SMUS Gambit! Ryan and the Chess Club decided to capitalize on the beautiful weather and moved their games outside!
No better way to enjoy the sun with a little live music!
Richard and Junya decided to set up an acrobatic photo shoot for themselves on the field. I believe the COVID-19 experts call this “vertical social distancing”.
Adam L, Louis, Subaig, Richard, Robbie, Eric X and Joshua M were all involved in midweek rugby practice. Looking sharp team!
Eric X, Frank, Phong, Darrell and Richard took advantage of the great weather and set up shop outside. Looks like they are working hard!
Mrs. Jones took the Grade 11s through a variety of leadership activities in preparation for next year. How many of the Bolton guys can you spot?
Junya, Richard and Robbie, along with a few Timmis girls, reigned in the weekend by flexing their culinary muscles and cooking up some delicious, homemade fried chicken! As you can see in the video, the chefs involved agreed to divulge their cooking secrets in the exclusive interviews.
While the students may be dreaming of an end in school year in sight, this time of year affords the opportunity for our Grade 11 students in boarding to think forward to their Grade 12 year, where their leadership skills will be called upon as the senior-ist of senior students.
At the Senior School during the day, Mrs. Jones and Mr. Driscoll have worked on a wonderful plan to expose our Grade 11 students to different leadership ideas and activities. The following is an excerpt from Mrs. Raechel Jones’ recent article posted to the SMUSpaper:
“Throughout their Grade 11 year, students work through a series of leadership modules to gain a better understanding of themselves. The program was inspired by the work of Kouzes and Posner’s The Leadership Challenge and their Five Practices of Leadership which include ‘Model the Way’ and ‘Enable Others to Act.’ During leadership sessions throughout the year, the Grade 11s have completed activities to test their leadership skills: they have worked cooperatively to decide which items would be key to survival on a deserted island to ‘Inspire a Shared Vision’ and have written notes to a friend “just to say hello” and to ‘Encourage the Heart.’
Students who may not have considered themselves leaders have become aware of when they do take initiative, whether it be captaining a school sports team, or completing group projects in academic courses. Each year, I appreciate the wide range of responses from the students as they interpret what leadership means to them.
Below are a few of the responses from this year’s Grade 11 students reflecting on the values that inspire them on a daily basis to be better leaders:
“Empathy has allowed me to look from other people’s perspectives and to relate to them, create friendships, have meaningful conversations and be kind.”
“Discipline means taking the hard road to what’s right for others and yourself. … Discipline will put you on your path towards a high quality of life.” “
Check out this article from Mrs. Jones for the full story.
In boarding, we continue this leadership development from a house-specific perspective. This Sunday was the chance for the future Grade 12’s of Bolton House to get together, reflect on their leadership abilities, and imagine a house full of Grades 9-12 next year including many new students.
Here are some pictures from the first event: The Spider’s Web! (Each student had to go through a unique hole in the web without touching the lines, but they figured out soon that they definitely needed teamwork and communication!
We then continued in Brown Hall with some other leadership exercises and discussion, followed by a tasty pizza and chicken dinner!
It was also a busy day with house games earlier in the day: Cardio Pictionary was a pretty good time! Here are some videos of the action!
Also, to end the blog today – here is a video of Will’s first race on the water in his quad with Diego and two other Senior School students! Impressively, this was only his second time on the water!