A Year in Review

A lot has happened in 2023, and we have much to be proud of! Read on for a sampling of our highlights and accomplishments from this past year!

• Melissa Knight-Johnson was appointed as the new Head of School.

• Students Sahithi G. and Yaashika H. were Jr. Badminton Doubles Champions.

• We continue to build student capacity in our Future-Ready competencies with a focus on critical thinking and informed decision-making through the support of the Critical Thinking Consortium (Garfield and Laura Gini-Newman).

• The Castle Band and our Castle Singers won Gold at MusicFest Canada Nationals (our String Ensemble has been invited to MusicFest Canada Nationals 2024).

• At the MATE competition in Newfoundland, the Trafalgar Waldo Robotics team placed 3^rd in the robot demonstration, 2^nd in the engineering presentation and won the “Humpback Award” for best team spirit! They’ve also been recommended for the World competition in Colorado!

• Our U14 Volleyball team won Bronze, and our Senior Volleyball team won first place in their divisions (our Senior team currently remains undefeated!).

• Within the first four months of the 2023-2024 school year, 93% of our graduates have already received offers from universities across Ontario and internationally (and more acceptances come in every day!).

• Also within the first four months of the 2023-2024 school year, more than $170,000 in scholarships have been offered to our graduates. These include Fordham University’s Loyola Scholarship and Tuition Award, Queen’s University’s Arts and Science International Admissions Award and their Principal’s Scholarship and Western University’s Scholarship of Distinction.

• May Day, one of the School’s longest-standing traditions, was reimagined. We’ve changed the name from May Court to May Day and replaced the May Court Queen and Counsellors with five student representatives who best exemplify our school’s current values of Determination, Imagination, Resilience, Kindness and Insight. Also, the significance of the traditional Maypole dance has shifted to a celebration of the Houses that unite our community.

• Our Castle Singers had the honour of performing on the grand staircase in the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park.

• Fifi A. won Gold in the U14 High Jump, and Sharon O. took home Bronze in the U10 100-meter.

• Our Giving Tuesday campaign was a great success, raising $9,600 towards Trafalgar’s Annual Fund.

• We’ve increased generative AI instruction in a variety of classes, supported by professional training provided by the Future Design School

• Our Senior Field Hockey team finished 2^nd place in Division One and made the semi-finals.

• Our Grade 9 student, Izevbuwa, participated in STEM Hacks 2023, where she was responsible for coding on a team of four students. Her team came in 3^rd place out of 27 teams.

• More than 100 pieces of artwork created by our Visual Arts students were displayed at the Station Gallery.

• Head of School and Lieutenant Commander Mrs. Melissa Knight-Johnson had a busy Remembrance Day weekend when she joined Jeff Musson, Executive Director of Coding for Veterans, the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development David Piccini, MPP Todd McCarthy and more in opening the TSX in honour of military veterans and members of the Canadian Armed Forces. She also participated in HMCS York’s Citizenship Ceremony, where she welcomed 187 new Canadians as they took their oath of Citizenship. As though that’s not enough, she was also honoured at the Oshawa Generals’ Remembrance Day Game!

• Our Grade 8 Cross Country Running Team placed 2^nd at the TCS Invitational Meet, and Kayley H. came in 3^rd place overall.

• All our Cross Country Runners ran Personal Bests at the CISAA Championships.

• It was a jam-packed year of on-stage performances for our arts students: our musical theatre production of Newsies was a hit, our Spring and Winter Vocal and Instrumental Concerts struck a chord with audiences, our Castle Singers and Castle Chorale performed at the Ontario Vocal Festival, and a group of students from our Castle Band, Castle Chorale and Castle Singers were selected to participate in the CIS Music Festival.

• We’ve expanded the Citizen Science program to leverage our local environment here at the School where students from Grades 4-12 sampled biodiversity, explored habitats and contributed to a variety of biomonitoring databases. These included Caterpillars Count, water quality sampling at Pringle Creek and contributing to the Ontario Benthic Macroinvertebrate Network

• The success of this year’s Holiday Market not only attracted hundreds of our community members but also garnered media attention!