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Hello Saints Community!

As the winter break is upon us, I thought it a good time to update everyone on a couple of important items as well as take the opportunity to wish you all a safe and restful winter break.

So far it has been a semester filled with both rewards and challenges. Some of the challenges have been associated with our readjustment socially, emotionally, and academically to school routines and expectations while still dealing with a global pandemic. As we readjust some of these challenges will dissipate.  Like every school community, we do continue to have some concerns around negative student interactions. If society is negative and divided our schools that are microcosms of society can be too; but we don’t have to be. While we address every situation brought to our attention, we cannot tackle these issues alone–we need parent and guardian support and student cooperation. Please monitor your student’s social media use and speak to them about the importance of allowing people to be who they want to be. Remind them to treat each other with kindness, respect, and empathy. Let’s value each other for what we have in common–our humanity.

All is certainly not challenging though; there are amazing educators and students at Sherwood SS. We have shared excellent moments including the return of clubs and teams and students participating in them in record numbers. We continue with our commitment to creating an equitable environment for all staff and students with the addition of two new clubs: “Sherwood Students Against Racism” and “BSC – BIPOC Saints Community”. We appreciate that the teachers supporting these new clubs bring student voice to our staff equity learning. We are trying to support student interest with the addition of clubs like the Construction Club. Our Student Council is focusing on school spirit with their events including their most recent food drive. In terms of academics, our Sherwood students did very well in the first quadmester earning a total of 2021 credits with improvements in all grades between mid-term marks and final marks (see chart below).

We are a community with many gifts, talents, and potential. Let’s continue to work together to share them and to help each other be better. Parents and guardians are certainly a critical part of all we hope to accomplish, and we appreciate your efforts.

A few key announcements:

• We are returning to our regular bell schedule for semester 2 which begins on Feb 3rd. This means students will be working on 4 courses all semester. Our regular bell schedule has 5 periods with lunches in either period 3 or period 4: Grade 11 & 12 students have lunch period 3 and grade 9 & 10 students have lunch period 4. (Please see the attached documents for our regular bell schedule and the secondary school year calendar).
• Students are being sent home for the holidays with one package of rapid antigen test kits (see the attached letter). It is voluntary for students to take these kits that will be given out in the next couple of days, so please talk with your student about it. For students who do take them home, it is recommended that students conduct the test every Monday and Thursday beginning Dec 23rd until all five tests have been used. Regardless, let’s all work together to follow Public Health guidelines to minimize the number of positive COVID-19 cases in our community.
• If there are any changes to our protocols due to rising case counts over the next few weeks, we will let you know via School Messenger and website posts. One recent change includes the fact that all athletes participating in organized sports at recreational facilities (water polo or hockey) are required to show proof of vaccination in order to enter the facility.
• The most recent Board Finance and Facility meeting had a Sherwood focus. As many of you know, the Board had applied 8 times to the Ministry since 2012 to build a new school on the Sherwood site; each time it was denied including this last 8th time. The Board is now going to seek public consultation for what should happen next to Sherwood. More details on this consultation is to come. In the meantime, we continue to do what we can as a school to improve what we can as is evidenced by the library upgrades we made and the new fitness facility we created. Please see the attached letter.

I want to take a moment to make a personal announcement: I will be retiring at the end of January. I have been so fortunate to end my 30-year career in education at Sherwood Secondary School–the school I also graduated from–the school closest to my heart.

Please join me in welcoming Wendall Gillis as the new Principal beginning Feb. 2022. I had the privilege of working with Wendall for four years at Westdale SS and I know he will fit right in to this wonderful Sherwood Saints’ community.

Have a safe and restful winter break and to those who celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas.

I wish all the best for 2022 to you all!