Husky Howler
November 2nd, 2023
Embedded Files
UPCOMING DATES
November 1: Picture Retake Day
November 6 - 7: Parent Nights
November 9: Remembrance Day Ceremony
December 11 - 15: Holiday Spirit Week
December 15: Holiday Potluck Luncheon
December 18 - 21: Final Exams
December 22: Last day of Semester/PD Day
December 23 - January 7: Holiday Break
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
Parent Night Appointment Bookings
We're hosting in-person Parent Nights on November 6th (4:30 pm to 7:30 pm) and November 7th (5:00 pm to 8:00 pm) to discuss your child’s mid-term report which will be available on QuickSchools the weekend prior. Please book your appointments using the following link, and check your email for a confirmation of the booking. If these dates are inconvenient, please contact and arrange an alternate meeting time with your child’s teacher. See you soon!
Call for Guest Speakers
Every year, we have amazing people speak to our students. Recently, we hosted two Hudson parents, Kimberly Eberwine and James Hyslop, as speakers in our Parent Career Conversations series. We're always on the lookout for volunteers who'd like to speak to our students about a variety of subjects.
If you'd like to provide industry and career guidance, specialized academic subject (including fine arts) lectures , or be a motivational speaker, please fill out the form below!
SCHOOL NEWS
Letter from the Principal
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Each new school year brings about changes, and this year is no exception.
Perhaps the most obvious update is this newsletter, which is now a part of our online Family Handbook – a revamp to our old PDF Handbook. No longer will you have to go digging through old emails to double-check important dates!
This September we welcomed three new staff members to our Hudson team. Jeff Gaffen, Vivian Li and Mike Stalteri have been wonderful additions to the school and classroom – and in Mike's case, on the field too!
We've refined some of our past Fall Semester offerings. No longer did the Grade 9s spend a day in Earlscourt Park building leadership skills, but instead they camped together for a full four days at Camp Wenonah! Upon their return, the students had a strong camaraderie that's uncommon to see as early as three weeks into the school year. With a bond so strong already, I'm eager to see how the students will support each other not only for the rest of the year but also the next four years at Hudson.
The Grade 10s and 11s went on their own camping excursion and participated in OELC's Leadership Program at Camp Couchiching. This program was well-suited for them as the leadership development lessons were more structured and aimed at an older teenage demographic.
The House Council, Student Council and Justice League have already taken the initiative to run several events, lead assemblies, and spearhead fundraising initiatives. This year's Pep Rally was like no other, and the student body's school spirit seems higher than ever! Everyone was involved in their House cheers in their own unique way. Singing, dancing, flipping, and filmmaking were just a few talents that were on display.
Our students also took on extra responsibility this year for Orange Shirt Day and the Terry Fox Run and BBQ – both events were student-led and ran smoothly and successfully!
Some things have stayed the same too. As always, our varsity teams have had a great season so far! The Boys' Volleyball team has not lost a game yet, and the Girls' Basketball is stronger than ever. Go Huskies!
Following tradition, October ends with the traditional Spirit Week and our pumpkin carving contest. However, new this year is the Pumpkin Parade – a perfect way to close October as we head into colder weather.
If the past two months are an indicator, it looks like it will be a great year!
Sincerely,
Jack.
Welcoming our New Students and Families
On August 31st, we welcomed our Grade 9s and new Hudson students at Orientation Day. Our new Huskies met their teachers, toured the school, played Handbook trivia and were sorted into the Houses. They made friends with their soon-to-be classmates and our student volunteers who had all the insight on Upper School. After a delicious BBQ, They left with a goodie bag, a brand new laptop and stylus, and the confidence to take on the first day of school!
Our new Hudson parents also had their own orientation and got to know each other and the Hudson community over delicious food and drinks.
First Day Fun
All our Huskies returned to Hudson on September 5th. Summer may have been a fun break, but everyone was full of enthusiasm and excited for the new school year. Don’t believe us, check out all their smiling faces!
Meet our New Staff
This September, we welcomed three new staff members to our Upper School.
Jeff Gaffen
Jeff joined Hudson as our Head of Student Affairs, a new position that works with our senior administrative team to support students, teachers, and parents. He assists our Upper School with the day-to-day operations of the school and matters such as attendance, report cards, discipline, guidance, and parent concerns, among others.
Before Hudson, Jeff worked as a math and physics teacher for courses ranging from Grade 7-12 and then transitioned into administration and student services. He has been the Head of Guidance at various private schools, and a Centre Director of a math tutoring centre in Toronto.
Vivian Li
Vivian joined our teaching staff as a highly experienced STEM teacher. She currently teaches Grade 9 Science and Grade 11 Functions and runs Math Cafe with Matt Leiss. Later on in the year, she will teach other math courses and chemistry. She is currently completing her Master of Mathematics for Teachers from the University of Waterloo. Outside of teaching she reads, jogs, and marks the University of Waterloo high school math contests!
Mike Stalteri
Mike works with Marco Reda as a Phys Ed. teacher and coach for both the Lower School and Upper School. He has coached a variety of sports for over 20 years at a variety of camps, clubs and schools. He is an active member of Canada's National Coaching Certification Program, has his National-C soccer license diploma, and is currently completing his National-B soccer license diploma. He also coaches the high-performance program at the Woodbridge Soccer Club alongside Marco.
Introducing New Student Programs
We've also created the following two new student programs:
Post-Secondary Insider Mentorship
To provide our Grade 12s with extra support and guidance, this program pairs a student with a Hudson alum who is currently studying or working in industries of interest. All through our online alumni platform, Hudson College Connect, students can safely connect to alumni with similar interests and ambitions around the world.
The program runs December 2023 - June 2024, and alumni will check in with their mentee at various points during the year to provide insight into the university application process, moving out and living in residence, work/school/life balance, and general moral support.
Hudson Excursions Program
The Hudson Excursions Program is designed specifically for our new international students at Hudson College. Together as friends, students will explore and learn more about Toronto through a series of fun trips and experiences.
The group has already visited Niagara Falls and Andrews Farms and had a blast! Two excursions they're looking forward to this Winter is the trip to the Distillery Winter Village and going to a hockey game!
Bonding at Camp Wenonah
This year, we combined Grade 9 Leadership Day and the Camp Wenonah trip, and the entire Grade 9 year spent September 11-14th going on thrilling outdoor adventures together. They participated in camp classics like canoeing, rock climbing and gaga ball, and experienced new activities like wakeboarding, fire making, and making nature tea from foraged plants.
Camp Wenonah set their high school experience on a great trajectory! The following week, their teachers noticed that new friendships had been cemented and that Grade 9s seemed to be more engaged in conversation and willing to participate.
Extra Fun Extracurriculars
Every year, we have students who want to create and add to our extensive list of extracurriculars. A great example is the Dungeons and Dragons club which was created by two students five years ago and continues to run each year long after they graduated! Knowing that our students were bound to have many more great club ideas, we sent out a club suggestion survey at the beginning of the year. After receiving the responses, we were able to refine our extracurriculars list and students signed up on September 15th.
We've also had many students step into leadership roles and apply and interview for positions in the Student Ambassadors, House Council, Student Council and as Social Media Ambassadors. We're happy to share that we have a great group of students this year who are excited to run events, spread school spirit, and represent our school to prospective families and the online community.
Check out all of this year's extracurriculars!
Check out all of this year's extracurriculars!
Developing Young Leaders at Camp Couchiching
Our Grade 9s weren’t the only ones who had a great camp experience in September! From September 27-29th, the Grade 10s and 11s had the opportunity to take the OELC Leadership Program at Camp Couchiching. On top of typical camping activities like low ropes, archery, shelter building and rock climbing the students also took Leadership Development workshops. Led by OELC Staff, licensed Ontario teachers, the program taught students different styles of leadership, communication and storytelling skills. The students were motivated to build trust, communicate and participate, and find the confidence to show up for themselves by taking risks.
Orange Shirt Day
National Truth and Reconciliation Day fell on a Saturday, so we honoured the day on September 29th and our students wore orange shirts to show support for Indigenous communities in Canada. The Justice League led an assembly alongside other members of the student body which was followed by a moment of silence for those lost in the residential school system. The school then participated in a Walk for Wenjack. The Justice League also raised funds for Kocihta which is an Indigenous charity in Canada that helps resolve the Indigenous education and employment gap.
Spain, Portugal and France – Oh my!
After last year’s incredible trip to South Korea and Japan, Mr. Yovanny is taking 37 students to Spain, Portugal and France for over 18 days of incredible sightseeing! The group will explore Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Barcelona, and Paris, plus a few smaller towns such as Fatima, Obidos, Toledo and Granada, which are known for their cultural heritage. One of the highlights of this trip will be attending a live flamenco dancing show in Madrid. As usual, the students were excited about this opportunity and the spots filled up immediately. Mr. Yovanny is busy finalizing the itinerary, and after taking a sneak peek, we’re jealous we’re not going on the trip too!
Check out this pic from last year, when our students wore traditional Hankboks!
Terry Fox Run and BBQ
On October 10th, our Upper School held its annual Terry Fox BBQ and Run organized by the Student Council. They also sold Terry Fox t-shirts and pins at the BBQ for the Terry Fox Foundation. The Student Council also raised funds for the Terry Fox Foundation throughout Homecoming Week.
Homecoming Week
Homecoming Week is a spirit week that promotes school spirit, and House Pride. From October 16-20th, the students participated in tons of activities led by the House Council.
On October 16th, the students painted House banners to be used in the pep rally. The next two days were spent playing Connect the Dots and Candy Apple Roulette!
On Thursday, the House Council whipped up a pie toss where whipped cream pies were tossed at 4 very brave students: Sasha P, Allegra, Rei and Sawyer! The event was so enticing, that the Lower School couldn’t resist joining in on the fun. Even Mr. Reda and Lower School teacher Mr. Hunt joined in on the fun! All proceeds from the pie toss went to the Terry Fox Foundation.
Homecoming week culminated on October 20th with one of the best pep rallies to date!
Pep Rally
Everyone went full out at this year's pep rally on October 20th, and each House performed cheers with multiple parts. It was so amazing that we could tell that the House Leaders organized extra practice time outside of the scheduled three House huddles to perfect their cheer.
The Great Lakes, the winners of last year's House Cup, kicked off the pep rally. They recorded a parody of "I'm Just Ken", and surprised us with dancing in the dark and gymnastic skills. The Prairies also showed off their musical prowess, but instead of singing, they recorded and rapped a full diss track. They also filmed a news broadcast showing off their corn mascot's shenanigans. The Rockies demonstrated the local community's support for their House in an on-the-streets style video and featured a WWE-inspired brawl featuring a gigantic boulder. Lobby, the Maritimes mascot, inducted James M into the Maritimes after tempting him with chances to join the other Houses, before drumming up a storm on their big bass drum.
The day ended with a House Basketball tournament organized by the Maritimes House leaders. The competition was fierce, but the Rockies proved victorious!
Getting in the Spooky Spirit
We all got into the Halloween spirit from October 25-31 during Spirit Week and dressed down in a different theme each day. The first day was Pyjama Day, a comfy classic to start us off before the themes became increasingly more elaborate. The second day was Colour Day where each Grade was assigned a colour and competed to see who would wear the most of that colour. The Grade 9s wore green, the Grade 10s – purple, the Grade 11 – red, and the Grade 12s – blue. The teachers joined in the competition and wore black, but the Grade 11s took the win by decking all out in red! We all got more creative on the third day. Inspired by the Barbie movie, students dressed up as different Barbies and Kens, plus a few other iconic duos.
We also had fun games throughout the week! Students took short breaks during lunch or study to sculpt hauntingly beautiful sculptures with clay kits. "Forensic Tetris" had students search for missing bones to complete Scary Barry's skeleton. And "Boo Who?" was a murder mystery game to solve Mr. McMaster's murder!
The final day of Spirit Week was Halloween, so everyone came dressed up. We loved seeing all the frightening, funny and creative costumes that the students wore. There were tons of group costumes, like the Spice Girls, South Park Boys, Elmo and Grover, Alvin and the Chipmunks, some Subway Surfers and more! We gave out three prizes for the best costumes, and it was a tough decision but the winners are:
1st place - Simon
2nd place - Sasha P
3rd place - Karyna
Congratulations to our winners! You made this Halloween spooktacular.
Gourd Vibes only at the Pumpkin Carving Contest
Hudson College loves carving pumpkins. Both the Lower School and Upper School are at the forefront of pumpkin design and always have new and creative ways of carving a pumpkin. We're so impressed each year when we look at all the finished pumpkins, that we wanted to share the joy at the first ever Pumpkin Parade. Parents visited after school and were just as blown away by the pumpkins as the rest of us!
As per tradition, we awarded prizes to the Most Creative, Scariest, and Funniest pumpkin. The winners are:
The Most Creative Pumpkin - Becky, Darcey, and Jackson L
The Scariest Pumpkin - Claire M and Juliet S
The Funniest Pumpkin - Alessia, Ava M and Julia
Well done to these pumpkin artists. We can't wait to see what you make next year!
Looking for some more Halloween Fun?
The Husky Herald, our student newspaper, just released a special Halloween Mini-Edition with two spooky themed articles by E.V. and Ryan. More articles will be posted later this week as a part of their regular October edition, so stay tuned!
GUIDANCE UPDATE
It's been an action-packed Fall Semester, and Ms. Streff has been busy supporting all our students this school year. She has already run many workshops for the Grade 9s and 12s, and she has updated and streamlined the process of meeting with students by using an appointment system in Google Calendar.
She'd like to highlight the new speaker series, Parent Career Conversations. Every last Friday of the month, we're hosting Hudson parents working in a variety of industries to share insights about their career journey and day-to-day roles. This series is mandatory for Grade 9 students, but Grade 10-12 students are invited to attend based on interest. Leading up to the talk, Ms. Streff will send an email to Grade 10-12s highlighting the speakers of the month along with a signup form. Students must sign up if they'd like to attend.
Grade 9 Update
Grade 9 Update
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Ms. Streff provides learning skills presentations to the Grade 9s during their Guided Study period. In these presentations, students explore various learning styles and how their perceived strengths & weaknesses can help or hinder themselves; strategies and methods of organization, note-taking, studying, reading for comprehension, preparing for tests, brainstorming, etc.; learn stress management, time management, and self-advocacy.
The Grade 9s also attended the first Parent Career Conversation on October 27th, with speakers Kimberly Eberwine and James Hyslop. Kimberly is General Counsel and Senior Director of Government Relations at Procter & Gamble Canada, and James is President and Executive Producer at Alibi Entertainment and President of Alibi Technologies. They both highlighted how their journey to their current careers wasn't straightforward and how they spent time in different industries before landing on their current path.
Grade 12 Update
Grade 12 Update
Our Grade 12s are already well into the university application process! They've attended two university fairs and met with representatives from the University of Toronto, the University of Ottawa, Toronto Metropolitan University, York University, Windsor, Queen's, Concordia, and Dalhousie. They've also attended a virtual presentation by the University of Waterloo. There will be one final university fair on November 14th.
The Grade 12s have also participated in university application workshops with Ms. Streff. In the first workshop, she outlined information about the university application process and what Grade 12s should expect in the coming months. The students also joined Hudson College Connect, our online alumni platform that they will use to connect with their mentor in the upcoming Post-Secondary Insider Mentorship Program. The second workshop for the Grade 12s was Snacks & Apps, where the Grade 12s set up their OUAC profiles while snacking on some treats!
Grade 12 parents and guardians attended their own information session to familiarize them with the university process and to learn how to best support their child(ren).
The most important date for students and parents to consider is January 15, 2024 – the OUAC application deadline for equal consideration. Students are encouraged to book individual appointments with Ms. Streff if they need one-on-one support with their post-secondary research and to help break down the process into more manageable steps.
SPORTS UPDATE
November 2023
Hudson Athletics is in full swing! Mr. Reda, Mr. Stalteri, and Franco have been almost as enthusiastic as the students are for this semester's sports teams.
The Fall Semester started with the league sports U20 Girls Basketball and U20 Boys Volleyball, and an Open Cross Country meet. Read more about the teams below!
The U20 Girls' Volleyball and U20 Boys' Basketball tryouts should start the first week of December, so the teams can start practising in the new year. Tryout information will be sent to your child(ren) emails', so remind them to keep an eye out.
Mr. Reda would also like to remind parents to complete the SSAF Waiver Form for their child(ren)'s participation in 2023-2024 Athletics. This is a blanket waiver for all events in the 2023-2024 school year.
If you have any questions regarding Hudson Athletics, please reach out to Marco Reda, Athletic Director, at mreda@hudsoncollege.ca. Go Huskies!
QUICK LINKS
U20 Boys' Volleyball
The U20 Boys’ Volleyball team is back with a vengeance! They have been dominating the league by winning their first four games. Currently, they're first in the league and are excited for the Volleyball tournament. They're determined to place higher than last year! Good luck, Huskies!
U20 Girls' Basketball
The U20 Girls’ Basketball team is also having an amazing season and won their first three games! Although, they weren't as successful in the last two games, that didn't deter them. They're ready to bring their A-game for their remaining games and are looking forward to the playoff!
Open Cross Country
The U20 and U16 Cross Country teams had a blast competing in the SSAF Cross Country meet on October 17th at Loafer's Lake. They ran 5 KM and were joined by the Lower School's U14 who ran a solid 3 KM. Congratulations to Aidan who placed in the top 10 in the U20 category and Tanner and Aahil who placed in the top 20 in the U16 category.
And that's all folks...
... at least for now! There's still so much in store for the Fall Semester, and even more for the remainder of the year. The next newsletter will be released in December. If there's something you wish we included in this issue, please let us know in the survey below.
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