February 7th, 2021 HILL Message (from Academic Director Rick Kunc): We live in a world of “FAST”. Fast food and an Amazon delivery in a day. We don’t call someone and leave a message, we text them and expect an immediate response. Even those little 3 dots below the message; we sit and watch those holding our breath for that response. Achieving our Highest Level of Achievement does not happen quickly. It is a journey. Because getting better isn’t FAST. In the Academic arena learning is a time-consuming rollercoaster of a process. It takes time to internalize a lesson, formulate questions, ask them, listen to answers, and think again. It takes time to ensure that we have an understanding of the subject matter. Memorizing can happen quickly, but learning needs time. It needs reflection, and it needs commitment. The same holds true in the Athletic arena. Improving our positioning on defense takes time. We need to listen to our coach, internalize the message, think about it on the field/ice, and make the change. Soon, with repeated action, feedback and reflection, we improve. Again, it is a journey and any journey takes time. The journey also has some frustration along the way, so we need to be prepared for that as well. The good news is that if you are in it for the long goal, for permanent improvement, it will come. You just have to accept that it won’t be a FAST process.
Quote of the Week: Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. -Thomas Edison ____________________________________________________________________________
Other Notes and Important Information:
Monday Morning Assembly:
There is a Monday morning assembly tomorrow. Students will tune in by clicking the Zoom link below at 8:30 am:
Monday Morning Assembly
Meeting ID: 941 8051 4520
Ministry of Education Announcement:
Last Wednesday, the Ontario Government announced that students, faculty, and staff will be returning to campus on February 16th for in-person learning. We look forward to welcoming students back to campus!
Semester 2 Student Timetables:
If students need to make a change to their semester 2 timetable, please contact guidance@thehillacademy.com with requests before Friday, February 12th, 2021.
Graduation Requirements 2020-2021:
The Ministry of Education has changed two of the requirements for students who are planning to graduate in 2020-2021. Graduating students for the 2020-2021 school year:
are not required to complete the literacy graduation requirement
must complete a minimum of 20 hours of community involvement (reduced from 40 hours)
Ontario Literacy Test 2021 (OSSLT):
The EQAO has not recently released any information on the 2021 Ontario Literacy test. We will provide more information on this assessment as it becomes available.
Pink Shirt Day and Contest!
February 24th, 2021 is Pink Shirt Day! In an effort to promote anti-bullying in positive school, work and home spaces, the organizers of pink shirt day encourage everyone to wear pink on this day to show commitment to the teaching of “empathy, compassion, and kindness”. Visit the website for Pink Shirt Day here.
The Hill Academy wants to encourage our students to engage in Pink Shirt Day by creating their very own version of a Pink Shirt day logo. A few rules:
must have "Pink shirt day" and The Hill Academy somewhere in the design
must not portray any specific individual/logo/name
should portray the artists' version of "inclusivity" or "inclusion"
Submissions for this contest are due on Friday, February 12th. A winner from the junior school and a winner from the senior school will be announced on Tuesday, February 16th. The winners will have their artwork featured on t-shirts sold for this year’s Pink Shirt day event! Email artwork to christy.flynn@thehillacademy.com
Mental Health Resources:
There are a lot of valuable resources available to families who are navigating this unusual time together. One such resource is the CMH page on COVID-19 Mental Health response found here. Our staff is also available and we encourage students or families to reach out to us. We are also building onto our Wellness Resources on the Guidance website here
Athletic Therapy during Remote Learning:
Just a reminder to all students, this is an excellent time to be addressing any injury-related concerns. Jennifer, our Athletic Therapist, is still available for assessment and therapy programming and can be reached at jennifer.bell@thehillacademy.com.
COVID-19 and Return to Campus:
As we get set to return to campus we have a few reminders in regards to COVID-19 risk mitigation. These include:
Proper wearing of your mask and ensuring that you have extra clean masks on hand. A clean mask should be worn every day and masks should be changed after physical activity and if they become damp or soiled.
Physical distancing of 2m should be maintained whenever possible
Hand hygiene should be occurring every time students enter the building from outside, before and after eating and any other time as needed. Hand sanitizing stations are placed throughout the school for when hand washing is not possible.
We also like to remind families to complete their daily COVID-19 screen when we return to campus. If a yes is reported then we please ask for you to keep your child home, where they can attend remotely and report their absence to attendance.
We thank everyone for their cooperation in keeping our campus safe.
HILL Athletics (From Athletic Director Brodie Merrill): We hope everyone was excited to hear the news on the return of school. We can’t wait to see and work with our student-athletes in-person. Today is Super Bowl Sunday and there is much being made about the matchup between the star quarterbacks Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes. Brady is widely considered the best of all time and Mahomes is looking like the incumbent. It is a battle of new school vs. old school. Although their games and style of play are very different, they share some things in common and remind us of all the twists and turns that can happen in the life of an athlete. We look at these two athletes as the pinnacle of the sports world—strong, confident, and dominant playing, arguably, the toughest position in sport. This is in extreme contrast to their high school years, where you’ll see shy, insecure, awkward, lanky teenagers. Brady lost every game on his freshmen football team and Mahomes was recruited to only two schools coming out of high school and none outside of his home state. They were both drastically overlooked and under-recruited as high school athletes. Athletes in their high school years often reach a crossroads with where they stand in the game. Much of sport is dealing with the struggle and set back. We want things to happen so quickly. The reality is it takes time to see your development through and everyone develops at a different pace. You need to exercise patience and persistence. Also, being agile and willing to adapt when things don’t go exactly as you planned or hoped. I happened to catch Patrick Mahomes subtly using his fingers to count to ten, after throwing a touchdown against the Bears. Not realizing until later that Mahomes was referring to getting drafted 10th overall and being overlooked by the Bears. Brady named a charity after the number of players drafted ahead of him. They both use past struggles, failures, and insults as constant fuel for improvement. Brady and Mahomes' strengths were overlooked when being recruited or drafted, because they are not things you can see or touch in the form of skill or athleticism, but are the things that ultimately dictate future success: heart, competitiveness, humility, deep-rooted love for what you are doing and an inner belief. I think if you can focus on growing in these areas, you will eventually find your own success in due time. I hope you enjoy watching the Super Bowl. (Another Super Bowl, another difficult year to be a Vikings fan. SMH...) Let’s have one more strong week at home getting yourself prepared to return to school, where you will be jumping onto a moving train!
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