This past summer, Stelly's in collaboration with Boulders Climbing Gym hosted the World Youth Climbing championships. The event featured 458 competitors from all around the world. The championships were run over 5 gloriously sunny days in August with close to 2000 spectators each day. Many Stelly's students could be seen volunteering their time during the summer to help the event run smoothly.

The TASK training program was launched this fall at our SD63 Saanichton Community Learning Centre.

TASK is a 5 month career program, (semester one) designed to introduce students to a wide array of trade awareness activities. Students participate in a series of technical training modules that examine some of the following trade areas:

On October 29, 2013 I met with student leaders from all of our secondary schools. Barb Menzies, School Trustee from North Saanich also attended our Superintendent/Student Leadership Group to discuss the role that young people can play in district decision making. The students present at the meeting at Parkland were excited to discuss the opportunities to have a student voice in the district. The following ideas surfaced:

All students of Royal Oak Middle School participated in the 33rd annual Terry Fox run on Thursday, September 26th. Students wore red and white to demonstrate their support and each were challenged to bring in $2 to support cancer research. The grade 8 leadership studies students helped support this successful event.

The Marine Restoration and Boat Repair Academy at Parkland Secondary was recently featured in <em>Taproot,</em> a local newsletter produced by Parkland alumni Jan and Lars Nielsen (owners of West Wind Hardwood Inc. in Sidney) and Lars' wife Shelley. Thanks for the local support!

http://www.westwindhardwood.com/taproot/2013/09/marine-restoration-and-b...

As an eventful September draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to all staff and parents for their support for education in SD63. In my travels around the district I have been able to connect with many of you and see learning in action. I stumbled on Elizabeth May talking to the Institute for Global Solutions class at Claremont. I met the new math teacher at Parkland who had designed a logic game that required interviewing many of the staff in the building.

Please check out the following for information on the new school year:

Start Times for Secondary Schools on Opening Day