THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Band Performance Highlights

The Department of Fine Arts was excited to continue the holiday tradition with the Grade 7 to 12 Winter Band Concert featuring more than 100 students in six different ensembles.

The Senior School Band and Senior School Jazz Band travelled to Whistler, BC for the 2022 Con Brio Music Festival. The students demonstrated grit, resilience, and a love for music-making with both bands achieving excellent ratings.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL WINTER CHORAL CELEBRATION

Featuring the entire Elementary School, the virtual Winter Choral Celebration delighted STS community members with two fantastic evenings of indoor and outdoor performances.

Marti McKay Week

Students and faculty took part in numerous activities for the 37th annual celebration of Marti McKay Week. Founded in 1984, Marti McKay Week promotes the creative arts, honouring the memory of Marti McKay, an STS student and gifted poet who passed away in 1981.

This year’s guest speaker line-up included STS alumnae: author Sabrina Uswak ’07 and artist and author Mackenzie Roth ’17. Students also welcomed authors Anna Priemaza, Bree Galbraith, and author and illustrator Peter Brown.

STS SUMMER PROGRAMS

Over the summer months, over 650 students learned, grew, made new friends (and reconnected with old ones), and explored new horizons at STS Summer Camp and Summer School.

NO STONE LEFT ALONE

Grade 7 students took part in a special No Stone Left Alone ceremony to honour the sacrifice and service of Canada’s military. Students placed poppies on headstones in the Field of Honour at the Okotoks Cemetery. Through this experience, students became deeply aware of the selflessness and bravery of those who served to defend our country and gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Our Grade 7 students travelled to the Canmore Nordic Centre for a day of cross-country skiing. The field experience was the culmination of a cross-country skiing unit in the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) physical education classes.

WINTER GIVING CAMPAIGN

Thanks to the generosity of the STS community, Grade 5 students in the Elementary School’s Encore group were able to help distribute 344 gifts to local families in need. This co-curricular activity gives students the opportunity to expand their learning.

PINK SHIRT DAY

Our students wore pink shirts in recognition of Pink Shirt Day which aims to raise awareness and funds for anti-bullying initiatives. The School community also celebrated Random Acts of Kindness Day. Our Parents’ Organization of STS surprised students and employees with homemade caramels, spreading sweetness and smiles!

BULLYING AWARENESS WEEK

Coinciding with Bullying Awareness Week, our Grade 6 students participated in the largest National Child Day event in history! National Child Day honours our country’s commitment to supporting the rights of all children. Our Grade 2 students created a ‘positive takeaway board’ — inviting the STS community to take any messages that spoke to them to keep as a ‘gift’.

Recognizing, Amplifying, and Celebrating Black Voices

A student-led initiative inspired compelling conversations around Black History Month within the STS community. In recognition of Black History Month, three of our Grade 11 students created a working group to share some of the messages and themes of Black History Month with the School community.

Model United Nations

Grade 9 students participated in Model United Nations and had the opportunity to engage in discourse with one another over international issues. This year the topic was the ongoing Ukraine refugee crisis. In the morning, they were joined via Zoom by retired Canadian Forces MajorGeneral David Fraser, who served as a NATO operations commander in Afghanistan. He spoke with the students about NATO and how militaries work with refugees abroad.

BC Universities Tour

Grade 11 students participated in the 2022 BC Universities Tour visiting multiple universities, including Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, the UBC Okanagan Campus in Kelowna, the University of BC and Capilano University in Vancouver, Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, and the University of Victoria in Victoria.

Encore is a co-curricular option that gives students agency in their learning. As part of the Elementary School Encore group, Grade 6 students chose to donate their own time and resources creating products for sale to our School community through a Maker Market. Embodying our vision, mission, and motto, the students brought awareness and support to four different causes through the sale of their products, raising approximately $ 1,700.

week 2022

The STS community participated in awareness activities, each with a different diversity focus: celebrating our racial, ancestral, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds; commonality in our religious beliefs; highlighting physical achievements; empowerment for all regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity; and diversity of food and dietary choices. A student-led initiative saw STS students also participate in a Day of Silence to protest bullying and violence against LGBTQ2S+ youth in schools.

IB BIOLOGY ECOLOGY

Our Grade 11 IB Biology students spent the day outside on campus completing an ecology field study. Facilitators from the Biogeosciences Institute (U of C) guided our students through this unique experience, providing them with practical skill development in designing experiments as well as ecology specific tools and design elements.

STS GIVING DAY

We are truly moved by the generosity of spirit and philanthropic ethos of our community on STS Giving Day! We were able to raise $329,191.70, contributing to our incredible 2021-2022 annual giving total of $700,000! The lives of our students, faculty, and wider Calgary community are impacted through the gracious giving of our community, and we are so deeply appreciative of your commitment and investment in our School’s bold future. Thank you!

SPEECH DAY

STS students impressed audiences with their confidence, poise, and excellent public speaking skills during one of STS’s most cherished and long-standing traditions — Speech Day! Grade 12 Persuasive and Senior School Impromptu speakers delivered their speeches to an in-person and virtual audience, followed by the top competitors in Middle and Senior School who performed during the People’s Choice event. Their work was both entertaining and remarkable, and upheld the rich tradition of public speaking at STS.

TASTE OF NYC TRIP

A group of Grade 11 and 12 students participated in STS’s first international travel trip since 2019. They visited the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Grand Central Station, the United Nations Visitor Centre, Ellis Island, and the New York Stock Exchange among other exciting tourist attractions.

dan arato day

The STS community gathered virtually to commemorate our annual Honour Day — an important time to remember Ben, Daniel, Scott, Alexander, Michael, Marissa, and Jeffrey; our students lost in a tragic avalanche 19 years ago.

You may recognize this year’s guest speaker, Liaa Wright, as she owns and operates Cleaning Force, our amazing campus cleaning and custodial team. Liaa shared her story of immigrating and starting a successful company, and in turn, supporting new Canadians in securing fruitful and positive work as part of their pursuit of a happy and safe future for their families. Her powerful message left our community feeling inspired.

The STS community celebrated Dan Arato Day, a day to learn and play. Dan is one of the seven precious students whose lives were lost in a tragic avalanche 19 years ago. Every year, we celebrate his spirit. Dan's exuberance and the manner in which he embraced life to the fullest is highly regarded at STS. He was outgoing, kind, and radiated an energy and appeal that was appreciated by all who encountered him.

MIDDLE SCHOOL TRACK AND field

Middle School students came together for our first Middle School Track and Field Meet since 2019. Excitement was high and the energy palpable as students gathered to participate, cheer each other on, and enjoy the fresh air and open space. Thank you to the many parent volunteers and staff members that helped make this day a success!

VOLUNTEER WEEK

Our volunteers play an active and vital role in not only helping make our school a success, but also through fostering the strong sense of community and caring felt at STS. In recognition of National Volunteer Week, our POSTS (Parents’ Organization of STS) Executive Committee hosted a Volunteer Social to celebrate and recognize our volunteers whose selfless dedication makes a world of difference in our STS community.

Performing arts

There was excitement in the C.A. Smith Arts Centre with many in-person performances. Each one had many hands helping behind the scenes and front-of-house.

The community spent a wonderful evening filled with joy, spirit, and connection at the Middle School Play titled 24 Reasons Not to be in a Play.

Our Grade 6 students delighted audiences with a mini-musical in honour of our 50th Anniversary.

From September to February, STS students in Grades 9-12 were hard at work preparing a showcase performance of the Broadway hit musical Matilda.

Grade 3 students hatched chicks as part of their ‘Sharing the Planet’ unit of inquiry. During this unit, they learned about animal life cycles and animal adaptations before researching endangered animals and learning what we can do to help these species. The students had the opportunity to learn first-hand about the chicken life cycle and kept a journal where they could record the questions they had about chickens and then research to find the answers.