NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

THIS SCHOOL YEAR

ATHLETICS BACK IN ACTION

After sitting on the sidelines for nearly two years, our athletes and coaches are thrilled to once again be participating in school sports! In the fall we had grades 6-12l Volleyball and Soccer, Cross Country Running and Grade 7/8 Rugby. Winter brings grades 6-12 basketball season.

It has been a true blessing to see, and hear, the determined athletes and passionate coaches back on the field and court. Having school sports in action once again can be felt in the energy of the student body and the joy of playing can be seen on their faces and in the spirit of the school.

John Gareau, Athletic Director

TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION

Thursday September 30 marked the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day honours the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities, and is intended to be a solemn day of reflection for all Canadians.

At Aberdeen Hall this year, we placed additional emphasis on providing opportunities for our students to learn more about this important topic through a variety of assemblies, videos, readings, and small group discussions, and our students have gained a deeper awareness of the issues facing Indigenous communities.

GIVING TUESDAY

Our first ever Giving Tuesday Fundraiser was an epic success! With your help and generosity we raised over $35,000 towards the Athletics and Wellness Centre in one day alone. The momentum of Giving Tuesday led to over $100,000 in donations in the month of November. It was a successful relaunch of our fundraising efforts for Phase 6. Thank you Gryphons!!!

MRS. RAYE UPDATE

I was delighted to spend a few hours visiting the school before Christmas. I have missed being a part of the wonderful Aberdeen Hall community and hope very much to visit more often in the future. The students

were all busy working on the endof-year projects. Their smiling eyes and happy voices were a treat. They introduced me to the new house animals, and told me all about them. Science fair projects and the winter plays were being worked on. Retired people often told me they were busier than ever and often wondered how they ever had time for a job. I laughed and never believed them, well now I do! I am thoroughly enjoying training and riding my horse. We went to a number of clinics this summer and learned lots of new skills. I also tutor twice a week with Project Literacy and have developed a wonderful friendship with my Iranian student. I have learned a great deal about her life as a Kurdish girl in Iran. The farm keeps us busy too, but we are definitely not selfsufficient yet, unless you can live on pork and cucumbers! The most exciting news I have to share is that I am to be a grandma in February (probably right in time for this publication). My youngest daughter Lizzy and her partner are expecting a little boy in February. This was quite a shock to a number of Aberdeen Hall teachers as Lizzy attended AH in the early days. Mrs. Church, Mr Oz, Mr Acre and Mr. Gareau all taught Lizzy at the old Acland Road site. Lizzy and her Aberdeen Hall friends Avery and Lexi, who are organizing her baby shower, enjoyed being some of the first students at the new school on Academy Way! I understand there are a number of future Gryphons due in the next six months, and this is exciting news during such challenging times. Time flies by but it is made all the more special when you share it with such a special community of people. I hope you all had a peaceful winter break, full of fun, family and friends and wishing you the very best in 2022.” Mrs. Raye

OUTDOOR EDUCATION

Outdoor Education is back up and running. Mr. Signoroni took a group of Grade 9 students to Glacier National Park this fall, and there are five trips booked for winter and spring including: • Avalanche Skills Training Level 1 (AST1 - 1.5 day program) and Winter Survival Program (1 day program) in February • Bear Lake Ice Fishing in March • Whitewater Canoeing Program Overview ( a 4-day program) in May • Intro to Sailing in May (5 day program) • Deep Cove Kayaking in Vancouver in May (5 day ocean kayaking program)

ENCOUNTER

If you ask anyone who has been on an Encounter trip, what you do there, the only thing you will hear is “you’ll see!” Even with the

uncertainty of an unknown adventure, Grade 11 and 12 students are signing up because of the encouragement from those who have attended in the past. What we can tell you is that Encounter is an unforgettable experience that we hope each student that attends Aberdeen Hall gets to participate in before they graduate. On your first trip, you attend as a candidate. After that first trip, you can then sign up for the next trip as a leader. Each Encounter experience is organized and run by students. Through this character training they not only learn the skills required to be a great leader but they also get to put those skills to practice as the teachers take a step back and let the student leaders take control. The leaders meet weekly for months before the trip happens, organizing and planning to make the trip a special one. They also learn to think on their feet during the trip, often having to adjust plans as needed. So if you want to know what Encounter is all about, best to just sign up and see for yourself and then “you’ll see!”.

GRADE 5 LEADERSHIP TEAM

This year, the Junior School transitioned from a traditional Student Council format into a broader, more inclusive, leadership team format. There were so many students in grade 5 who were excited to contribute to the school community, so this provided a space for our young leaders to have their voices heard over the course of the year. The group focuses on creative thinking, communication and showing initiative, all skills that prepare them for the middle years. The leadership team meets every two weeks and discusses upcoming events and ways to give back to the school. The team planned and helped to make our November Spirit Day one for the books. Moving forward, they will take part in preparations for the upcoming Read-a-thon in January. We are so proud of the team members and are excited for all of the incredible ideas to come.

“BACK ON STAGE!” - SAVE THE DATE FOR THE SENIOR SCHOOL MUSIC CONCERTS

The Senior School (grades 6-12) music concerts are back LIVE at the Kelowna Community Theatre. The concerts will be held on Tuesday, March 1 and we’re thrilled to be giving students a true stage experience again after 18 months of strictly virtual performance experiences. We’re also excited to welcome singer/songwriter (and Aberdeen Hall alumna) Olivia Penalva, who will be joining the Middle School for their finale performance. Middle School and High School Concerts will be held separately to accomodate current health resrictions.

Tickets are available through EventBrite - check the Reminders and the Courier for details.

JUNIOR SCHOOL FOCUS ON JEDI

We love Star Wars as much as the next person, but we aren’t talking about the guardians of peace and justice in the Galactic Republic. JEDI stands for Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and we are committed to making it a focus in the Junior School. As part of our ongoing commitment we have formed a Junior School JEDI Committee, composed of members from our K-5 faculty, staff and administrators. Through educating ourselves, our purpose is to ensure that the Junior School is a welcoming and inclusive community, where all identities are embraced and all individuals feel like they belong. All faculty have been participating in professional development, and regularly collaborating over ways to ensure our curriculum reflects an emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion.

GAME DEVELOPMENT CLUB

Game development club is an afterschool program for grades 6-8 on Thursdays to help aspiring game designers learn how to code using the GDscript coding language. It is run by Daniel Penner, an alumnus of Aberdeen and a UBCO student as well as Caden Harris, an 11th grader of Aberdeen. In this club we are learning how to code a variety of 2d games such as a clicker game, are currently working towards creating a 2d RPG, and we hope that we can explore a variety of different game types in the future.

OUR NEWEST GRADUATE: MR. BOSDET

We’re very proud to congratulate Mr. Geoff Bosdet on completing his Masters of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech specializing in Machine Learning this past August. Here’s what Mr. Bosdet had to say about his postgraduate studies.

I started taking online noncredit courses in early 2016 trying to come up with a better, more interesting curriculum to motivate my student and got

hooked. I had taken around 15 courses by the summer of 2017 so I figured I may as well get a degree out of all the work I was doing and was accepted at Georgia Tech starting in January of 2018. I took courses in deep learning, machine learning, high-performance computing (supercomputing), reinforcement learning, educational technology, computer vision, AI for robotics, software development, and algorithms. I developed my Arduino Robotics course at Aberdeen Hall as part of my Educational Technology course and it was one of eight selected out of hundreds of projects to be shared with the other students as noteworthy. My App Development course at Aberdeen Hall has also benefitted from my continued studies in software development and algorithms. My goal with this course is to have one of our students make it to the top 50 students in Canada in the Canadian Computing Competition. Every year we have a student or two who gets very close - this could be the year! The knowledge gained during my degree has been useful in directing students to the various subfields of computer science that exist and helping them determine what knowledge they might require to pursue a career in those areas.

Congratulations again Mr. Bosdet! The knowledge and skills you bring to our school are invaluable and we are so fortunate to have you.

PRESCHOOL BOOKMOBILE

The Preschool team is proud to introduce, The Bookmobile! The Bookmobile is a rolling library that visits each Preschool classroom monthly. Visits include reading the ‘Book of the Month’ out loud with Teacher Meghan, and participating in related literacy activities. Children also have the opportunity to select 1-2 new books every month to read at home! The Bookmobile library contains books related to the current curriculum, holidays, themes, or events to complement in-class learning. Books are restocked on a rotating basis and we hope to build up our resources over the course of the year. If you have any books to donate, please reach out to your Ms. Candie or Ms. Meghan!

SENIOR SCHOOL LEARNING STRATEGIES DEPARTMENT

Senior School students and teachers are enjoying the new Learning Centre and the supports it offers. With versatile seating options, a reading corner, a variety of math manipulatives, and self-regulation tools, the Learning Strategies Team has created an inclusive space for all students and staff. The main purpose of the Learning Centre is to foster a safe and respectful community for the diverse learning needs of all Aberdeen Hall students. This includes Grade 6-12 students using the space to write tests and complete independent work in a quiet and supportive environment. The resources provided by the Learning Strategies Team also extend into the classroom to promote differentiated learning throughout the school.

We want to wish all the best to Mrs. Griffith as she is expecting her first child in January. We will be welcoming Mrs. Beerstra back as the High School Learning Strategies Coordinator, who will work alongside Mrs. Stokes, the Middle School Learning Strategies Coordinator.