The York School community is generous in its support of our many programmes and improvements. Thank you! This report highlights some of the recent improvements made possible by donations so far to the Annual Fund 2011-2012. I hope you enjoy reading these stories and take pride in the knowledge that your support provided these opportunities for our students.
Conor Jones Head of School
And they’re off! In January our Grade 7 students competed in the first-ever Pinewood Derby competition at The York School. As part of the IB Middle Years Programme, Technology and Design, the Derby challenged students to address the question: How does design impact performance? Students designed and built their cars and had a fun day of racing. Thanks to your support the 50 foot aluminum track and championship timer were purchased allowing this event to continue for years to come.
Right: Students show off their cars
TEDxIB@York November saw our second annual TEDxIB@York, modeled after the world-renowned TED conference. This year the theme was Passion, Purpose and Perspective. It was an incredible day, filled with 23 inspirational speakers, music, art, poetry and videos. Students from over 20 IB schools were in attendance, some from as far away as Shanghai! More than 8,000 people tuned in on the live stream of the event on YorkNet. Your donations supported speakers’ travel, accommodation, speaker gifts, and event seating for 350!
Literary Night and e-books Our students love reading and there are more books on our shelves and in our ‘digital library’ than ever before! Thanks to our Annual Literary Night, our libraries received over $2,000 worth of new books. The students are also benefitting from your donations to the Academic Fund this year. Monies from the Fund have been used to install our first ever e-book system in our libraries. This system, OverDrive, allows students to check out digital books on the school’s iPads, laptops, and their own personal computers. With an expanded library, that now includes e-books, your annual fund donations support our community of readers!
Right: E-books made easy!
Inspiring speakers When Grade 5 student Dyson Hague heard author Hugh Brewster speak to his class about World War II, he became so inspired that when he got home he phoned his grandfather who had lived through the war. They ended up chatting about the war for two hours. Dyson’s parents, so impressed by how an author can bring a complex issue to life, decided to make a donation to the Annual Fund. This gift enabled us to bring Hugh back to speak to the grade 3, 4, and 5 students about the Titanic.
Left: Dyson Hague and his grandfather Justice Dodds
The Mac lab and the birth of York TV If you build it, they will create: and they have. Sometimes they’re editing their skateboard footage into a YouTube video, sometimes they are stitching together the various components of their science lab. In either case, the tools have been provided for our students to be creative and successful in both computer platforms. The Annual Fund has also brought blue screen technology and equipment to the weekly York TV, filmed in-house and edited in our Mac lab.
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