It takes a great amount of courage to take a risk and put your skills to the test; especially in a board-wide competition.

On April 6, 23 North Addington students did just that and finished very strongly in seven, rigorous, skill-based competitions at St Lawrence College against students from Limestone District School Board and the Algonquin & Lakeshore Catholic District School Board.

Kaden Snider, Bradley Kavanaugh-Sweeney, Bryce Runions and David Chen, the first ever Elementary Team members at NAEC, won gold in 2D Computer Animation with a huge score of 83%.

Andrew Freeburn fired up his torch and made a very strong showing in the Welding competition.

In TV/Video Team of Two: Brianna Bolduc and Aidan Brough came in 4th; filming, producing and editing an awesome PSA about going outside your comfort zone to achieve great things.

Kameron Armstrong took home a gold medal for Workplace Health and Safety and helped out at the competition during the day.

In Graphic Design Studio Production: Shannon Delyea, Emma Fuller, Denver Lucas, Terri-Lynn Rosenblath, Brittany Delyea and Noah Thibideau created fantastic designs in set time period with complex requirements. Denver Lucas won the bronze medal for his designs and Emma Fuller won the gold for hers.

Bree Gillingham, Harley Brown, Brei Burleigh, Cassidy Wilson and Shae Flager competed in the Photography competition, completing a complicated Photoshop editing test, then photographing and editing images they took of the Skills Competition. They were also judged on two polished photographs they brought with them. Bree Gillingham won the gold medal for her photographs.

In the Graphic Design Presentation competition, Austin Cunningham impressed the judges with his confident presentation and Summer Andrew demonstrated her creative design skills. At the end of the extremely competitive event, Natalie Reynolds won the Gold medal for her outstanding poster and postcard designs.

All the NAEC Gold Medal winners have qualified for Team Limestone, to compete at the Provincial Skills Competition in Waterloo, May 2 – 4, 2016. Congratulations to all of the NAEC Skills Team!

Several members of the Grade 10 Art class visited The Glass House in Kingston on March 10. Students learned how to cut, grind, foil, solder and polish stained glass, in order to make a sun-catcher. The trip was subsidized by the Guild Fund, which is donated by the North Addington Guild to promote the Arts at NAEC.

NAEC’s “Speak Up” Grant Successful

North Addington Education Centre’s Safe Society applied for a “Speak Up” grant from the Ministry of Education, and were successful in securing a $2,500 grant. The application was spear-headed by Emma Fuller, with input from core Safe Society members Mackenzie Johnson, Selena Pelicos, Harley Brown, Devin Gagne-Baldacchin, Sierra Baldacchin, Tory Tryon, and Olivia Douglas. The funds will be used for various initiatives over the next two school years. Members plan to invite speakers, plan trips, and organize events to address issues of equality based on gender, ability and ethnic origins. The Safe Society is a group of students who believe that school should be welcoming and safe for all, and who are interested in social justice.

Beyond The Hurt at NAEC

The Red Cross ran a “Beyond the Hurt” workshop at NAEC on March 7 and 8. Beyond the Hurt is a bullying and harassment prevention program that builds capacity within schools to achieve and maintain a positive school climate. It empowers youth with the knowledge and leadership skills to take an active role in a safe and respectful school culture. Youth facilitators were Selena Pelicos, Brianna Bolduc, Alex Flagler, Camille Cote, Olivia Bence and Mackenzie Johnson. Staff advisors were Mr. Kerr and Ms. Harnden. This initiative was one of the projects taken on by the Safe Society at NAEC.

Day of Pink at NAEC

NAEC is planning to celebrate the International Day of Pink on April 13. The Safe Society is working on a small presentation for the assembly. Members of the community are invited to attend. Details will follow.

On March 10, North Addington Education Centre held an indoor Winter Carnival. The event was supposed to take place in late February, but due to a series of snow days, their “winter” carnival became more of a “spring” carnival.

There were six activities in total: A food station where students were treated to hot chocolate and cookies made by Mr. Defosse’s hospitality class; “Strike a Pose”, a photo challenge; “Melting Iceburg”, a team-building activity where students found creative ways to fit on a constantly shrinking tarp; and a Scrabble activity, where students fetched letters that were hidden across the hallway, competing to create five words.

High school teacher, Mr. Sissons, was impressed with how the high school student helpers handled the event. “The best part was the way the high school students manned the events. It was awesome and pretty much flawless. If there was anything that needed to be adapted, they adapted to it right away and made changes on the fly to make the events run smoothly. We wrote down the errors that we had and are using them to go forward for the next event.”

North Addington Education Centre has started a junior music group for playing the ukulele and singing. The club meets twice a week at lunch to practice a variety of classic pop and folk songs. Practices will become more frequent as they prepare for performances.

Grade 3/4 teacher and co-founder of the ukulele group, Mr. Reynolds, is happy to revive music in the school environment. “In the past number of years, the arts have been largely ignored and underfunded due to the increased focus on literacy and numeracy. Madam Choma and I wanted to provide an opportunity for students to learn some basic music theory on a new instrument and to perform in our school talent show. Through the generous donation from the North Addington Guild, we’ve been able to purchase a number of ukuleles and guitars to start our stringed instrument club.”

The North Addington Guild makes a yearly donation to Arts education for North Addington students using revenue from their Arts Showcase, which takes place at the school.

Students in the ukulele group are already showing a lot of progress and are really enjoying their experience so far.

“The ukulele sounds really pretty”, said grade 6 student, Amber Verbruggen.

“I like the feeling of it and how you can get into it”, said grade 5 student Julia Cuddy.

Grade 6 student, Jeremy Pelicos, said that he joined the group because he “thought it would be fun”.

When asked what the club has learned so far, Alyssa Borger said, “We learned Am, F and C with our hands”. The ukulele club is planning to combine forces with the secondary choir for their talent show performance.

On February 19 students from North Addington, Granite Ridge and Madawaska Valley competed in the National Archery School Program (NASP), at North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne.

“I like archery,” said Josh Smith of NAEC. “I like making new friends and topping my own scores.”

Secondary student archers competed to show their proficiency with a bow and arrow. From distances of 10 and 15 metres, they shot at targets with 20-pound pull bows. They were scored on a scale from 0 to 10, and shot 15 times per round.

“The day has been very positive between schools,” said coach Sarah Sproule, “North Addington will be competing in the Ontario Championships this spring!”

There were 31 archers in the second annual tournament, 16 of whom were from NAEC.

“I really enjoy this archery tournament because the pressure is on,” said Sarah Lax of NAEC.

“We are excited to see three different schools come together to participate in archery,” said David Ryrie, Youth Education Manager at Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters. “It’s great to see the sportsmanship, skills improvement and the smiles on the players’ faces.” When asked about NASP, Ryrie said, “NASP was started in Ontario to encourage students to participate in the shooting sports and try a new activity that could become a lifelong passion.”

Overall, the day was on target, with Greg Garey (NAEC) with an overall score of 253 and Brittany Delyea (NAEC) with an overall score of 232, as Top Archers. NAEC won the Top Team spot in the tournament.

For more NAEC news, please follow us on Twitter @NAEC_LDSB

On February 11, NAEC students and staff travelled to Calabogie Peaks for a ski trip. A total of 59 students from grades 7-12 attended the trip. For the first part of the day, students partook in skiing lessons and later advanced to other hills.

High school student Nathan Baker was thrilled to see optimism from his peers. “Everybody was just so happy and excited about this trip. It was a good thing because the more people that are happy, the more positive the environment is”.

Grade 9 student Nathan Reid also had positive things to say. “It was difficult to learn at first, but once you got the hang of it, it was fun and easy to do”.

Grade 10 student Cassandra Parks-Delyea said that the trip was a “fun experience to get to learn a new skill”.

Despite the cold weather, everyone who was a part of the ski trip had a great experience. NAEC will be returning to Calabogie on March 4 and are looking forward to planning more ski trips next year.

Last week, Grade 7 and 8 students test-drove the awesome technology classes offered at NAEC. Students chose from a variety of tech-based courses as a transition program into secondary. They tore apart and rebuilt motors in Small Engines, made smartphone speakers in Woodshop and lit up the welding torches in the Metal shop. In the Graphics class students got to create an animation, learn photography with Photoshop and design a three-dimensional castle or vehicle to be printed on the 3D printer. In the Hospitality room, students baked cookies and did a taste test challenge. Students enjoyed their mini courses so much, many volunteered to return to do more over their lunch hour. Secondary students helped to facilitate these activities as mentors, sharing what they have learned from these courses. Stay tuned for more exciting transition activities; for real-time news follow us on Twitter @NAEC_LDSB

It started with an idea; Andre Tryon, Students’ Council Co-President, wanted North Addington to have a float in the Northbrook Santa Claus Parade. Building a float is a big undertaking, and so the Viking team rolled up their sleeves and jumped in. Denver Lucas, a Grade 11 Graphic Design student, created a 3D computer model with dimensions. “When I started to design the boat I thought it was a unique idea. I had fun making the float design in Sketch Up,” said Denver.

The next step was taking the plans over to the Grade 9 Technology class where they constructed the 16 foot Viking boat, with shields, Dragon head and mast. A large group student volunteers stayed after school to paint the boat, sail and details on the float, working into the evening. Then it was off to the Senior Transportation class to secure the boat to an 18’ trailer and rig up the lights, speakers and special effects.

Students’ Council members, and other students rode the float in the parade to show their school spirit in last Saturday’s parade.

“With great collaboration among Students’ Council, enthusiastic students and more than willing teachers, the float was a huge success! Plans for next year have already started!” said Andre.

On October 31, students from North Addington Education Centre canvassed the community in their costumes; not for candy or treats, but for non-perishable food items. Students and adults were stationed in each community: Flinton, Northbrook, and Cloyne. The response received was overwhelming. Most homes had a bag or box of food ready, and were not reluctant to contribute to the community. The event and pick up were supervised by a staff member.

The food collected will help the food bank through the winter season. Darian Smith, an NAEC student, stated, “I should just keep the costume- I’m definitely doing this again next year!”

Angela Salmond, the principal of NAEC, was excited to show her support for the event: “I am so proud of our students and would like to extend my thanks to their families and the community. There is always the worry that an event won’t be successful year after year, but Trick or Eat has only gained momentum. Thank you for investing in our students- I am very grateful”.

While this event helped stock the shelves, the winter and holiday seasons are a busy time for the food bank. An attempt was made to go to as many houses as possible, but if your donation was missed, please call North Addington at 613-336-8991 and ask for Candice Bovard; we will pick up your item(s). Items can also we dropped off at NAEC, and we will make sure that they are delivered to the Food Bank. Those requiring assistance from the Food Bank, please contact Land O’ Lakes Community Services at 613-336-8934.

On September 29, Grade 9 to 12 students and chaperones from North Addington Education Centre headed off for an overnight trip to Stratford. This trip was made possible by the very generous help given to the school by the Education Department in Stratford, who covered most of the costs. Some students chose to see “Anne Frank”, while others chose “Hamlet”.

Students had a packed agenda. On arrival in Stratford, the students toured the Anne Frank exhibit at the local museum. On September 30, they headed off for a “Warehouse” tour, in which they learned about how costumes, props and sets are made, and tried a few costumes on for size.

At 11am the students attended a “Prologue”, which was a workshop with actors from their play. Students spent an hour doing drama activities and asking questions, prior to their play’s matinee at 2pm. Featured in the “Anne Frank” prologue were Cassandra Parks, Shaelynn Flagler, Madi Lemke, and Nathan Whitelock. Students in the “Hamlet” prologue were Mackenzie Johnson, Kara Rosien, Lucas Parks and Ilia Salvaterra.

Students thoroughly enjoyed the productions they attended. Aaron Smith said, “I was not sure if I wanted to go on the trip, but I’m so glad I did as I loved Hamlet. I don’t usually go for theatre things, but it was great.” Olivia Bence, who attended “Anne Frank”, loved the set, which was “like magic” in the way parts appeared and disappeared.

Many students expressed a hope to attend another play next year.