MidP Mar. 3 - Southpointe Academy

The Midpointe
News and opinion for Southpointe Academy Families
March 3, 2011
In this issue:
• New Building Site Update
• Multicultural Night
• School News
• GYP News
• MYP News
• Sports Update & Calendar
• Upcoming Events Calendar

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
…to all those parents who have supported the Class Competition and have
sponsored a performance!
It is still not too late to sponsor a performance and purchase tickets for the
Multicultural Evening!
As of this morning, Animal Yoga is leading the way with $2000 in sponsors with
the Filipino Stick Dance a close second at $ 1450.
Please come by the front office and drop off your form. We look forward to seeing
you at the Multicultural Event on March 11, 2011.
If you have any questions, please call me at the school at 604-948-8826.
Shahin Virji and the Multicultural Committee
OUR "GLOBAL VILLAGE SPONSORS" To DATE:
Band Ensemble Sponsored by: Mr Baldwin $250
"Justin Bieber" Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Shahin Virji $250
Animal Yoga Sponsored by: Anonymous $500
Bahi family $250
Anonymous $250
Mr. Baldwin $250
Devji Family $250
Malkit Parmar $250
Chinese Dragon Dance Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Nav Mangat $500
Jhutee family $250

Marimba Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Bahi family $250
Jim and Sharon Cook $100
Filipino Stick Dance Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $500
Nav Mangat $500
Anonymous 500
Moray Bailey $100
MC Paint and Reno $100
Square Dancing Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Dream Laser and Skin Care Inc. $125
Scottish Dancing Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Mass Choir Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Carson family $500
Rai Family $150
Thorsten and Jacques Schaub $60
Seniors Boys Bhangra Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Jagjit and Kulwinder Gill $500
A Class Electric $500
Senior Girls Bhangra Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Oasis Windows $500
Sony and Preet Nagra $25
Girls Gidda Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Raj Arneja $250
Jollys Indian Bistro and Fleetwood Salon $250
Oasis windows $500
Rai family $150
Junior Boys Bhangra Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Jollys Indian Bistro and Fleetwood Salon $250
Sony and Preet Nagra $25
Dream Laser and Skin Care Inc. $125
Girls Bollywood Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Kam and Dal Nagra $250
Ballet/ Lyrical Dance Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Flamenco Dance Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Dr. Mangat, Ms. Leo, Ms. Mah, Mrs. Slinn, Ms. Cook
$ 100
Mexican Dance Sponsored by: Mr Baldwin $250
Chinese Traditional Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Julia common $250
" Show Crew" Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Kirshenblatt family $100
"Elvis" Sponsored by: Mr. Baldwin $250
Mr. McCall $250
Thank you to all of you who have sponsored. We appreciate your support.
- The Multicultural Committee

We list below the events of the evening. If you would like to join us in sponsoring
one or more events, please complete the form. Thanks for your consideration.
Band Ensemble
“Justin Bieber”
$500
$500
Gr. K &1 Yoga (Animal Kingdom) $500
Gr. 2 Chinese Dragon Dance
$500
Gr. 3 Marimiba $500
Gr. 4
Gr. 5 & 6
Filipino Stick Dance $500
Square Dancing $500
MYP Scottish Dancing $500
Gr. 6 -12 Massed Choir
Sr. Boys Bhangra
Sr. Girls Bhangra
Girls Ghidda
Jr. Boys Bhangra
Girls Bollywood
Ballet/Dance
Flamenco
Mexican
Show Crew
The Event Itself
Total Remitted
$500
Bhangra Dancing $500
Bhangra Dancing $500
$500
Bhangra Dancing $500
$500
$500
$500
$500
$500
$2500
Donor Name (as you would like to be acknowledged): _____________________________
Contact Name: __________________________Email:__________________________
Address:_______________________________ City/Prov.______Postal Code___________
Telephone:___________________________ Donor’s Signature______________________
METHOD OF PAYMENT
__ VISA __ MC CREDIT CARD NO. __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
EXPIRY DATE __ __ / __ __ SIGNATURE: _____________________________
CHEQUE (Please make cheque payable to: Southpointe Academy) CASH
$

SCHOOL NEWS
Irresistibly Entertaining
Last week, a movie entitled “The King’s Speech” was honoured as the year’s best
picture at the Academy Awards. This movie follows the story of King George VI of
as he overcomes a debilitating speech impediment and inspires his country with a
moving radio address on September 3, 1939.
Newsweek claimed the movie was “irresistibly entertaining” and the New York
Post affirmed that it was “an immense crowd pleaser”.
Well, I may be mistaken, but I believe these exact phrases have been used in the
past to describe Southpointe Academy’s Annual Public Speaking Competition!
On Monday, March 7, the entire school community is invited to attend this annual
event. In the past week, each grade has held a classroom competition to
determine the best speeches. These “gold” speeches are invited to the finals of
the Public Speaking Competition. Beginning at 8:30am in the church sanctuary,
our chosen representatives from Grades 1-5 will share their speeches. There will
be a short award ceremony at about 9:35 am followed by an intermission. At this
point the students from Grade 1 to 3 will return to their classes. The competition
starts up again by 10:00 am with the MYP students and finishes with the
speeches from our GYP students. We anticipate that the event will go no later
than 12:00 pm. (Please be aware that all times are our best estimates but can
vary depending on the length of this year’s speeches).
In an exciting twist, the judging panels for this year’s speeches will include some
of Southpointe’s very own teachers!
Here are this year’s “gold” level speakers that will be competing on Monday:
Grade One Kate Heras, Rachel Johnson, Ethan Gray
Grade Two Carson Almrud, Reese Freeman
Grade Three Ali Jafri, Milan Bahi
Grade Four Amaan Kler, Chris Pake
Grade Five Kenny Ross, Brent Morrison
Grade Six Frank Carson, Ashley Dhanda, Meaghan MacKenzie, Trevor Yu
Grade Seven Brenna Krause, Aaron Smail
Grade Eight Aliyyah Jafri, Amrita Dhillon, Taryn Jessop, Declan Hodgins
Grade Nine Morgan Leung, Karmveer Panaich, Kathleen Jackson, Leah
Bracken
Grade Ten Ziyaan Harji
Grade Eleven Sonja Gill, Paul McCarlie
Grade Twelve Ammen Bains, Manny Gill, Colin Sommerfield

If you have never been to our Annual Public Speaking Competition before,
believe me when I say that you are missing out. Some of you may remember
last year’s winning speeches from Alex Semple, Kathleen Jackson, Liam Koller,
and Jonathan Tuazon … they really were IRRESISTIBLY ENTERTAINING!
Mr. Bruce Griffioen
Team Leader of Curriculum and Assessment
SOME NOTES FOR THIS YEARS’ COMPETITORS:
Please come straight to the church sanctuary on Monday morning at 8:00 am for an instructions
and a sound check. You do not need to report to your homeroom.
Please remember to adjust the introduction of your speech to say, “Good Morning, Mr. Baldwin,
honorable judges, teachers, parents, and fellow students …”.

Helping Our Friends in New Zealand
Last Thursday we ran a Canteen for Christchurch and raised $1558.77, which we
will be sending to the Oxford Area School for distribution in Christchurch. We
would like to thank the entire community for your support. So many students
made repeat visits through out the day and parents came by at the end of the
day to help us empty out the tables and take home goodies for their families. Our
Grade Nine students, just back from their project Discover Program in
Christchurch, think they can raise just a little bit more for their new friends in
New Zealand and thus they are planning another canteen which will feature their
home made goodies. Watch out for details of the date for this sale sponsored by
this group of concerned and committed students.

GRADE 9 PROJECT DISCOVER – Zajac Ranch
In February, our Grade 9 students had the choice of two fantastic Project
Discover trips – a social and academic retreat to Zajac Ranch near Maple Ridge,
or an international exchange with Oxford Area School in New Zealand. Everyone
has come back to school with smiles on their faces and fond memories of their
experiences. Here are some photos and testimonials from these trips.
How good do you think grade 9 camp was? Well, I want to start by saying how
great the food was! It was just amazing. The cabins and everything were just
perfect, but then came the weather… we can’t say that it was great, but is was
ok because we were sleeping in cabins and not tents! Personally, I think this
year’s camp was the best one so far.
At camp we did many new things. We rode horses, went on high ropes and on
low ropes. This was the first time I’d ever ridden a horse or done high ropes.
The low ropes were pretty challenging but our team still managed to finish
them. We also did some other things, like swimming and team games. Overall,
camp was a great experience and each and every one of you should visit Zajac
Ranch at least once.
- Jasmin Sekhon

New Zealand
This year some of the Grade 9’s traveled to New Zealand, and I was one of them. New Zealand
was a great experience! First thing we did when we got there was meet our homestay. In the
beginning I found it kind of boring and that first day I just wanted to go home, but then I
realized is wasn’t that bad. My homestay was really nice; she cooked food that I liked and took
me to a mall in Christchurch. After the weekend, we were off to camp for three days.
At camp we played challenge games, helped out the environment by pulling out wilding pines,
some of us went caving, then we camped overnight in tents. The next day we explored Castle
Hill Rocks and some of us tried rock climbing. That afternoon we had to raft to where we were
going to stay for the second night. It took 4 hours to raft there, and 3 hours again the next
morning. One thing I learned while rafting was that it really makes a difference if one person is
not rowing. We had to work together and we had to work hard. This was a once in a lifetime
experience. I really enjoyed staying there. Good luck to the Grade 9’s next year.
- Pooja Cheema

GYP NEWS
UNIVERSITY NEWS:
GYP University Admissions:
This week for admissions:
Ramneet Basraon, Queen's
Randeep Bhullar, McGill
Vishav Gill, McGill and SFU
Benia Nowak, Guelph
Kevin Shen, McGill
Michelle Weatherby, Guelph
Manny Gill, U of T, Woodsworth College
Aman Virk, SFU
Tawny Ling, University of Western Ontario
Students begin to self-report their grades to UBC this March.
UBC Engineering 2011
Celebrate Research Week: March 4 - 11: Interested in clean energy, the future
of Vancouver, Microfluidics or other topics related to engineering. Free lectures
are offered at UBC over this week.
Degree in a Day: Learn about UBC Engineering Programs and talk to current
engineering students.
March 21 - Monday
March 25 - Friday
March 30 - Wednesday
April 8 - Friday
April 18 - Monday
To RSVP: go to www.ubc.ca and click on the events page
Attention:
Students who are thinking of applying to American universities next year should
write their SATs and SAT IIs this spring or summer at the latest. The Common
Application is available usually at the beginning of Summer. Students and
parents should check over this application to make sure they follow all the
necessary steps.
Submitted by Susan Kirkwood

SPA 2011 SCIENCE FAIR
Do you ever wonder about the foxhole radios, why we feel hungry, whether
there is a new form of plastic around the horizon? Feel free to check the
answers to these questions in the Educafe this week as the Science Fair Projects
done by Naman Sharma, Jaskirat Mann, Mohammad Khamseh, Sumit Sharma,
Declan Hodgins and Anmol Sangha have tried to answer them.
The hard work and the perseverance of these students for the last four months
is evident in their projects. Each group of these self-motivated scientists came
up with their unique topic and carried their research through with flying colors.
Their enthusiasm and pride was evident in the way they did their presentations
before the panel of judges.
Congratulations to all of them for making it to the Regional Science Fair to be
held on April 7-8, 2011, at Kwantlen College, Surrey! Thanks to all the
teachers, parents and students who volunteered their time and gave their
invaluable feedback to make this science fair successful!
Submitted by Pritpal Saini

MYP NEWS
Vote for Southpointe
Academy to win $500!
Voting for the BC Green Games winners is underway
until March 31!
Would you like to help Southpointe Academy win $500 and
celebrate students’ green projects? Until March 31, people
from all over British Columbia will be going online to vote in
the third annual Viewer’s Choice Awards for Science World’s BC Green Games.
The contest, with over $20,000 in prizes to be awarded to BC schools, celebrates
and shares environmental sustainability projects from BC’s students. Four of
these inspirational stewardship projects, submitted using creative media such as
videos or photo-essays, will receive $500 each in the Viewer’s Choice Awards.
Two prizes will go to elementary schools and two to secondary schools.
Another 20 winning projects will be decided on by a team of judges from across
BC that includes teachers, scientists, government members and business leaders.
The voting period runs from March 1-31 and all projects can be viewed at
www.bcgreengames.ca
The Grade 7 students of Southpointe Academy have worked hard in creating and
implementing their green initiatives. During the month of February, the classes
made videos that outlined their environmental projects. Although several high
quality videos and PowerPoint presentations were created by the students, only
two could be chosen to represent us on the website listed above. It was a difficult
choice and I would like to thank all the Grade 7 students for their hard work both
organizing these projects and creating their video presentations.
Thanks also to the Southpointe Academy community of parents, teachers, and
students for making the Grade 7 events a success so far. Stay tuned for more
environmental projects in the spring, and don’t forget to log on to the BC Green
Games to vote for Southpointe Academy!
-Ms. Ferreira

The 2011 MYP Classroom Speech Competition Standings
What is the purpose of a Speech Competition? This was the final
question I asked my students this week, concluding months of speech
preparations and a week of truly inspiring student presentations. I received
many answers in each class, including: to learn from each other, to have the
chance to speak about our ideas and opinions in front of an audience, to
improve our public speaking skills, to improve our writing, and to gain
confidence. It wasn’t once, in any of these discussions, that anyone mentioned
anything about the ‘competition.’
I am impressed. I am impressed that our students understand that, more
than the results below, the significance of this annual Southpointe tradition lies
in its value as a learning process; from others and from ourselves. Any of the
students can tell you that, with reference to the criteria of Topic, Organization,
Volume, Vocal Expression, Eye Contact and Body Control, many of the speeches
we heard last week were great. The Gold and Silver standings below represent
those few speeches that rose above this in all or most of these categories.
It is with this message that I am very proud to announce the 2011 Gold and
Silver Standing MYP students. We will be cheering for you on March 7 th , at the
school competition!
-­‐ Ms. Alysha Kothlow
MYP English
Gold
Aliyyah Jafri
Amrita Dhillon
Taryn Jessop
Declan Hodgins
Gold
Brenna Krause
Aaron Smail
Gold
Frank Carson
Ashley Dhanda
Meaghan MacKenzie
Trevor Yu
Grade 8
Grade 7
Grade 6
Silver
Marvin Bains
Gurkeerat Bouhgan
Melissa Lau
Cai-Hong Singh
Silver
Justin Wong
Dalton Huey
Jody Meilcarski
Jeevan Bal
Sumeet Saini
Silver
Jodhveer Gill
Alina Husain
Isabella Nielson
Cole Hendy
Thorsten Schaub

Table Tennis Anyone?
Last Friday lunch time Mr Zens, who is in fact a Ping Pong/Table Tennis Coach,
gathered about 50 MYP students together in Ms Huber's Classroom to unveil ,
unfold - call it what you like - the newly arrived ping pong table that has been in
the corner of the room waiting for some action.
The students played one on one table tennis games , and cheered each other
on as they awaited their turn for play. Tomorrow is Friday once more and I
would imagine that another keen group will have signed up for some exercise,
competition and fun.
For the moment the table will reside in Ms Huber's room and it will be made
available for play on Friday lunch times. This is a start.
Keep your eye on the ball and stay light on your feet!
Submitted by Mrs Common

FYP NEWS
Grade Five Author Visit
On Friday February 25 th ,2011, the Grade Fives got an amazing
opportunity to meet the famous author Marty Chan. Our journey
began when we took our school bus all the way from
Southpointe Academy to Beach Grove Elementary. It was a very
exciting and interesting field trip. It was amazing because we
got to meet a real, live and famous author. We even were lucky
to hear his real life stories and how he incorporated them into
his books. He shared his secret writing techniques with us and
also played some cool games. One of his stories was about when
he and his friend Jay went up to the haunted top floor in their
elementary school. He explained how weird noises would come
from the top floor and how the students were banned from
going up there. He decided it would be fun to go up and see what was really
causing the noises. Another interesting example was about how he felt being the
only Chinese family to move into the neighbourhood. One of the ways he met
friends was by pretending he knew Kung-Fu .My personal favourite was when he
told us about how his mean, old, stinky gym teacher (who loved dodge ball)
inspired the book ‘The Mystery of the Mad Science Teacher’. He said he did not
name the book ‘The Mystery of the Mad Gym Teacher’s because he didn’t want
his Gym teacher to know that he is writing these funny things about him and also
that he is still alive.
Overall, it was a meaningful and fun day. Marty Chan also autographed our book
covers that we had drawn.
Submitted by Grade 5 Student Sonam Saran
.

Space: The Final Frontier
Over the past three weeks Grade 3 students have been immersed in outer space.
They have had the supreme privilege of seeing the Omnimax video "Hubble" and
experiencing the awesome pictures of deep space provided by the Hubble
telescope. Students have also had a wonderful, hands-on trip to the MacMillan
Space Centre.
These trips have been a wonderful springboard for our unit of inquiry. The
questions students have posed about space have been highly curious and
thoughtful.
"How big is space?"
"Why is the Earth Rotating?"
"Did Galileo discover that space was black?"
"Why does Earth have gravity?"
"Why does the sun not move?"
"Why is Pluto a dwarf planet?"
"How much does the Hubble telescope weigh?"
"What is the universe made of?"
"Why does the moon only orbit the Earth?"
"How do astronauts train?"
"How did the sun form?"
We're looking forward to exploring as many of these questions as we can in the
weeks before spring break. There is nothing like a wonderful field trip and handson
exploration to get kids wondering and ready to learn!
Kari Cook and Jenny Slinn

SPORTS NEWS
Sr. Girls Basketball Team
Congratulations to the Senior Girls' Basketball Team for coming 4th place in the
league!
With an 8:30am game against Meadowridge, the Titans were down by 12 points
going into the third quarter. The team put together a strong defensive effort that
generated some key steals and outscored the other team in the last quarter. The
Titans narrowed the scoring gap to 3 points. With 2.8 seconds left on the clock
the girls made an excellent attempt but unfortunately came out short! Top
scorers were Ashina Nagra with 14 points and Jastej Sidhu with 10 points. The
final score was 41-38.
Our next game to determine 3rd or 4th place was against Carver Christian. Going
in with an exhausted group of girls, the game turned out to be tougher than we
expected. The minutes flew by and the girls pulled together in the last four
minutes, ending off their last game with gusto. However, their efforts were not
enough and the Titans ended up 4th place.
Thank you for everyone who supported us through the season and we look
forward to a great one next year!
Sr. Boys Basketball Team
The Sr. Boys Basketball Team played their second round playoff game against
Deer Lake School yesterday afternoon at the church gym. The team got off to a
slow start, and were down by 10 points at the end of the first half. In the third
quarter, Deer Lake was leading by as many as 15 points, but our boys didn't give
up and battled back to tie the game mid-way through the fourth quarter!
Although we outscored our opponents 23-15 in the fourth quarter, it wasn't
enough to secure the victory and we lost the game by a score of 61-56. The
leading scorers for the Titans were Irwind Bhatti (27 points), Kevin Shen (12
points), and Eric Bhatti (8 points). It was a very exciting game with lots of fan
support and a great atmosphere in the gym. This marks the end of the season for
the Sr. Boys and the team would like to thank all the students, teachers, and
parents who have supported them at all the home games this year.

Elementary Boys Basketball
On Friday, February 25th the Grade 7 Boys Basketball team played their final
games at the I.S.E.A Basketball Division 2 Tournament held at Saint Georges
Senior School. Southpointe went into the tournament ranked 4th overall. The
grade 7's lost their first game against a much improved Collingwood team. The
grade 7 boys played well the first two quarters, however they were unable to hold
the lead in the third and fourth quarters. The grade 7's re grouped after their loss
in game 1 and managed to salvage a victory in their second game against West
Point Grey Academy, winning the game 25-20. This tournament marks the end of
the 2010-2011 basketball season. A special thanks goes to Mr. Budwal, and Mr.
McCall for their basketball expertise, coaching, and support throughout the
basketball season.
Congratulations to the following basketball players on a successful season:
Avjot Buwal, Frank Carson, Iman Sara, Tanraj Saran, Jeevan Saran, Sumeet
Saini, Saei Khamseh, Sumit Sharma, Noah Kallner, Mason Rai, Parteek Bal,
Tanner Carnegie, Max Kirshenblatt, Maheep Nagra, Bobby Mangat, Jim Marsden,
Manpreet Masraon, Vinny Glaser, Jaydeep Sandhu, Jodveer Gill, Chris Pope
SPORTS INFORMATION
Sun Run Training!
Are you still want to run the Sun Run? It is still not too late to register for the sun
run. The school registration fee is $25 for students and $30 for adults. The official
deadline for registering a team is April 1st.
There will be an alternate practice time for students wishing to train for the Sun
Run. The 7 am practice times are for students wishing for more of a challenge to
their Sun Run training. Ms. Tice will lead the afternoon session from 3:30 pm to
4:30p.m. Students are encouraged to come out and train in order to prepare
themselves for the race on April 17th. Students are also strongly encouraged to
follow the 13 week training schedule in order to slowly build their endurance for
the 10km distance on April 17th.
For details on race registration please follow the steps below:
- go to www.sunrun.com and click on “registration”
- In the registration page click on “Teams and Members: Schools”
- Click on “School Team registration” (pick the appropriate event for you, either
the 10KM or 2.5KM or, if you have already signed up for an InTraining clinic, you
can click on “School Team: InTraining Clinics Only] - Click on “Join Team – Team
Members ONLY”. Click on “Continue”.

- The first page will ask you to fill in all of your personal contact information - The
second page allows you to choose a team from a drop down menu that contains
the names of all the existing School Teams, listed in alphabetical order. Select
your appropriate school team.
- Complete remaining required information on page and click continue.
This will bring you to the final payment stage.
Track and Field News
The Track and Field session is fast approaching. Our first scheduled meet is at
Point Grey Secondary on Saturday, April 30th. We are currently looking for a few
more staff and parent volunteers to help coordinate, administer, and coach the
team. If you are interested in helping out in any way you can please see Mr.
Simpson in his office in room 128. Practices will begin once we have a sufficient
number of parent and staff volunteers to man the event stations. Practices will
take place on Monday and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:30p.m. Stay tuned for
more information regarding our first practice of the season.

SPORTS CALENDAR
March 3 – March 17
Mar. 3
Thursday
March 15
Tuesday
CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS
March 3 – March 17
March 3
Thursday
March 7
Monday
March 8
Tuesday
March 11
Friday
March 15
Tuesday
March 16
Wednesday
March 17
Thursday
March 18
Friday
GVISSA Sr. Boys Final Four @ Bodwell School in North
Vancouver
6:00pm - Grade 5 Hoop Shoot at South Delta Secondary School
Multicultural Tickets on sale daily at the Front Office
Preschool Field Trips to the Tsawwassen Public Library
Science Fair Projects on display in Educafe
8:30am – 12:00pm – Public Speaking Contest at South Delta Baptist
Church
Grade 10 French Language Trip departs for France
3:30 – Grade Six Project Discover Parent Info Meeting, Rm. 209
6:00PM - MULTICULTURAL EVENING at the Bollywood Banquet
Hall in Surrey.
7:00pm – MYP Night of the Notables at the South Delta Baptist
Church
Grade 12 European Trip departs
Grade 5 Field Trip to Victoria
“HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY!”
Reports Cards emailed today