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Friday June 5, 2020
Dear Students and Parents / Chers élèves et parents,
Déjà, la fin de l’année scolaire est à nos portes! As our final week activities and #AshburyLearns modules end, we look to next week’s Closing events. Please pay careful attention to the dates and times detailed below as we recognize the accomplishments of our students, Grade 8 graduates and the 128th Graduating Class of 2020. Details are listed below with specific Grade 12 Class of 2020 instructions to follow on Monday. Note that celebratory lawn signs will be delivered to graduate homes on Tuesday and a printable version will be shared as we collect pictures of our graduates in the week leading up to our virtual Closing. Grade 8 graduates can expect their own special delivery on Wednesday. We are presently making arrangements for Grade 12 Ashbury diploma pickup on campus next Saturday at pre-determined times (noon to 5 p.m.) for individual graduates. Those not in the Ottawa region will receive their packages in the mail.
Given the ongoing events and protests in the United States, here in Canada and around the world, we convened a forum to discuss what we can do within our own diverse school community to continue to ensure a more inclusive and equitable world. Special repeat guest Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey, a community leader in advocacy and social justice, spoke to our school community about racism, in particular anti-black racism, and how can create a more inclusive society together. Moderated by students Devan Sharma and Jonny Imaniraguha and supported by Ms. Lewicki, Mr. Uko and World Affairs Club student members, nearly 200 students tuned in for an important exchange and dialogue. The discussion brought forth considerations for us to better understand the underlying issues that have precipitated recent events, and to identify actions we can take as a school community and as individuals to help build a more just society. In particular, there has been considerable introspection within our own school community in recent weeks about we can be more inclusive and examine our own implicit biases or behaviours, and ensure we uphold our motto, honesty, courage and kindness—however uncomfortable that may sometimes, particularly when confronting ourselves. This is not achieved by one meeting in June and we are discussing how best to build on what was initiated this week with additional forums in the future. Thank you to the students and staff for their participation and contributions to this respectful dialogue.
Following Junior School arts morning this week, he Senior School arts will be celebrated tonight, so please pull up a chair, open a computer and tune into the Virtual Arts Show and Coffee House at 7 p.m.! Virtual Arts Show Link
Norman Southward
Head of School | Directeur
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Help Ashbury reach our $5,000 goal to help the
Ottawa Hospital's fight against COVID-19. Donate to Team Ashbury!
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This was a year to celebrate growth and resiliency as students quickly and seamlessly embraced and navigated considerable change in their lives.
Read More |
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This year’s Boarding Council is preparing a final virtual get-together for our community next Friday.
Read More
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One might think that with classes officially over and 10 weeks of online learning at Ashbury completed, students would have had enough; however, you would be wrong.
Read More
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- messages for Visual Arts Show
- Constitutent Survey feedback
- Used books and uniforms
Read more
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This was a year to celebrate growth and resiliency as students quickly and seamlessly embraced and navigated considerable change in their lives. The year started with initiatives, such as interdisciplinary projects where the boundaries between subjects and even grade levels dissolved. As a result, students and teachers were challenged to think beyond the comfort of the traditional classroom. They explored together the UN’s Sustainability Goals and leveraged their passions by driving their own research. Further exploratory learning continued in the newly introduced Grade 7 voyageur canoe outing where social studies, outdoor education and French converged to provide hands-on experiences as students set sail on the Rideau River to follow in the footsteps of some of their ancestors. Delving even deeper, students learned about self and others in their weekly Circle discussions in which they explored leadership, relationship-building, and self-discovery, while honing attentive listening skills and developing compassion for their peers. To end the year, we were beset with the largest change of the year-pandemic distance education. Students and teachers, however, worked closely together to allow for meaningful and engaging learning to take place from the comfort of their homes. Highlights included, Meet Me at the Halifax Pier, house music performances and house challenges, IDP week-long MAD projects, public speaking, art exhibits, singing auditions, creating model teepees and canoes, reading to each other and presenting countries from around the world in French. Je vous félicite tous pour une année exceptionnelle! Your enthusiasm for learning, positive teamwork, and ability to rise above all challenges were the hallmarks of 2019–2020. Thank you, students and teachers!
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To finish the year, the teachers look forward to seeing all students engaged in house challenges on June 8 and 9. Students are to check in with their form teachers at 9 a.m. for attendance before engaging in activities.
We also look forward to seeing all of you virtually at Junior School Closing at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 11 in MS Teams. A link will be sent to you before 4 p.m. on Thursday. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ms. Garland.
As per the directive issued on June 1 by the Ontario Ministry of Education, now specifying that private as well as public schools are to ensure that a student’s grade not be lower than what it was on March 13, we will adjust our reports.
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OUR WEEK…
Arts/YEAH Week
Arts
For this week’s Arts mornings, MAD teachers Mme Berry, Ms. Cragg, and Mr. Sikorski organized activities for each grade. Grade 4 students were challenged to create new album art, add a new percussion part to an existing song, dance to a song of their choice, and write a new song. Grade 5s listened to a compilation of Music at Versailles and chose a song to accompany a dramatic performance of their own design. They also made paper hats in the style of Marie Antoinette and memorized a French poem to perform dramatically. Grade 6 students created playlists that reflected their feelings in the last term, wrote their own jokes for a stand-up comedy routine, and made a stop motion video with kinetic sculptures or other materials. Olo Smith created Another LEGO in the Wall video. Grade 7 students also curated playlists, and made paper props to wear during a dramatic reading of an historical speech. Grade 8s chose a scene from Romeo and Juliet to perform, for which they created costumes and selected music from Prokofiev's or Tchaikovsky's pieces. Across all grades, every project mixed the use of music, art, and drama. Students were able to work alone, or collaborate, a skill they learned from the first and second terms’ IDP sessions.
Physical Education
The Physical Education department dubbed this week’s afternoon activities as YEAH week. Students, family members and staff were encouraged to participate in physical activity that would simulate traveling on foot to the Halifax Pier; the goal: to make it there by the end of the week. The target was 1,435,000 steps, or 1,435 steps per person per day. Instead of just walking, there was the option to earn steps for every minute of activity. Activities were divided into three categories: high intensity, environment and HCK. High intensity workouts included running, hiking and cycling; environmental activities included cleaning up an outdoor space, gardening, and feeding birds; HCK moments included helping a neighbour, delivering a kind note, and sidewalk art. Participants were so eager to take up the challenge that by Wednesday, they had reached Halifax and were already back in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. The 7B Form class was exceptionally motivated and put in 200,000 steps on each of the first few days. Grade 8 student, Martin Torres, got his parents involved, while Mr. Nelson kept the Grade 4 Form on track by putting in about 20,000 steps a day. In the end, the Junior School ended up walking from Ottawa to Halifax and back, then travelled to Winnipeg (the hometown of many Junior School teachers past and present) and then across the border to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to learn more about current events and social justice. See the tally below at the time of publication.
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One might think that with classes officially over and 10 weeks of online learning at Ashbury completed, students would have had enough; however, you would be wrong. This week students, faculty and staff took part in a virtual conference week titled #AshburyLearns. This was an opportunity for the school community to come together online and share interests and hobbies related to the IB values of creativity, activity and service and the Round Square IDEALS. Of course, learning takes place every week in our Ashbury community so the #AshburyLearns can be used in the future any time a class, co-curricular or group of students wants to highlight learning and sharing of ideas and interests. We had a variety of workshops offered by alumni, parents, students and staff. Some of the highlights from this week included Career Chats each morning, and a Global Connect workshop with students and faculty from five different schools around the world, including The Bermuda High School, The British School, Seth Anandram Jaipuria School, San Silvestre School, and Lower Canada College.
The week started with Music-Monday and Dance-Tuesday. Beginner lessons on a variety of instruments were offered as well as a dance session geared for all audiences. Sadly, I missed my opportunity to learn some dance moves so I would be ready to record my first TikTok, but it is going to happen. One of my goals this summer is to post at least one TikTok and try to better understand why we have more than 5000 student-hours per week engrossed in this one element of social media. It is staggering when you look at the number of hours in social media from an entire Senior School perspective.
On Tuesday evening things were a little more formal. Our talented musicians and wonderful music teachers entertained us in their annual spring concert. While saddened by not being able to perform and learn together this term, our students made the most of the situation and many have learned useful and valuable new skills. Recording and mixing are now two essential skills for musicians if they want to be able to continue to thrive in an online world. Our teachers are not the only ones learning new tricks. A recording of the night’s performances can be found here. Tonight we have our final arts celebration with an online Coffee House and I hope you can find the time to watch it live or via the recording at a time that is more convenient to your schedule. The link can be found here.
Many thanks to Ms. Simone Gendron, Mr. David Kaye and Ms. Tamara Doleman for overseeing the wonderful arts events we have enjoyed this week.
The #AshburyLearns sessions have been in the works for several weeks now, but I would like to highlight the addition of our Tribute to George Floyd to the program in response to student requests for a forum to discuss racism in a local, national and international context. We were very fortunate to have Rev. Dr. Anthony Bailey present a historical perspective on the origin of racism. Rev. Dr. Bailey is well known to the Ashbury community as he has spoken to our students and staff before. He is a dynamic and engaging speaker; he shared a thought-provoking message to our students and challenged them to be part of the solution. We all have a role to play if we ever hope to live in a society where everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age or any other demographic, is treated equally and with both respect and dignity. While this was an excellent presentation, it is just the beginning of a long journey that lies ahead of us.
Last, I would like to say a special thank you Ms. Andrea Kelly for her leadership in planning this past week and to Ms. Lisa Bettencourt for all of her work behind the scenes to set up MS Teams and make all of this possible.
Have a safe and restful weekend.
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Senior School Course Registrations and Changes
Course change requests submitted to academic advisors in the Student Services office before June 30 will be processed before the office moves to summer staffing and the change will be reflected in student timetables available at the end of August. Please consult the Ashbury College Academic Guide for information about academic programs and courses. Course change requests submitted after June 30 may not be processed over the summer months until academic advisors return prior to the start of the new school year. To request a course change, please complete the appropriate course change request form.
Grade level academic advisors are:
A student who is registered or wishes to register for a summer course must contact their academic advisor to inform them of the registration and discuss an alternate course to be timetabled for next year on successful completion of the summer course. If the course is a compulsory credit for the grade level, it will remain in the student’s timetable for next year until the summer course is completed and a final mark is obtained and communicated in an official report or transcript submitted to the academic advisor in Student Services.
Senior School Final Reports
Final June reports, for both IB and non-IB courses, will be available for Senior School parents and students on their Edsby accounts, using their usual Edsby logins, on Friday, June 19 at 4 p.m. These reports will contain subject percentage grades, learning skills assessments and comments and teacher advisor comments. They may also contain a co-curricular comment for an activity which ran just before the March break or during the period of distance learning. In some cases a report may contain an entry of N/A for an achievement grade or a learning skill/work habit. An entry of N/A is made when there is insufficient evidence of student work to assign a grade or when it is inappropriate to assign a grade. If you have any difficulty with your username and password, please contact Darrell Rennie. When the reports become available, parents will be able to see them by clicking the button on the left of their screen titled View Report Cards and choosing the June report from the dropdown menu at the top right of the window. It is recommended that parents download and save term reports as they are published, for future reference, as reports for the current year are not visible to parents in Edsby in subsequent years. For guidance on how to access current information about student attendance, assessments and reports, please visit Edsby Help.
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Virtual Arts Show
Come join the Arts Team at Ashbury Friday Night at 7:00PM Eastern Standard Time for Ashbury’s first ever Virtual Arts Show! Live Link Featuring singers and performers from the Music Department, poetry and writing from the Writer’s Craft Department, and Grade 12 Art Exhibits from the Visual Arts Department, enjoy a “night out” with a show from the comfort of your own home.
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#AshburyLearns Week Recap
This week students, faculty and staff at Ashbury took part in a virtual conference week titled #AshburyLearns. The week was an opportunity for the school community to come together online and share interests and hobbies related to the IB values of creativity, activity and service and the Round Square IDEALS. Of course, learning takes place every week in our Ashbury community so the #AshburyLearns can be used in the future any time a class, co-curricular or group of students want to highlight learning and sharing of ideas and interests.
We had a variety of different workshops offered by alumni, parents, students and staff. Some highlights from this week included Career Chats each morning, a Global Connect workshop with students and faculty from five different schools around the world including The Bermuda High School, The British School, Seth Anandram Jaipuria School, San Silvestre School, Lower Canada College and the most attended and most valuable workshop was hosted by our World Affairs community as a tribute to George Floyd and student discussion forum and the Reverend Dr. Anthony Bailey was a guest speaker.
A number of students offered workshops including the arts committee who offered an arts related workshop every afternoon, we also had an introduction to guitar, cooking classes and so much more!
A Reflection on Ashbury Learns Week by Jing Duo Gao
Ashbury Learns Week has been an educative event where I was able to get introduced to interesting fields which I was not familiar with previously. I thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Lu’s presentation on what running meant to her and how to train without injuring oneself, and Mr. Bon’s career chat where he talked about his career journey starting as a student considering law-school to becoming a financial advisor. Amidst these uncertain times due to the global pandemic, I felt reassured going into Ashbury Learns Week as it gave me sessions which I would look forward to participating, some topics to discuss, as well as some ideas and projects to try out, thus allowing me to fill my day with fun, educational, and fulfilling activities.
A Reflection on Ashbury Learns Week by Hannah Laquerre
This week at #AshburyLearns I was able to learn new skills and gain more information on a variety of topics. As I am entering my final year of high school next year, I have started thinking about what I am going to do once I graduate. The career chats provided valuable insight to potential careers and what fields I might be interested to study in post-secondary. The tribute to George Floyd provided information about the roots of racism and the ways we as a community we can support the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite my limited musical talents, I learned a lot from the music workshops and even about an instrument I had never considered trying before, the bagpipes! I tried my hand at cooking and now know a few valuable shortcuts to take. For three days this week, I attended the virtual sessions from GSLA (Global Student Leadership Academy) on how to become a better leader. These sessions taught me how to maintain wellness and keep a positive mindset. These experiences were a great way to end the year!
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Allô Franco! Le site web des francophiles d’Ashbury College
Et voilà! Toute l’équipe d’organisation de la Semaine Internationale de la Francophonie, reconvertie en équipe de création web, est fière de vous inviter à visiter Allô Franco! D’ailleurs, ce vendredi ont été organisées deux visites virtuelles du site web en avant-première. Tous les participants ont vraiment apprécié l'expérience. Désormais, vous pouvez vous y rendre et trouver des recettes gastronomiques venues de partout dans le monde, des activités éducatives, de la musique ou des conseils sur les études universitaires. Plus tard, l’année prochaine, le meilleur de ce qui se passe en français à l’école, en classe ou à l’extérieur de la classe, sera susceptible de s’y trouver également. Bonne visite!
There we are! The entire organization team of the Semaine Internationale de la Francophonie, that has recently reconverted into a web creation team, is proud to invite you to visit “Allô Franco!” By the way, two virtual visits took place on Teams this Friday and it was a premiere. Everyone who participated in these visits really appreciated the experience. From now on, you can go and visit the web site by yourself, you will find recipes from all around the world, educational activities, music or information about post-secondary curricula. And later this year, will also be found the best projects in French, in classrooms or outside the classrooms. Enjoy your visit!
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From the Music Department
Thank you to all who tuned in to our live Virtual Music Celebration last Wednesday evening. If you missed the event, you can view it here. During the event we recognized Grade 11 student Sarah Xie who put together a wonderful compilation of music and art to share with local retirement homes. You can view the concert here. Bravo to Sarah and all of the contributors!
In addition, Grade 12 student Benedict Weetman premiered his composition for concert band entitled Final Approach. This was Benedict’s IB CAS project, and with it he would like to give back to the community by raising funds for the Ottawa Food Bank. You can listen to his piece here and please consider a donation. Congratulations to Benedict and all of the musicians involved.
Lastly, students who wish to retrieve items from their music locker and/or drop off school-owned instruments will be allocated a time after June 13 to do this. More details to come. We wish you a safe and restful summer and look forward to making music once again very soon!
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Student Leadership Retreat
On Monday and Tuesday of next week, Mr. Lamont will be guiding the Prefects and Captains through a two-day virtual Student Leadership Retreat. Guest facilitators, Joel Hilchey and Dave Mochel will join us to help set the tone for intentional leadership for the 2020–21 school year. Ms. Kelly and the Grade 9 mentors will also be joining in for some of the sessions in order to get their training started as well. Ashbury continues to search for ways to engage our students in meaningful learning right into the closing week of this year. Most importantly, this group of students has already set their sights on how to make September a great start for new and returning students.
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This year’s Boarding Council is preparing a final virtual get-together for our community next Friday. Our Boarding Gathering will be held on MS Teams Friday, June 12 at 11 a.m. (Ottawa time; EDT) and will feature awards, games, and farewells. Mark your calendars and be sure to join us!
A few reminders:
- The rooming questionnaire has been posted on Edsby (check each residence’s page) for all returning boarders to indicate their preferred choice(s) of roommate for next year.
- If they have not done so already, students must contact their residential staff to make arrangements for the packing of all belongings in their residence room: The deadline to complete this process is June 14.
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Constituent Survey – submit your feedback
A reminder to fill out Ashbury’s constituent survey. Check your email for the survey which was sent June 1 to parents, students, staff and recent alumni. The survey is titled Help Ashbury develop initiatives for school improvement. We will use feedback from the anonymous surveys as we adapt and modify our program for the future. Surveys close June 12.
Virtual Arts Show – Leave your message!
Let's encourage our artists! The Ashbury Guild is proud to support the Virtual Arts Show with a message board. You can leave your words congratulating our Senior School students until Monday, June 8. Click here to write your message.
Used uniforms and used books
The Ashbury Guild will collect used uniforms and used books during summer. At this time, we are not receiving donations at school, but drop-off locations were organized in different neighborhoods. If you have books to exchange or donate, or uniforms to give, please email your address to Used Uniforms or Used Textbook Exchange and you’ll be directed to the closest drop-off location. Please note this is not related to the Canadian School Book Exchange; students will not receive any money back should their books get resold.
Ashbury Summer School 2020 – Distance Learning
- Senior School Academic Credit Courses
- Junior and Senior School Academic Language and Math Workshops
- Junior School Art Camp
Registration window closing soon. If you have already registered for a credit course, please submit your summer registration form by June 12. Contact summer@ashbury.ca if you did not receive this form or if you require further information.
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