help young students understand those relationships. Mr. Janzen will return to SJR next week so the Grade 12s can present their games and everyone is excited to hear what he thinks.
Another interesting collaboration between Senior School and Junior School students was their recent participation in the 2018 National UNESCO Schools Conference.
The Youth to Youth program with Dufferin School truly embodies the characteristics found in the ‘Portrait of an SJR Learner’ and May 28 will see the last visit of the year for our Dufferin School buddies. The group has learned a lot about each other during their second year together. The SJR students are now finishing Grade 10 and the Dufferin School students are finishing Grade 5. Everybody is growing up and relationships are strengthening. The SJR students have shown empathy, understanding, and patience with their young buddies. One particularly special experience has been the help offered by our Arabic speaking students to the children of Syrian refugees.
Jason Ko, Jin Lee and Nicole Shen represented SJR at this year’s CAIS Student Leadership Conference where they explored new ways to strengthen their leadership skills while making new friends. The conference made an impression on all three young leaders who spoke to me about how they learned to create meaningful connections, be openminded, and speak out. Jason said, “The conference was a transformational opportunity for us to broaden our connections, recognize our current abilities, and most importantly, reflect on ourselves as leaders of our community.”
Our two Middle School Ultimate teams just finished their west coast tour, travelling to Seattle, Washington to play in the annual Spring Reign tournament. Considering this tournament marks the beginning of the season for Prairie Fire and Wind Chill, and most of their competition are in mid-season form, our teams did quite well. Both teams had their share of success from players scoring their first points ever to a couple of wins on playoff day. Prairie Fire managed to place 13th in a pool of 40 teams. While the trip is planned with Ultimate in mind, a few days were dedicated to touring the sights of Seattle and Vancouver and the teams also had the unique experience of sea kayaking in Vancouver - not a common activity for prairie dwellers! Mr. Davis indicated that he was pleased with the growth all players showed on the field of play and that everyone had a great deal of fun. Prairie Fire player Millie Wright commented that all parts of the trip were just as fun second time around as they were last year but "the Ultimate tournament was the highlight of the trip."
Finally, the best part of my week was the Grade 5 musical, ‘Willy Wonka – Kids’. The students gave a powerhouse performance. To misquote the owner of the chocolate factory, “They are the music makers, and they are the dreamers of the dreams”. Bravo to Grade 5 on a triumph of teamwork, energy, and talent!
Taking students outside the classroom and providing them with challenging and different experiences helps them grow into bright, confident and respectful individuals, each contributing to the positive atmosphere that exists at SJR.
Jim Keefe
Head of School
Jim Keefe
Head of School
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SJR is proud to be accredited and affiliated with several local, national and international educational organizations.
St. John’s-Ravenscourt School was founded in 1820 principally to serve the children of the Selkirk settlers. By 1834 there were forty students, evenly split between boys and girls. SJR has inevitably grown and changed over the years since, though its success throughout has been unimpeachable. Today the programs are as strong as our reputation. A strong academic program is paired with an equally strong attention to the values of stewardship, ethical leadership, and excellence in all areas of academic, social and athletic life.