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There is certainly a high level of energy and enthusiasm at the Upper School as spring fully comes to life. Students participated in their special Steward’s Portfolio assembly, where the community heard from candidates in seven fields; individuals spoke from the heart about their passion for a given role and goals for next year. Year 12s celebrated and built memories at the Battalion Ball at Palais Royale, where they danced, took pictures in two photo booths and enjoyed hot food and a candy bar! Our Year 10s and 11s also welcomed students from COSSOT schools to our campus for the Back to the Future themed social.

World Languages Week then kicked-off on Monday with keynote speaker Dr. Taniguchi, an Assistant Professor of English Language Linguistics at the University of Toronto Mississauga, who spoke powerfully about the importance of linguistic diversity and the relationship between power, privilege and language. Starting Tuesday, as well, all Year 8 students participated in their science and art interdisciplinary unit at our Norval campus. 

UCC students at CISMF 2024

The Conference of Independent Schools Music Festival (CISMF) continued its long tradition of music excellence with a fabulous concert at Roy Thompson Hall this past Saturday, April 13. UCC was proud to feature 16 musicians from the Upper School. They participated in the concert band, symphonic band, wind ensemble and orchestras. 

UCC congratulates Mike Chen, Lucas Chen, Kyle Chung, Emile D'Souza, Derek Guo, Alan Jia, Henry Liu, Matthew Li, Jaydn Lin, Bosco Luo, Chetan Malhotra, Nathan Munene, Alex Barclay Sharpe, Dhin Thanasuwanditee, Brian Wu, Prince Zhang, Ferrari Zhang and Roger Zhu. 

What a night! Year 10 and 11 social held on April 12

We are delighted to share with you the fantastic success of the Year 10 and 11 social that took place at school on Friday, April 12. It was an incredible evening filled with laughter, joy and memorable moments for our students.

Students from UCC and other COSSOT schools came together for an evening of dancing and socializing. It was a pleasure to see our students interacting with their peers from other schools, fostering new friendships, and strengthening bonds within our wider community.

We are especially grateful to the Parents' Organization for their generous contributions towards the event. Their support made it possible to offer exciting prizes and added an extra element of excitement to the evening. 

Additionally, we would like to extend a big thank you to all the student volunteers who dedicated their time and effort to help organize and run the event. Their hard work and dedication were instrumental in making the Social a resounding success. We are immensely proud of their commitment to serving their school community.

Lastly, we want to express our gratitude to the students who attended the event. Your enthusiasm and positive spirit contributed greatly to the overall success of the evening. We hope you had as much fun as we did and created lasting memories to cherish.

Ms. Khalanski, Year 10 Coordinator
Mme Gauthier, Year 11 Coordinator

Year 11 updates

Welcome to our latest news for Year 11 parents! We're excited to share some recent highlights and upcoming events that are sure to keep you informed and engaged. From the results of our recent elections to a successful school social event, there's plenty to celebrate. We'll also be providing details about an upcoming workshop on consent, as well as important information about Extended Essay Week. Plus, don't miss out on the details about our upcoming parent-student event, Step Up, which promises to be a memorable occasion. Stay tuned for all this and more as we dive into the latest happenings at our school! 

SIGN UP | StepUP for Year 11 and 12 

IB final exams

DP culminating exams begin on Thursday, April 25, 2024. Year 12 students will attend classes up to and including Monday, April 22, 2024 (Day 9). In between there are two exam preparation days dedicated to student review. No classes are scheduled on these days but students are welcome to reach out to their teachers for support.

IB final examination schedule

Year 12 | Laptop return

As we approach the end of the school year, we'd like to inform you about the process for returning the MacBook Airs and their power supplies. An email has also been sent to all Year 12 students.

Year 12 students must return their laptops and power supplies before graduation. Both items must be dropped off at the Upper School Help Desk between 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. on weekdays. The deadline is Friday, May 17 at 3:30 p.m. Please ensure all files are backed up. 

The laptop must be returned in its case, in good condition, and without damage. Any damage beyond normal wear and tear not covered under AppleCare will be billed to the family's UCC account. Kindly remove stickers from the laptop to avoid potential charges due to excessive sticker residue.

Please return a working Apple 30W power supply designed for the MacBook Air (M1 chip). If you do not return the Apple branded power supply, a replacement charge of $80 will be billed to your account. 

Students are responsible for transferring all their files from the laptops before returning them. Ensure all files are in the UCC Google Drive. Google Takeout can be used to export the files from the UCC account to a preferred location. Once the laptops are returned, they will be wiped immediately, and there will not be another opportunity to access the files. Rest assured, we will securely erase the hard drives. Your UCC Google Drive and email accounts will remain available until the end of October 2024, but we recommend exporting the files before the end of summer.

Year 12 student UCC Gmail and Drive accounts will remain active until Oct. 31, 2024. This allows students ample time to transfer important documents and update any important email contacts. After this date, the UCC account will be deleted, and there will no longer be access to any stored files or emails. Use Google Takeout to move content from the UCC Google environment.

Look for a reminder about the account deletion of your UCC email accounts in early October 2024.

Thanks in advance, and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Kathleen Peak

Executive Director, Information and Innovation

REGISTER | Discover Costa Rica in March 2025

Plan for it now! During next year's March Break, we will once again be offering an overseas experiential learning trip to all Upper School students. UCC is partnering with Explorica's Camps International to offer a service-focused experience in Costa Rica from March 16–25, 2025. Spots are available for 15 students.

Registration is now open.

Eid lunchtime celebrations

On Monday, April 22nd, the UCC Parent Community is excited to host an Eid Lunchtime celebration in the Student Centre, where all are welcome to enjoy some cultural treats, light refreshments and music! Many thanks to our amazing volunteers for their dedicated support of this festive occasion!

Alvin Jugoon and Gillian Levene

BLUES BEAT HUNGER — Spring food drive 2024

Neil Heatherington, CEO of Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank, will be delivering this year's Barton Lecture in the UCC Upper School Assembly on Monday, April 29.

With this special visit in mind, Service Steward Emerson McQueen has mobilized the Community Service Council to organize and run the first UCC Upper School Spring Food Drive. Starting on Monday, April 15 until Friday, April 26, Upper School students will begin collecting food donations in the foyer as we did back in November. Once again we will be partnering with Churches on the Hill Daily Bread Food Bank (COTH), located just a few blocks away from UCC campus. COTH serves between 1,100 and 1,200 people each week. Today COTH needs our support more than ever. Rising inflation, especially in food prices and housing, is causing more households to rely on COTH to meet their needs. In fact, across Toronto one in ten residents use food banks to survive. 

You can help out by bringing in food donations to the bins located in the Bernick Family Foyer. Our goal is to collect a pound of food for every student, so please help us support this important cause. COTH has provided us with a list of the items that are in the highest demand, and we’ve allocated them by house. We also ask that everyone consider donating baby formula (Enfalac or Kirkland brands) and diapers (sizes 4-6) to support the infant program at COTH. 

Please place your listed objects in the house-labeled bins present:

Bremner's — white or brown rice

Howard's —peanut butter (large size) 

Jackson's —low sugar cereals like Cheerios (large size)

Martland's —canned fruit

McHugh's —large flaked oats (not instant)

Mowbray's— dried beans (i.e. red kidney beans, chick peas, black beans, etc.)

Orr's — canned tuna and salmon

Scadding's — salted crackers

Seaton's and Wedd's —dry pasta (large size)

The clients of COTH are very thankful for your support and generosity!

Earth Week at the Upper School—April 22–26

Earth Week is next week and the whole community is invited to get involved by using their Creativity for Change. Please see the Upper School’s schedule for the week below. There is something for everyone, from creating a sustainability-focused film for the Sustaina-Film Competition, to making a smoothie using a bicycle, viewing a brand-new documentary, walking, cycling, or taking public transport to school, designing a bee hotel, getting dressed up in thrifted fashions, recycling e-waste, unwanted clothing, linen, and shoes, cleaning up or simply going outside! 

In particular, we’d like to call families’ attention to the following three events: 

E-waste and clothing drive

Families, please consider supporting us by doing some spring cleaning as follows: 

E-waste drive in partnership with the Toronto Zoo

For the second year in a row, UCC is partnering with the Toronto Zoo to collect e-waste in support of great ape conservation. The zoo will accept monitors, TVs, computers, notebooks, servers, wire, aluminum, keyboards, computer mice, electronic scrap, small appliances, laptops, tablets, iPods, radios and, of course, cell phones. Read more about acceptable items here. Bins for the drive will be located in the Bernick Family Foyer all week. 

House competition clothing drive 

The Sustainability Council has also organized a house competition to collect donations of unneeded clothing, linen and shoes for the Oasis Clothing Bank. You can read more about accepted items here. Bins will be located in the Bernick Family Foyer all week. Please donate generously! 

Cycles + Smoothies—Earth Week Pedal Power 

On Tuesday, UCC families are invited to bring in your bikes for a tune-up with Matteo’s Mobile Bike Repair, the top Google-rated mobile bike repair service in Toronto for the past 10 years, as well as the only pedal-powered team in the industry. Tune-ups are FREE* and take approximately 15-20 minutes — first come, first served! Be sure to bring in a mug as well so that you can enjoy a FREE bicycle-powered smoothie with our honoured guest Michael Sacco from ChocoSol. This event will take place in the Design Lab (Room 302) on Tuesday, April 23, from 4–6 p.m. *Please note that any parts required will be at your own expense. Sign up here.

Sustainable movie night — Screening of 2040

Please join us for a screening of award-winning director Damon Gameau’s 2019 documentary, in which “he embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream.” Here is a link to the film’s trailer. The film will be screened on Thursday, April 24 from 4–6 p.m. in Room 127 and will be followed by a short discussion hosted by our Sustainability Steward Bill Sun. Refreshments will be served. 

REGISTER |  UCC Prep Parents’ and Parents’ Organization Spring Luncheon

Please join us for this year’s Parent Spring Luncheon organized by the UCC Parents’ Organization and Prep Parents’ Organization. This happy event is returning after a five-year hiatus and is open to both UCC Prep and Upper School parents. Whether you are a regular or occasional volunteer or a parent that would like to learn more and meet others within the UCC community, this event provides an opportunity to come together and celebrate a wonderful year alongside other parents and invited UCC staff members. 

SAVE THE DATE | Virtual parent talk May 6, 7 p.m.

How to help your teen through exam season

The speakers will be UCC’s Director of The Wernham West Centre for Learning, Kathryn Barnes and Upper School Counsellor, Caitlin Dobie. They’ll teach strategies to help reduce stress during exams, as well as provide important information and supports your teen can access at school. The moderator for the hour-long talk will be Dr. Amy Cheung, a UCC parent and adolescent psychiatrist. Sign up link to be shared soon!

Last call for Lost and Found

Friday is the last day to claim items in Lost and Found. The deadline to find your missing water bottle or t-shirt is April 19 at 3 p.m. Items are on display in the basement hallway, outside the physiotherapy office. All unclaimed items will be donated to charity.

Please note that several sets of earphones have also turned up. See Maggie Xu or Laura White at reception to claim those. 

If you have any questions, please email the TUBS team.