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Year 12 students began exams this week, while those in the MYP started preparing for final learning units and assessments, and Year 11 students participated in dedicated Extended Essay writing time. 

Relay for Life was incredibly successful, reaching its goal of raising more than $300,000 this year alone. Peers and colleagues from across COSSOT schools walked, ran, honoured and reflected on those impacted by cancer, and it was a stunning example of faculty and student leadership and community support. 

UCC Ball, a Year 10 student’s Personal Project involving students vs. teachers 3-on-3 basketball games this year, wrapped up with an exciting ending where the teachers came out on top with a last-minute buzzer beater from Mr. Celebre. The high-spirited event included a fundraiser for the Canadian Cancer Society. 

The new Board of Stewards hosted their first Friday assembly and it was a knockout led by the 2024–25 creativity steward, including a Prefect's Cup update, a new BoS video and singing of Sweet Caroline. Student leaders displayed further skill on Monday when the heads of the Asian Heritage Club led the Principal’s assembly in honour of Asian Heritage Month. Special guest speaker Japan Consul Mr. Matsui shared facets of Japanese culture and the relationship with Canada. Year 5 musicians and the Asian Heritage Association from the Prep serenaded the Upper School with a moving tribute to a popular Korean song. In honour of Cinco de Mayo, the Hispanic Culture Club also hosted a fiesta on the outdoor basketball court that included traditional Mexican churros and chips and salsa, papel picado decoration and a photo booth.

Holi celebrations at the Upper School

Year 8 | Second clinic for Hepatitis B/Menactra/HPV

Dear Year 8 Parents,

This is  a reminder on Monday, May 13, 2024, Toronto Public Health (TPH) will be holding their second Hepatitis B/Menactra/HPV clinic at UCC.

The following vaccines will be given:

• Hepatitis B, meningococcal, and human papillomavirus vaccines to Year 7 and 8 students who missed the first clinic. The location will be in the Prep Dining Hall, with Year 8 students scheduled to attend from 2–3:30 p.m. 

Please make sure your child eats breakfast the morning of the clinic and to wear short sleeves. If your child is unwell due to fever, and cannot receive their vaccinations, please notify the Health Centre as soon as possible. Any missed vaccinations that happen on the clinic date, do have options to receive their vaccines in the community. Students in Years 9 to 12 can get their vaccines through a TPH community clinic (appointments are required and can be booked online) or through their doctor’s office, where your physician can order the vaccine directly from public health.

A final reminder that the Meningitis (Men-C-ACYW-135 vaccine) vaccination or a valid exemption is required for students 12 years of age and older for school attendance. If your child has not received Menactra, or it has been over five years, Toronto Public Health does recommend a booster. Hepatitis B and HPV are optional.

Additional information and consent forms can be found here:

• School immunization consent form

• Hepatitis B, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and Meningococcal vaccine fact sheets

• Student and parent check sheet

• SIP facts and checklist

• Frequently Asked Questions

• Translation insert

If you wish to review what your child received at the last TPH clinic in the fall, you can do so directly on the TPH website. Questions or clarification on attending the vaccination clinic can be directed to health.centre@ucc.on.ca.

Thank you all for your cooperation!

Health Centre Team

Upper Health Centre ext. 2270

Year 8 pancake breakfast celebration 

All students in Year 8 are warmly invited to our annual end-of-year breakfast celebration on Wednesday, May 15. We ask that parents/guardians complete this permission form on behalf of their student as an RSVP by Monday, May 13. The cost of the breakfast is $15 (to be invoiced to your UCC account).

Time and location: 8:20–9:20 a.m. in the Lower Dining Hall

Gillian Levene and Alvin Jugoon

Year 8 | Trip to Toronto's Medieval Times

Dear Year 8 Families,

As we look to round out a very successful year full of building community and social connections, we would like to invite your student to join us for a trip to Toronto’s Medieval Times (10 Dufferin Street, Toronto) on Saturday, June 1 at 4:30 p.m. 

Students would be required to make their own way to the venue to meet us at 3:50 p.m., and students would also be required to make their own way home. The show finishes at approximately 7 p.m. The cost, which includes dinner, taxes and gratuities, is $85 per student.

This will be a fun trip for the Year 8s and they will be supervised by Mr. Jugoon and Ms. Levene. We require you to fill out this trip permission form by Monday, May 13. Payment will be made via invoice to your student’s UCC account.

Many thanks for your support and best wishes!

Gillian Levene and Alvin Jugoon

Year 12 | Leaving Class FAQs and information

Date: Saturday, May 18

Location: Upper Canada College

Ceremony: Hewitt Athletic Centre

Reception: Massey Quad

Schedule of events:

Detailed instructions for graduates: 

Please note that this document, as well as more detailed instructions for graduates, has been emailed to the Leaving Class students. Mr. MacDougall will also be reviewing the processional, recessional, and ceremony protocol with the graduates the day before at the Leaving Class Dinner. 

Ceremony Overview: The ceremony will include opening remarks from our Principal Sam McKinney, presentations of diplomas and awards, as well as remarks from the class valedictorian and closing remarks from the Head of the Upper School Dr. Jeff Aitken.  

Following the ceremony, all will be invited for a reception in the Massey Quadrangle. There will be buffet-style food stations with a variety of light food options and desserts. While there is no formal seating in the quad, cruiser-style tables will be placed throughout. Two photo booths will be located in the quad, one of which will be staffed by a hired professional photographer. 

What is the dress code?

Guests: Families may dress in business casual attire; traditional or religious dress is welcome.

Graduates: The dress code for graduates is First Dress, UCC house tie, cap and gown. Stewards wear their UCC blue blazers (not the white blazer). Caps and a rental gown will be provided by UCC. Students have submitted their requested sizing for the gown rental and will be required to pick it up in their house locker room immediately prior to the ceremony, and they will return it to the house locker room following the reception. The cap can be kept as a memento. More details will be provided directly to students with direction as needed by Andrew MacDougall Assistant Head of the Upper School. Please note that there will be a fee charged to your student account for gowns not returned.

Photography:

UCC has hired a professional photographer who will capture a photo of your graduate as they receive their diploma. Additionally, our photographer will be taking a class photo of students in First Dress prior to the graduation ceremony, and a photo of students in their gowns tossing their caps following the ceremony.These photos will be available to families a few weeks following the Leaving Ceremony. 

There will be another photographer present at the reception following the ceremony to capture photos of graduates and their families. These photos will also be made available to families in the weeks following the ceremony. 

Live stream:

The Leaving Ceremony will be live-streamed beginning at 9:45 a.m. Please click here to watch the ceremony, which is also being recorded. This link can be shared with family or friends who are unable to attend the ceremony.

Is the Hewitt Athletic Centre wheelchair accessible?

Yes, it is wheelchair accessible. If you require accessibility assistance of any kind, you are asked to email leaving.ceremony2024@ucc.on.ca to advise us of your specific needs. We have also accounted for all the requests that have been made while sending in your RSVPs.

Is there assigned seating?

No, seats are available on a first come, first served basis beginning at 9 a.m. on May 18.

Where can we park?

The Avenue, arena parking lot and the “Parkin surface” will all be available for parking. Guests who have an accessibility parking sticker will be accommodated to park in the west lot. The Bishop Strachan School has kindly made parking available on its premises at 298 Lonsdale Rd. Guests may park in their Lonsdale Road turnaround, the Warren Road or Russell Hill Road surface parking spots between 9 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. BSS is a short five- to seven-minute walk from the College.

Guests with mobility requirements can be dropped off at the west parking lot beginning at 8:45 am and there will be staff there to greet and direct them. 

We look forward to seeing you at the Leaving Ceremony!

RECORDING | How to help your teen through exam stress

On Monday, May 6 the PO Community Events team hosted a virtual talk on strategies to support students through exams. Key speakers were UCC’s Associate Academic Dean and Executive Director of the Wernham West Centre for Learning Kathryn Barnes and Upper School Counsellor Caitlin Dobie. Please click here to access the recording. 

From the wings

Visiting creator Connie Walker brings Year 10 language and literature curriculum to life

Tuesday, April 30 marked the much-anticipated arrival of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Connie Walker. Recently named one of the most influential people of 2024 by Time Magazine, Ms. Walker visited Laidlaw Hall to deliver an inspirational and sobering account of her journey to become one of Canada’s leading investigative journalists. She traced her story growing up in Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, her early days working for CBC Newsworld through to her eventual transition to podcasting. Her story highlighted the prejudice she and other Indigenous journalists face in trying to elevate Indigenous stories in the media.

This visit was particularly impactful for our students as they recently completed a unit of study on Ms. Walker’s podcast Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s. This season of the Stolen series focused primarily on Connie Walker’s own family history at Residential School in Duck Lake, Saskatchewan. Our Year 10 students explored the unique elements of style of podcasting as a medium and delved into thematic analysis of the role storytelling plays in familial and cultural identity. Prior to Ms. Walker’s arrival, students generated a list of questions on everything from producing a podcast to conducting difficult interviews. These questions formed the basis for the student panel discussion which followed Ms. Walker’s opening presentation.

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

UCC Marketplace to close last day of May

If you’ve been putting off sizing up your son’s spirit wear, don’t wait much longer. The website to purchase Blue Army trucker hats, sweatshirts and t-shirts for the 2023–24 school year will close on Friday, May 31. You can also find UCC Yetis, pyjamas, tote bags and game day chairs. Please click here to make purchases before then. Pick-up will be arranged before summer break. 

Relay for Life 2024 — one more event in the books!

Dear UCC Community,

From the students on this year's Relay planning committee, thank you all once again for your support of our Relay for Life event this year! Extra special thanks for those who attended in person! 

We raised $324,000 this year. This amount combined with our fundraising results over the past 5 years means that the COSSOT Relay for Life Event hosted at UCC has raised over $1 million in total for cancer research in Canada.

To our facilities team, housekeeping team, Aramark kitchen team, security team, arena team and PO team — thank you for all your support and your kindness along the way! Thank you also to both Upper School and Prep School PE teams for giving up the Oval for the cause.

Shout out to our late-night clean-up crew, Mr. MacDougall, Mr. Roberts, Dr. Aitken, the student boarders and their leaders Mr. Heffernan and Dr. Morris. 

Student trips for March Break 2025

Camps International: Discover Costa Rica 

Plan for it now! This upcoming March break we will once again be offering international Experiential Learning Trips to all Upper School students. UCC is partnering with Explorica and Camps International to offer a service-focused experience in Costa Rica from March 16–25, 2025. Spaces are available for 14 students.

Join us on Wednesday, May 22 at 7 p.m. for an in-person parent information session with a representative from Explorica.

This trip meets the requirements of a Duke of Edinburgh's International Silver Award, Qualifying Journey. UCC will be partnering with BSS for pre-departure and post-trip seminars specifically for this trip next school year.

Plan for it now! UCC is partnering with Operation Wallacea International to offer a science-focused experience in Peru from March 16–25, 2025. Spaces are available for 14 students.

Join us Wednesday, May 22 at 6:30 p.m. for a virtual parent information session with a representative from OPWALL here.