Category Archives: Extracurriculars

A Lot Of Activity In The Next 6 Days!

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Well after last week’s exciting news about the re-development of the field and track at the Mentor campuses, I didn’t think I would have anything to talk about this week. As a parent with only a high school student, it has actually been a very quiet week with “studying for finals” being the only thing tacked to the fridge door.

Then I looked at the school’s calendar.

There is SO much happening in the remaining 6 school days that you really need to go to the web calendar to see for yourself because you need to make sure you have blocked off your personal calendar for the events where parent participation is encouraged. Parents of JK to Grade 8 students might be at the school as an audience member at “Aladdin”, “Mary Poppins” and “Guys and Dolls”. We have over 100 helpers coming for Fun Days and including the grade-by-grade assemblies at the Primary Campus, academic awards, extracurricular assemblies and graduations, there are 12 awards ceremonies taking place next week!

Like the “Scrambler” at Fun Day, next week is going to be over before you know it and have you going in circles but it promises to be a fun ride!

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

To Students: Take Advantage Of The Extracurricular Opportunities Your School Offers!

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Last night was the high school athletic banquet and as I do every year, I marvel at the wide variety of athletic endeavours we offer AND at the student-athletes who partake in them. In many ways, I am jealous of the opportunities they have and find myself saying, “I wish I would have gone to a school like this!”

When I was in school, I played sports from the first day of school to the first day of final exams. Volleyball season led directly into basketball season, basketball was just finishing as badminton started up and I was able to start track and field a week or two before the last birdie had been bashed. We did not have such exotic sports as rugby, archery, cricket, table tennis or alpine skiing and I probably wouldn’t have found the time or interest to do any of them (although my Dad was a member of the Forest Hill Archery Club in the 60s). And while my school had music and drama and outreach opportunities, I didn’t take advantage of any of them (but in hindsight “wish I would have”).

Rugby is a good example of a school sport that attracts all types of athlete. Some students join for the camaraderie, some sign up for the excellent fitness component and some enjoy the physical contact of the sport. In a (relative to our opponents) small school population like ours, all types are needed to field a team and with great coaching, our rugby teams are 10-3 in ROPSSAA this year.

Archery has an even more diverse athlete profile. When we first started the programme, most of the team members were only part of that one sports team. With some initial success, archery began to attract more students and this year, the team has two OFSAA (Ontario) gold medals and most of the team members are involved in multiple sports during the school year.

We see this at all levels within our school. There are all kinds of reasons why students get involved in activities. They may join the Spelling Club because the teacher-in-charge was their homeroom teacher a few years before. They may not be particularly interested in the Choir but hearing from a teacher or parent that “you have a great voice” can be the start of a wonderful lifetime hobby. Peer pressure can be a positive thing and I imagine that more than a few of the actors on our stages this year only went out to auditions because their friends did. Motivation can come from unlikely sources, too; HS coach Mr. Milkovich can probably name more than a dozen girls whose 4-year career in a Marauder rugby jersey started with a uniform detention he issued in Grade 9 “to be served at 3:30…bring your cleats and meet me on the field”

As this year comes to a close, I challenge all students to take a look at how they can expand their horizons next year. This might mean joining more clubs but it also might mean dropping a few activities in order to focus in on one or two. For the older students, it might be improving their overall academic average and for the younger ones, it might be to make more friends. Mentor College and TEAM School gives every student these opportunities so make the best of them so you aren’t saying in June 2016, “I wish I would have…”

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School

Teachers’ Strike Affects All Of Us

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I had my first slo-pitch game of the year last night and we sat around after the game to get to know each other a bit better over an iced tea (as slo-pitch players do). When my new teammates found out what I did for a living, one of them said, “I guess you are one of the few people that are happy about a teachers’ strike!”

Actually, we are not happy about a strike. It affects our students by disrupting the scheduled extra-curricular activities and the participation of competitors from all schools.

Our junior boys’ rugby team has won all 4 of their ROPSSAA games. Their Tuesday game vs. John Fraser was cancelled and their big game versus also-undefeated Lorne Park today did not happen. If sports do not re-convene in the Peel schools, there are only 2 Catholic schools in the league; we have played the only one in our division and our boys may have played their last official game of the season. The senior rugby boys have played the only Catholic school in the league and might also be done. The boys’ soccer team is also in first place but now have no games scheduled. Girls’ soccer and girls’ rugby have only one game to play. Yesterday’s junior badminton match was cancelled and after tomorrow’s game against St. Francis Xavier, there will be no more games if the job action continues. The coaches of all these sports are finding exhibition games or tournaments to keep their season going but we would rather be playing within the regular ROPSSAA framework.

Competition in extra-curricular activities for our students is also affected. Our high school mock-trial team will have its regional competition on Friday, but will be missing participants competing from schools of the boards who are on strike. We have an elementary student participating at the Canada-Wide Science Fair next week who will be accompanied by one of our science teachers, while a volunteer chaperone had to be recruited to allow the students from the public board to participate as part of the group from the Peel region.

We hope that a solution is negotiated that will allow students and teachers to return to their school, and to their classes and extra-curricular activities, thereby allowing our sports and extra-curricular activities to proceed as planned with participants from all schools.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

What Do We Specialize In?

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Mentor HS principal Mr. Whyte told me that while he was watching our Grade 9/10 boys’ rugby team handily defeat a local public school on Tuesday, he noticed a large banner on the side of the school advertising that it offers a “Specialist High Skills Major” in Sports. This “specialization” is not unique to high schools as it seems now that every elementary school now needs to have a signature programme, whether it is French Immersion, International Business and Technology or the Arts. I understand the lure of making your school stand out and that schools are worried about losing customers to the “other Board” or private schools but I don’t know why a 13-year-old would be interested in specializing in International Business!

When Mr. Whyte and I were noting the following morning that the Grade 11/12 boys also won their rugby game easily, I said to him that we must be a “sports school”, too! This morning, it was announced that Mentor’s Grade 5/6 choir was selected by the Peel Festival adjudicators to advance to the provincial showcase so I suppose we are a “music school” as well! Mentor’s Grade 7/8 students regularly earn an invitation to the provincial and national Science Fair competitions and our senior science students earn top marks in various biology, physics and chemistry contests so we will need a “science school” banner as well. HS business students excel in the provincial DECA competition, Model UN participants always come home with multiple awards and the mock trial programme has a ever-growing pile of trophies so we would have quite a collection of banners on the outside walls!

Let me get back to Mr. Whyte, though. I was following him in the hallways as he was touring a prospective family yesterday and he stopped to show them in the course calendar how we structure our academic programme. He told them that most schools encourage students to specialize starting in Grade 9 and how it ends up being problematic in Grade 11 and 12. Mentor (and TSS) makes the academic programme general enough in Grade 9 and 10 so that the student can make the decision to specialize (arts, science, math, etc.) in Grade 11, Grade 12 or even to be able to wait until post-secondary entrance. I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be for a student to be in Grade 12 and find out that they do not have the pre-requisite courses for the next chapter of their educational career!

Come to think of it, perhaps we only need one banner: “Mentor College and TEAM School: We Specialize In Everything”.

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College/TEAM School