Principal's Message

The school year is quickly coming to a close! Spring started early this year and I'm looking forward to more warm weather as May has been a bit cold so far.

All students received their mid-term report cards during the last week of April. This report card offers your son/daughter’s mark along with comments that highlight the student’s strength, an area that she/he needs to focus on and next steps.

Academics

May and June are challenging months for students as they bring together much of the students' hard work over the time.

May is a time when our Grade 12 IB students are writing their exams which are standardized across the globe. Students will likely feel a great deal of stress during this period. Please take the time to reassure them that regular study periods, the hard work they demonstrated over the past few months, and years, will pay off! Encourage them to sleep and eat well during exam time.

Student Life

Our students are participating in a variety of sports this spring. Our Track and Field team is over 40-students strong as is led by Ms. Law, Mr. M. Brown and Mr. Mungar. We also have a strong girls' softball team and boys' baseball team. Our girls' soccer team and our tennis team are also working hard this spring! Our Archery team has done phenomenally well. The Girls Olympic Team won a Bronze, the Boys and Girls Standard Teams each won the Gold medal. Our students are also playing Co-ed Volleyball and Cricket. Victoria Park's own Ms. Pak has introduced Beach Volleyball to our students and in the TDSB. Ms. Swanson has re-introduced Waterpolo to our school. Over 150 students are passionately involved in our spring teams and they were led by over 20 committed teacher coaches!

May is also time for RAK'ing at Victoria Park C.I. You may have heard your son or daughter talk about being RAK'ed or RAK'ing another class. RAK stands for A Random Act of Kindness. Kindness is essential to the success of human relationships; it connects us to one another and inspires hope within us. The RAK campaign will be running from May 3-14. Our RAKometer is nearly full after just over a week of RAK activities. Classes are bringing one another treats, students are welcoming one another into the building and there are daily kind sayings and songs over the PA system! It has been a lot of fun!

Our students have also just competed in the Sears Drama Festival as well as Improv competitions. We were lucky enough to host our very own "Night of One-Act Plays". The productions were wonderful and some of the best theatre you could have found in the city. Much thanks goes out to Ms. Roach, Mr. Wallace and Ms. Conway for organizing this event.

Our Chess Team has been competing for several months with much success! Congratulations go out to Calvin Tang who won 2nd place in the Grade 12 Chess Section and Linda Fu who won 1st place for Girls and 3rd place in the Grade 10 Chess Section. These are just two of our many chess winners this year!

Our Math students are exceptionally strong. Victoria Park CI competed in the Canadian Mathematics Competition administered by the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. I am proud to report that our school was named zone champion in all 3 contests: Pascal--Grade 9, Cayley--Grade 10 and Fermat--Grade 11. This is an achievement of which we should all feel proud. We also placed 4th in Canada for the Pascal contest. The following students were top students in each contest:

Pascal - grade 9: Pranavan Thirunavukkara, Ye David Li

Cayley - grade 10: Ashvini Shanmugarajah, Ted Zong

Fermat - grade 11: Leon Ni

Award-Winning Students

Every year, many Victoria Park students win a variety of awards. This spring is no exception. Here are just a few of the winners:

Sivaniya Subramaniapillai and Amal Ga'al each won the Herbert Carnegie Future Aces Foundation Citizenship Award.

Each year 20 Grade 12 students are chosen for TD Scholarships for Community Leadership from across Canada. This year two of our students won this prestigious award. Over 4000 applicants competed for this award which they received in a special ceremony in Ottawa. Each TD Scholarship is valued at up to $70,000 and includes full tuition for up to four years of study at any approved university or college in Canada as well as an offer of summer employment during the years of the scholarship. My sincerest congratulations goes out to Hasina Shain Daya and Sivaniya Subramaniapillai!

Congratulations to these and all our student award winners!

The hard work and dedication of our students and their teachers is why I love being Principal at Victoria Park!

TDSB Parent Survey

Dr. Spence, our esteemed new Director, is strongly encouraging parents to participate in an online survey. It will only take a few minutes to complete. It is confidential and I hope that all parents/guardians participate. Whether parents are happy with the work of our teachers and the school or have suggestions about how we can improve, your voices are important! You will find the survey at www.tdsb.on.ca/survey/parentsurvey/ The deadline has been extended to May 28. 2010.

Victoria Park’s 50th Reunion

On November 12, 2010 Victoria Park CI will be holding its 50th reunion! We are currently in the planning stages of the event which will begin Friday and end with a celebratory bash on Saturday night! The reunion website is http://www.vp50reunion.com/

If you are a former student and are interested in helping out or attending the events, please check out the website and watch for our next planning meeting. It promises to be a wonderful event!

The next Alumni meeting is May 26th at 7pm in our Staffroom.

Please share this information with other VPCI parents/guardians and encourage them to sign up for these emails.

Important Dates

May 26: Drama Night

May 27: Arts Night

May 28: Prom Night

May 31-June 16: Culminating Activities (worth up to 30% of final mark)

June 10: Athletic Banquet

June 10 & 11: EQAO Grade 9 Math Test (worth 10% of final mark)

June 17-24: Exams

June 25: Exam Review Day

June 29 Commencement

Please feel free to call or email me directly at Diana.panagiotopoulos@tdsb.on.ca if you have a suggestion, question or concern.

Thank you,

Diana Panagiotopoulos

Principal

Victoria Park C.I.