Loretto College School (Catholic Secondary School)

Professional Activity Days 2011-2012

February 17, 2012

June 27, 2012

June 28, 2012

June 29, 2012

PA and Exam Day Calendar 2011-2012
 

Author visits Loretto College School
On Wednesday, November 23rd, Loretto College School was honoured by a visit from the award-winning, Canadian author, Wayson Choy. This author visit was to promote the novel, The Jade Peony, which was awarded the 2010 Canada Reads Selection.
Told through the eyes of three Chinese-Canadian siblings, Choy's novel gives readers a historical glimpse of life in Vancouver's Chinatown during the 1930s and 1940s. The novel examines the Chinese immigrant experience in Canada and its effect on individual identity.
Students attending the author reading were excited to be given the opportunity to meet the author and have their novels signed by Wayson Choy himself. His gift for story-telling vividly portrayed events of his childhood, the origins of The Jade Peony and the “theme” of his life. Everyone was delighted and touched by his personal and humorous anecdotes. Finally, Mr. Choy‟s riveting talk highlighted that we all belong to a greater world community. Students connected to his powerful speech, in which he emphasized the need to embrace the rich culture that we live in; and walked away from the event with his inspiring message that we need to follow our own unique paths, by asking ourselves what is the theme of our lives.

Loretto College Food Drive
This year Loretto College School held its Annual Advent Food Drive from Monday December 5 to Friday December 16. The food drive was organized by our Chaplaincy/Peer Ministry Team co-ordinated by Mrs. Caprara, Loretto College School Teacher-Chaplain. All non-perishable food and household items have been donated to St. Francis Table/St. Clare Centre.  Our goal was to reach 1500 items; instead, we raised over 2300 items!  

To help us achieve our goal we had put in place three incentives:

• If we reached 1500 items, the whole school would receive a free Civvies day in February.
• For the homeroom class that collected the highest amount of food items, on average, per student, would receive a free Tim Horton’s Breakfast. The winner this year was Mr. Cleary’s Grade 11 Religion class who averaged a whopping 22.77 items per student!
• For every 2 items a student brought in they would receive 1 ballot form (if they bring in 4 items, they receive 2 ballots, and so on). The ballots went into a draw for an X-Box 360 Kinnect generously donated by our Trustee Frank D’Amico. The winner this year was grade 11 student Elisabeth Fernandes.

When asked what they learned about the experience, many of the peer ministers responded in the same way:

• “I like how the community gathered together for a good cause; it showed our generosity and compassion which are so important t the nurturing of our Catholic community.” – Melissa Pataray, grade 12 student
• “Seeing the generosity of others made me want to donate more of my time to this common goal for our neighbours.” – Ann Jose, grade 12 student
• “It was a wonderful sight to see the intense motivation of our school to reach our goal. Because we surpassed it, I believe we transcended the competition aspect of it.” – Rachel Retamales, grade 12 student
• “It is so important for us to come together as a community to help those in need. After all, we are our brothers and sisters’ keeper.” – Ariel Aversa, grade 10 student
• “This food drive experience has enriched my heart and soul. I’ve learned that we should always put others before ourselves, especially those in need. In religion we learn about the preferential option for the poor and I think these results show that we understand that concept. I truly hope that the people we helped will have a good Christmas.” – Marlena da Costa, grade 10 student

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all in our community who contributed to help our neighbours in need.

Bottom (Left to Right): Ann Jose, Rachel Retamales, Anna Aala, Ariel Aversa; Top (Left to Right): Marlena da Costa, Melissa Pataray, Mr. F. D’Amico (Trustee)

Bottom (Left to Right): Ann Jose, Rachel Retamales, Anna Aala, Ariel Aversa; Top (Left to Right): Marlena da Costa, Melissa Pataray, Mr. F. D’Amico (Trustee)

(Left to Right): Elisabeth Fernandes, Mr. F. D’Amico (Trustee)

Bottom (Left to Right): Ann Jose, Melissa Pataray, Rachel Retamales, Anna Aala, Ariel Aversa: Top (Left to Right): Marlena da Costa, Ms. S. Pilon (Vice-Principal), Sister M.L. Flett (Vice-Principal), Mrs. L. Caprara (Chaplain), Mr. F. D’Amico (Trustee)

Bottom (Left to Right): Ann Jose, Melissa Pataray, Rachel Retamales, Anna Aala, Ariel Aversa; Top (Left to Right): Marlena da Costa, Ms. S. Pilon (Vice-Principal), Sister M.L. Flett (Vice-Principal), Mrs. L. Caprara (Chaplain), Mr. F. D’Amico (Trustee)

Celebrating 2010 – 2011 Exemplary Practices

Loretto College Leadership and Mentorship Program
The Loretto College School Leadership/Mentorship program has been designed with two purposes in mind. The first is the development of Catholic Student Leadership and the second is the year-long support and mentorship of the grade nine students as they make the transition into high school. Development of Catholic Student Leadership is linked to two courses, GPP3O1 (Peer Support & Leadership) and HRE4ML (grade 12 religion). Senior student leaders develop a three day orientation program for the grade nines and mentor specific grade nine students.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR ATTENDS LORETTO COLLEGE SCHOOL TO CELEBRATE ‘PIONEERING SUFFRAGISTS’
The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, visited Loretto College School on March 21st to observe a “Mock Parliament” presented by History students at the all girls’ school. The presentation was a re-enactment created by the students, under the direction of teacher Ms. Diane Vautour. Ms. Vautour was a recipient of a Governor General’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History and reprised her role as Prime Minister Borden for His Honour.

Ms. Vautour was recognized for her leadership and innovation as a teacher of Canadian History. She encouraged students to step into the shoes of Canada’s pioneering suffragists, newspaper women and politicians. Through a dramatic presentation, complete with period costumes, students will re-enact Nellie McClung’s “Mock Parliament” at the Walker Theatre, each making a speech to state her position on the Wartime Elections Act of 1917, a momentous debate in Canadian women's history. Teacher Mr. Michael Szepetyk will perform the role of Mr. Albert Sévigny, Speaker of the House.

The project, which was completed last year, required students to research archival reports, prepare costumes, study and acquire correct forms of period speech and collect personal information for their roles, which included political figures from that time period, Canada's early suffragists and pioneer newspaper women.
 

 
                                            The Suffragists of 1917 with Trustee D’Amico                                                            Trustee D’Amico with “Prime Minister Borden and Government officials from 1917

 
(Left) Teacher and Governor General Gold Medal recipient Diane Vautour with Trustee Frank D’Amico and student in costume   
(Right) Principal Alice Bhyat, Teacher Diane Vautour, His Honour and Her Honour and a Loretto Student in costume for the Debate

     
                                                       His Honour addresses the students                                                                                                                                      Protest Signs

Loretto College hosts Give Peace a Dance
Just when you thought it could not get any better, Give Peace a Dance 2011 was a phenomenal success on so many levels.  First, the goal of delivering a Safe School Campaign against youth in and around our school communities really hit home with the help of CityTV, Board dignitaries, School Action Team student committee, fellow Secondary Schools and our 13^th Division police officers.  Also Mayor Rob Ford was in the audience showing his support for safe schools. 

The event was a throw back to the 80’s starting off with female rap artist Masia One.  It was a night of dancing, music, rapping, spoken word, beatboxing and ultimately our special guest, Juno nominee Mia Martina accompanied by accordionist Sebastian Carubia performing the hit sensation “Stereo Love”.

Some of the secondary schools who participated included the host school Loretto College, St Mary’s from Durham Region, Marshall McLuhan and Emily Carr.  Other Dance performers were from Ryerson University, Live, Moonrunners, JLa Soul and Genesys dance crews. 

Our MC for Give Peace a Dance was Femi Lawson, who has hosted a number of events and is involves in a few grassroots projects in the community.  Femi’s high energy and quick wit motivated the crowd while at the same time sent out the message of peace.  Overall we don’t know how to top this year’s event but Loretto College hopes that the message of non violence will stay close to people’s hearts and minds for a long time.

Mia Martina and Sebastian Carubia performing "Stereo Love."

  
  
Loretto College ESP dancers performing                                    Emerson Daniele and Andrew Bartolos performing "Beside You"                                                                            dance performance     

  
students and guests with Mia Martina