The 2009/2010 school year is just around the corner. I would like to welcome our new Principal Mrs. Blair and our new Vice Principal Mrs. Sands. The admin team is excited to welcome our grade nines this Thursday with our annual orientation day. The first day of school is September 1st. Have a great year Trojans!
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Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
Just a quick note to congratulate all of our graduates of 2009. It was an amazing ceremony last night that culminated the journey of our graduates at West Ferris Secondary School. A huge thank you goes out to all the staff that worked really hard to pull off such a professional ceremony.
Have a wonderful summer and I look forward to seeing staff, parents, and students September 1st!
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
Good morning Trojans! We are officially in the final countdown for the school year 2008-2009. Exams start on Tuesday June 16th with period 1 exams at 1:00pm. Tuesday June 17th, period 2 exams will start at 9am. On Wednesday, period 3 exams will take place at 9am. Exams will wrap up on Friday with period 4 exams at 9am and period 5 exams at 1 pm. Please remember to bring all course materials, including textbooks back to your teacher. Also, you must be in school uniform to write your exams.
Last week we had five athletes travel to Toronto to take part in the OFSAA track and field championships. All of our athletes represented West Ferris with class and sportsmanship. I would like to thank all of our track coaches, Mr. Hamilton, Mrs. Wieggers, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Young, Ms. Stopper, Mrs. McMillan and Ms. Quesnel for your commitment.
I had the opportunity to join 40 some music students at Moose’s Loose Change Lodge last Wednesday for their annual banquet. It was a wonderful time and the students showed why the music program has taken great strides in the last few years. Congratulations to Ms. Sunstrum on a wonderful year of West Ferris Music.
Tonight at 6pm, the West Ferris Arts department is holding a coffee house. It should be a wonderful culmination of some fabulous work that has happened this year in art, drama and music.
Good luck on your exams!
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
This afternoon, our student council, lead by Mrs. Hargrave and Mr. Robertson hosted a T.O.G.A. day. (Totally Outrageous Group Activities) Each one of our grades represented a colour. Grade 9 was green, grade 10 was blue, grade 11 was red, grade 12 was purple and the staff wore pink. It has been a wonderful day of organized activities that included carnival games, three legged soccer and a tug of war. It was particularly exciting for me to see the large number of participants competing for each of their grades. Congratulations goes out to our SAC and to all our teacher volunteers for making this day a huge success.
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
The newly developed Anime Club traveled to the Anime North Convention in Toronto this past weekend. Fifteen students attended this trip and it was a complete success. The students enjoyed two days filled with activities and shopping at the Toronto Congress Center. The students had the opportunity to meet many new people who shared the same interests as they did. There were a lot of workshops and events that the students were able to participate in. It was also a learning experience for us as teachers and an opportunity to pick up some literature that the students are interested in. The Anime Club would like to thank everyone at West Ferris for all of the support they received during their fundraising. Also, Courtney Forsman and Kara Stopper would like to thank Mark Slater for stepping up as a male chaperone for this trip. Everything ran very smoothly and the students had a lot of fun!
Thank you,
- Kara Stopper and Courtney Forsman
Yesterday, the 16th annual Trojan parade for cancer was held. This has turned into a wonderful event for our school community and it culminated in the presentation of a cheque for $12,000. Congratulations to Mrs. Brunette and the organizing committee for all their hard work.
In Trojan sports, our boys and girls soccer teams are entering the playoffs after a solid regular season. The Trojan baseball team completes their season today and are looking finish off an undefeated season. In track and field, the NDA championships are being held today and we expect a strong contingent to go forward to NOSSA next week. Our Trojan tennis team is also competing tomorrow. Good luck to all of our teams.
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
Yesterday, a number of our marketing students went up to Nipissing University to take part in the first ever Business Challenge Cup. I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with Mrs. Bond and these students and saw first hand the effort all of our students put in. Each of our three groups put forth an excellent, professional presentation on marketing the new Nipissing Lakers hockey team. In the end, the team called “Stick on the Ice Consultants” were chosen to present in the final three against strong competition from Chippewa Secondary School and Algonquin Secondary School. The team, comprising of Kailee Harkness, Kristy MacAulay, Lauren Isenegger, and Jerri Clout had a marketing plan and presentation that was top notch. The judges, that consisted of team owners and Nipissing University business professors, awarded the team first place! Congratulations to Mrs. Bond and the team on showing Nipissing University and North Bay, what our business students are capable of. Have a great long weekend.
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
The West Ferris Band traveled to Niagara Falls yesterday to compete in the MusicFest Nationals. They received a Silver Rating and were highly complimented on their musicality, appearance and attitude on stage and in the clinic. They also received a Silver rating at the Sight Reading Clinic and the adjudicator told them they were so far the best behaved and most respectful to their conductor. Congratulations to Ms. Sunstrum and the band on representing West Ferris with pride!
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
As the school year starts to wind down, I thought I would share some current, relevant articles about the changing field of education. I would welcome comments or debates on any of these articles:
Why did Matthew miss 39 days of school?
http://www.thestar.com/article/622139
More technology, fewer textbooks touted for kids
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/article/626067
Modern classroom must stay connected
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Opinion/Editorials/2009/04/30/9299391-sun.html
The wrong lesson for school bullies
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
With the increasingly better weather, we have a number of sports that our athletes and coaches are training hard for. Every morning we have Mr. Culhane and the junior boys’ soccer team practicing for their upcoming season. After school, we have Mr. Cook and Mr. Hunter putting the senior boys’ soccer team through their paces for the upcoming season. Also, coach Tougas and coach Jeffries have been working hard for over a month with our Trojan baseball team in the indoor baseball complex. Mr. Mitchell is out everyday working with our track and field athletes as well as Mrs. Perrault and Ms. Mirault working with our distance runners.
It really does amaze me the tremendous commitment of our teacher coaches and community coaches from the beginning of September, (in August for some) until the end of the school year. Thank you for your continued involvement with our extra curriculars. It goes a long way to developing great, positive relationships with our students.
Mr. Ruddy (ruddys@nearnorthschools.ca)
