Happy Thanksgiving to our extended family around the world!
It is always wonderful, in the midst of a busy term, to pause for a moment to reflect on where we are at. That is what I love about the Thanksgiving Long Weekend as it provides the opportunity to do just that.
To start off the blog this week, what could be more enjoyable than all of our Grade 12 students volunteering to sing “Baby” by Justin Bieber for the SMUS boarding open mic night. Some wonderful vocal talents on display!
With the mitigation of COVID-19 also comes the opportunity to, once again, compete in competitive sports against other schools. As the coach of the Sr. Boys Soccer team, I (Mr. Fryer), have loved the ability to work with our students to improve their confidence as athletes. There are so many lessons that can be learned from sports, so I am very thankful to be able to work with the team once again.
Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to head down and check-out the Sr. Boys Volleyball team, comprised of LeRoy, Malte, and Chris from Bolton. Here are a few freeze frame shots – I tried my best 🙂 There are also a couple of sweet videos, showing some crucial points where they eventually came out on top of Oak Bay and Belmont (only by 1 point in the Belmont game).
LeRoy said, after the game, that the crowd and the cheering from his friends makes the game so much better and that the team really thrives from that:
This weekend, some students had the chance to travel to nearby locations for Thanksgiving with family and friends. Others decided to remain on campus and take part in the festivities, including some great options for activities.
Here is a quick video of Digvijay making a slam dunk at the Flying Squirrel. Some great vertical on the leap:
Ai, Ryan B., and Noah joined students from other houses to travel to East Sooke Park for a big hike. It was such a great day for it, and Ai took some stunning photos.
All of these photos were taking by Ai, and we are thinking about getting some of them printed and framed to put on the walls of Bolton House.
A Mahjong lesson took place this week too!
It is clear that we have a lot to be thankful for in our community. But there are also areas at our school where we can all dream of improving and being better. One such area, is our relationship with Indigenous peoples, communities, and land surrounding our school campus on the territories of the W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən peoples.
Our community came together on Thursday, October 7 for our Spindle Whorls Welcome Ceremony. It was an important moment in the ongoing relationship-building between our school and local Indigenous Peoples.
In consultation with local Elders, the school was encouraged to have visual representations of local First Nations culture on our campuses. Artist Dylan Thomas (Lyackson) carved four Spindle Whorls that reinterpret our school Values – respect, courage, honesty and service – through First Nations storytelling. Spindle Whorls were historically used by the Coast Salish to spin wool, and many featured carved artwork.
For more information, check out the full story by Kyle Slavin (our school’s storyteller) below.
To end another wonderful week, the students sat down together for Thanksgiving Dinner to reflect and enjoy a wonderful turkey carving.
