Woodlands School Council

Fresh off their gold medal rankings at MusicFest, The Woodlands Music Department is stepping out with two exciting performances in the coming weeks.

On Friday, March 5 the Senior Repertoire Class will be performing with the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra and four other high schools at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. The ensembles will be led by American conductor Frank Ticheli. The performance begins at 8 p.m in the Weston Concert Hall which has one of the finest acoustics in the city of Toronto.

A limited number of discount tickets are available for this event, and must be purchased from the Music Activity Council no later than Tuesday, March 2nd.

On Wednesday, March 10 The Woodlands Music Department presents Harmonies for Haiti: An Evening of Chamber Music at Erindale United Church, 1444 Dundas Crescent, Mississauga. Admission is by donation at the door and all proceeds will go to support Haitian relief efforts. For more details, contact mac.woodlands@gmail.com.

Please support our talented musicians at either or both of these wonderful events.

As some parents will already be aware, Ms. Gray, our principal will be leaving The Woodlands at the end of the 2009-2010 school year to assume the principal position at a newly constructed secondary school.

On March 1, Carol Speers, our school superintendent will meet with parents to solicit our input on
qualities we would like our next principal to possess. Our feedback will be taken into account as the school board selects the next principal from their pool of qualified candidates.

All parents are invited to join us at 7:30 pm on Monday, March 1st for this important discussion.

The Woodlands School Council extends its thanks to Ms. Gray for her years of dedicated and tireless service to our school. Please also accept our heartfelt congratulations on your selection for this new challenge.

We’re four days away from the Developing Future Leaders presentation on February 22nd. It looks like turnout will be excellent. If you haven’t signed up to attend yet, please consider doing so.

In addition to a great speaker we’ve had fabulous support and donations from the local community. As a result we’ll be offering some tremendous door prizes to attendees:

1. Student prize – Gift cards worth $100 at Square One and $20 at Swiss Chalet. To be eligible, your student must return the tearoff response from the newsletter that went home with report cards.
2. Grand prize #1: A charcoal BBQ donated by Home Depot plus a gift card for Metro grocery store. Mmmm, I can smell those coals already.
3. Grand prize #2: A $100 Square One gift card
4. Consolation price #1: A Starbucks / cookie gift pack
5. Consolation prizes #2 through #4: Video game packs for Xbox, Playstation, and Wii courtesy of Best Buy
6. Consolation prize #5: A Tea and Jam basket plus Cineplex card.

Remember, you have to be in attendance to win. With a great speaker, refreshments courtesy of Tim Hortons (Burnhamthorpe/Creditview and Britannia/Creditview stores) and Krispy Kreme (Heartland location), and an excellent chance to take home a door prize, why not join us on  February 22? Just remember to sign up at http://woodlandscouncil.com/events/leadership so we know how many people to expect.

Finally, the school council would like to thank these companies for their donations. Please consider their support for our school in your patronage.

The Woodlands School Council along with Administration and staff is pleased to invite parents, students and community members to a free seminar on “Developing Future Leaders”. The seminar is being held on February 22nd at 7:30 p.m.  at the Woodlands School. 

Chris Cummins, a nationally acclaimed speaker will share his humour, passion and story-telling skills to deliver his key messages:

1. Character Traits and Learned Skills to be an effective leader
2. The how and the when of leading e.g.: when to be a leader and when to be a follower, how to lead by example, and the dynamics of being a leader within a group.
3. Leadership beyond the academics
4. "Attitude"

Additional information and a  promotional flyer can be found at http://woodlandscouncil.com/events/leadership

As a result of the interest in the Speaker Series, we have extended an open invitation to the parents and students of our feeder schools as well as our School Council partners, Loyola Catholic Secondary School and Erindale Secondary School. 

Light refreshments will be served.  In addition, two lucky attendees will be awarded great door prizes at the end of the presentation.  Promotional campaigns are underway within the Woodlands
community to ensure that everyone can take advantage of this excellent opportunity.

To help us estimate food and drink quantities, attendees are asked to register on the website.

Happy New Year!

The agenda for the Woodlands School Council meeting taking place on January 18, 2010 at 7:30 pm can now be downloaded from the website. We hope to see you there.

Best wishes to all of our secondary students on your upcoming first semester exams.

Kick start your holiday season by joining us tomorrow (December 1st) at our second annual Chapters Night.  It is a night of fun for the entire family.  The evening will feature some short music performances, dramatic presentations, books/literacy talks by students and teachers.  10% of all purchases made that evening can be directed toward the Woodlands fund raising event.  (IRewards cannot be used toward this event).  Please join us for an evening of entertainment and fundraising.

For more details see the event announcement on the school council website.

We are very pleased to inform you that the school councils of The Woodlands and Loyola Catholic Secondary School will be co-operating to encourage parent awareness and attendance at future seminars. This means that Woodlands parents have an open invitation to any seminars hosted by Loyola, and we will welcome their parents to our ongoing speaker series. We will also be promoting Loyola's presentations on the event calendar at woodlandscouncil.com as we have done for our existing partnership with Erindale Secondary School.

Loyola will be hosting a presentation on "Raising Kids in a New Kind of World" this Thursday night. This is a topic to which all parents can relate. I encourage you to review the event details and join us at Loyola on Thursday evening.

On Monday November 16, The Woodlands School Council will be hosting a presentation on "Money Management for Teenagers" immediately following the School Council Meeting.

We are very pleased to welcome Neil Gaylor who will be presenting to our parents for the second year in a row. Neil will hopefully be joined by his son Thomas, who is a fourth year student in Business at Wilfrid Laurier University. Unfortunately due to university assignment schedules we will not be able to confirm Thomas' participation until a few days before the meeting.

Please review the presentation topics and the school council agenda, and consider joining us for one or both of these events. The school council meeting is expected to run from 7:30 pm to 8:00 pm. The money management presentation will begin at approximately 8:00pm, once the school council meeting is adjourned.

Parents and middle-school / high-school students are welcome to attend these events. Refreshments will be served.

All Woodlands students were sent home with a letter from Peel Region's Public Health department today. The letter provides tips for flu prevention and information about free immunization clinics.

A copy of the letter is posted on the Woodlands School Council web site. Please do review this very important information.

The next Woodlands School Council meeting will be taking place on Monday, October 19 from 7:30pm until 8:15pm at the school. An agenda for this meeting has been posted on the Council web site.

Following the meeting (at 8:15pm), one of our Vice-Principals, Ms. Carol Suhay will present a seminar and question / answer session on the subject of Transitioning from High School to College and University. This seminar will cover topics of interest to students and parents, such as:

• How do I know which program is right for me?
• How does the application process work?
• What do the universities look for when reviewing applications?
• Choosing between living at home, in residence, or off-campus?
• How are university classes and labs different from high school?
• Balancing study/work/fun when away at school
• Budgeting for first year expenses

This is one of our most popular seminars, and students and parents are encouraged to attend.

Finally, if you haven't completed the Seminar Topics survey and wish to do so, please complete the survey this weekend. Results will be tabulated on Sunday evening in preparation for Monday's meeting.