Events

This spring, SHS has been a busy place with many great events taking place. Syd's Cafe was a hit, with the theme "Family Ties" and saw families performing together! Read more here in the Frontenac News. Congratulations to all performers and thank you to our organizers. In May we also hosted our first Car Show and community breakfast and despite the rain, those who attended enjoyed seeing classic cars while enjoying pancakes. The month culminated with our Relay for Life event, which saw the SHS community raise over $10,000 for cancer research. Thank you to those who donated and to our School Council led by Ms. Plumb, Ms. Garrison, Bella Thake, and Jorja Steele. It was an amazing day of fun while giving back to a greater cause.

Field Trips

Our students have been fortunate this month to experience a variety of out of school events connected to their subject areas. Some examples include: our Law classes attending the Court House, History classes experiencing the Royal Ontario Museum (Gr. 11) and visiting the Diefenbunker and War Museum (Gr. 10), SHSM Arts students to a recording studio in Port William, our School to Community classes experienced a train ride to Toronto and saw the Lion King in Theatre, our Explore classroom also went to Toronto and explored Ripley's Aquarium, SHSM students attended the Chainsaw Certification course, our Grade 9 Science class went to Elbow Lake, Kinesiology and Biology students attended labs at Queen's University, and the list goes on! Thank you to our staff for organizing these meaningful experiences for our students.

Athletics

Many of our spring teams have completed their seasons, and I am excited to share some exciting results with you. Our JR boys soccer team earned a berth to EOSSA and captured GOLD! What an accomplishment! Also, Charlie Gerl won EOSSAA Tennis Gold and has qualified for OFSAA happening this week. Some other highlights - our Track and Field team is still going strong with many athletes advancing to OFSAA after East Regionals this past week. Our baseball team is headed to Quarterfinals this Tuesday, and our girls softball teams will be competing in a one-day KASSAA tournament this month. We will celebrate all our athletes and teams on June 10th at our annual Athletic Banquet, beginning at 4 PM.

End of Semester

As the end of the semester nears, a reminder that all summatives must be complete for each course in order to earn the credit. Our VPs, Ms. Stevens and Ms. Ward, are assisting by running Park and Produce sessions to help students complete assignments that are overdue. Our exam schedule has been posted - check the link below for dates and times of exams. Students are expected to be present on their exam dates.

Thank you to Jorja Steele and Bella Thake, our amazing co-presidents of the 2024-2025 school year. With their leadership, our student body experienced many great events, culminating with Relay for Life, which raised over $10,000 for cancer research and gave us a new tradition to continue in years to come.

Thank you also to our student grade representatives and other positions on council, it is truly a great team of students who volunteer their time to ensure student voice is heard. Special thanks to Ms. Plumb and Ms. Garrison for their leadership as staff advisors.

Congratulations to Brynn Gargaro and Katrina Olsen, our incoming co-presidents for the 2025-2026 school year. A reminder to all students that anyone can attend council meetings - all are welcome!

Congratulations to our students who competed at the Provincial Skills Competition in Toronto. Well done to all!

• Dominic Ashley - Precision Machining - 20th
• Jacob O’Reilly - Computer Aided Manufacturing - 6th
• Hailey Olner - Workplace Safety - 17th
• Trentin Richardson - Job Interview Skills - 15th
• Aurora Scanlan - Prepared Speech - 9th

Thank you to our staff advisors who have prepared these students for competition!

June - Pride and Indigenous History Month

June 4 - Grad Breakfast 8 AM

June 4/5 - SHSM Hoisting and Rigging

June 5 - KASSAA Girls Softball

June 6 - Track and Field OFSAA

June 10 - Athletic Banquet

June 12/13 - Indigenous Beading Workshop with Jessi Di Rocco

June 16 - School Council Meeting @ 7:15 pm

June 17/18 - Grade 12 Summatives and Exams
June 19 - 25 - Summatives and Exams

June 21 - National Indigenous Peoples Day

June 26 - SHS Graduation 2:00 PM Gymnasium

June 27 - PA Day

For Pride month, we will celebrate and recognize the achievements and contributions of LGBTQ2S+ communities and reflect on our own impact in creating a safe and inclusive environment. We encourage all our Golden Eagles to join other LDSB schools and students on June 14 at 12:00pm for the Kingston Pride Parade. Everyone is welcome!

June is National Indigenous History Month. In recognizing National Indigenous History Month, we celebrate and honour the diversity, culture and history of Indigenous peoples in Canada. At SHS, our Indigenous Matters group continues to learn about Indigenous ways of knowing and being. This past month, a group of students were fortunate to experience a day on the land with members of our LDSB Indigenous Ed Team. In June, we have workshops with Jessi Di Rocco, planned where students will learn traditional Indigenous beading with associated lessons in French (grade 9 French) and associated geographic lessons (grade 9 Geography).

A reminder to all students of a few great volunteer opportunities available to students. Remember, you need 40 hours of community service to be awarded your Ontario Secondary School Diploma.

Chair and PIC representative: Vanessa Wood

Vice-Chair: Chris Hammer

Secretary: Derek Snider

Safe Schools Rep: Julie Bomba

Teacher Rep: Katherine English

Treasurer: Molly Slate

Members: Kelly Crain, Darren Rayner, Kelly Reade

Our next and final meeting of the year is scheduled for June 16 @ 7:15 PM in the library. A virtual option is also available (email slatem@limestone.on.ca). Everyone is welcome.

If you are interested in being a part of the Parents of Sydenham High School Facebook group, please search up this group and the administrator will grant you access. Thank you to Chris Hammer for taking this on as a member of our School Advisory Council.

SHS 2024-2025 Yearbooks are now on sale! Yearbooks are $40. You can order on school-day. The yearbook captures memories from Sept. 2024- June 2025 and will be delivered in the fall of 2025. Orders are due June 24, 2025.

Students who have questions about timetables, pathways, post-secondary, or classes in general can make an appointment at any point in the semester to meet with a counsellor. You can make an appointment by emailing a counsellor (visit the staff website page for all emails) or book an appointment through the online booking system by grade (Gr. 9 – Mr. Rob McDougall, Gr. 10 – Ms. Michelle Fraser, Gr. 11 – Mr. Mike Love, and Gr. 12 – Mrs. Katherine English, ACW - Mr. Josh Goodfellow)

The clinic offers free immediate 1-hour counselling sessions to children, youth, young adults, parents/ caregivers and families with no appointment necessary. The walk-in clinics runs from 10am until 4:45pm. Maltby Centre has more information about the clinics and full schedule available on their website.