Celebrating Excellence - Meadowridge School

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6 Meadowridge School Message from the Headmaster Mr. Hugh Burke, Headmaster The 2008/2009 school year was a very successful and productive one, both academically and institutionally. Our enrolment climbed again, and we were glad to welcome many new students, who joined our community of wellrounded and highly achieving students. Once again, all of our graduates were accepted to post-secondary institutes, both in Canada and around the world, and were offered hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships. We continued to post outstanding measures of success in government exams at grades four, seven, ten, eleven and twelve, leading the province in academic achievement. Our grade five and ten students completed, respectively, their final year of PYP and MYP, and also completed independent and publicly demonstrated individual projects, of which they can be proud.
Celebrating Excellence Our halls were overflowing with outstanding student art work, which indicated that our children have developed wonderful visual literacy, and are able to express nuanced thought through a dynamic and growing visual and graphic vocabulary, which is growing in importance and use due to the growth of digital communication. This visual literacy is enhanced through the growing use of personal computers from about grade five on; in fact, it is because of this growing use that the school has now mandated the purchase and use of computers from grade six and up for next year. We have also moved to become one of few schools in Canada to be a licensed Microsoft IT Academy, which will provide great opportunities for our children in years to come. The digital revolution may be changing the landscape of learning and business, but things such as confidence, interpersonal skills, focus, courage, and imagination continue to be foundations upon which our children can build, and are brought out not only in academic classes, but also, and importantly, through the performing arts and athletics. As I noted last year, we are building our athletic program consciously over five years, and last year was the first of those building years. I am pleased to note that our teams have done very well this past year - notably in soccer, water polo, and basketball - and we will continue to build on these emerging strengths. We continue to push for even greater participation, and for greater achievement. Our performing arts programs this year have been exceptional in number and quality, and include performances at each IB level, each of which was terrific for the development of our children, and terrific entertainment. Our graduation students provided our first rock opera - RENT - as well as a remarkably enjoyable production of "The Comedy of Errors". Both stretched our students to do their best work, and both incorporated dramatic risks, excellent acting, and top production values. The musical quality of RENT was also outstanding. The MYP production of "Into the Woods" was also just excellent, as was the PYP production of "Pirates". In addition, the many musical nights, concerts, and productions enhanced our community, provided enjoyable evenings, and developed our children well. This year was the first full year of occupying our new facility, and the whole community enjoyed the wonderful spaces, facilities, and programs that can now be offered. We also enlarged the library, doubled the size of our fitness facility, added another athletic area on the old stage, and enjoyed the hugely expanded parking lot. Notably, we are now completing the final stages of our campus plan by adding a new, full-sized lit field. Our children are eagerly anticipating being able to use this sand-based natural grass field, which will now provide the space for all of our teams to practice and to play games. Our teaching staff has done a wonderful job for us in the past, and I am pleased that all will be returning, except for those who were only hired to fill in during a maternity leave. Our administrative team has also done a great job this past year. I am also pleased to note that at the time of writing this report - early August - it appears that our school will open with another record number of students. Given the difficult economic times, this is a testament to the commitment of our parents and children, as well as to the value provided by our school. This coming year, we will welcome an arms-length criteriabased accreditation by the Canadian Educational Standards Association (CESI), which is highly regarded both nationally and internationally. We have worked all this year to prepare a description of everything in our school, and, in November, a team of about twelve educators from across Canada will spend seven days going through our school, interviewing parents and students and alumni and teachers and Board members and - well, everybody. They will go through our policies and practices, examine our facilities, look at our finances and admissions, and review our academic and co-curricular programs. At the end of that week, they will gather to write an extensive report which will be provided to our Board, outlining strengths and any areas of concern, and providing recommendations. We are anticipating this eagerly, as it will be a chance to really look at our school in depth, and make it even better. Currently, only three schools in B.C. are, like us, members of CESI, and it is just another external indicator of quality for our parents and our Board. As well, we have also spent the past year preparing for two other external accreditations by the International Baccalaureate Association (IB) which will also happen in the next eighteen months. Finally, I would like to take a moment to thank our Board members, all of whom have devoted many, many hours to ensuring the quality and health of our school. The quality of an independent school is directly attributable to the quality of its Board. We are fortunate to have an excellent one, and so I think that our school is in very capable hands. I also want to especially note the commitment, skill, and ability of our Board Chair, John Becker. To be a Board Chair is a demanding and often thankless task, and John - in his first year as Board Chair - has demonstrated both the humility and ability which characterize outstanding Chairs. Thank you, Mr. Becker. Mr. Hugh Burke Headmaster 7
Page 1 and 2: Celebrating Excellence
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Board of Governor
Page 5: Message from the Chairman of the Bo
Page 9 and 10: Capital Campaign Our Capital Campai
Page 11 and 12: General Financial Gifts We wish to
Page 13 and 14: The Drive Fore the Future Golf Tour
Page 15 and 16: Award Winners 2009 Grade 6 So Yeon
Page 17 and 18: Report from the Facilities Committe
Page 19 and 20: Report from the Finance Committee S
Page 21 and 22: Financials Statement of Financial P
Page 23 and 24: We thank you for your service... Bo

Celebrating Excellence - Meadowridge School

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