The Woodlands School
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| The Woodlands School | |
| Address | |
| 3225 Erindale Station Road Mississauga, Ontario, L5C 1Y5, Canada |
|
| Information | |
| School board | Peel District School Board |
| Superintendent | Roger Martin |
| Area trustee | Warren Kennedy, Janet McDougald, Ruth Thompson |
| Principal | Jeanne Gray |
| Vice principal | Peter Hill, Pam Steel, Ray Kaake |
| School type | high school |
| Grades | 7-12 |
| Language | English |
| Mascot | Zain Ghadially |
| Team name | The Woodlands Rams |
| Colours | Red, Gold and White |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Enrollment | 1,444 (September 2005) |
| Homepage | http://woodlands.peelschools.org/ |
The Woodlands School in Mississauga, Ontario, is a public high school in the Peel District School Board.
The Woodlands has a diverse student body. The student population represents a variety of countries across the globe and provides a harmonious mix of cultures, religions, and languages. Given this diversity, the school has a solid English as a Second Language (ESL) program to assist new immigrants to the country, and a Peer Assisted Learning (PALS) program. Many of the PALS organizations' volunteers are former ESL students who have now mastered English.
Also, the Woodlands is a Regional Enhanced Learning Centre for the secondary gifted program. Students from the Applewood Acres satellite program also have access to The Woodlands School. Strong student performance, by individuals and teams, consistently places The Woodlands among the top academic schools in the Peel District School Board and Ontario.[citation needed]
As of September 2005, The Woodlands' superintendent is Hal Brooksie and its principal is Jeanne Grey.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Woodlands Senior Public School started in 1969 with 400 students in grades 7 and 8. While the first phase of its present building was under construction, The Woodlands operated in the Springfield Public School building. In September 1970, students and staff moved to the new building, and The Woodlands became a combined elementary and secondary school with its first grade 9 students. Today, The Woodlands has approximately 1,900 students.
The Woodlands was designed to be an open-concept school and unfortunately this idea was not very successful. Thus, after a few years the school was re-organized along traditional lines. As a result, few of the classrooms have windows and are very hot in the summer.
The Woodlands School is a regional centre for the Peel School Board, and through it offers the Enhanced Learning Program. Enhanced students enroll almost exclusively in Enhanced level courses for most academic subjects.
[edit] High school students
Students that are in grades 9 through to 12 are on the semester system and have individual timetables dependent on their course selections. The school year for secondary students has two semesters. Semester One runs from September to mid-January and is followed by examinations. Semester Two is scheduled from February to mid-June and is followed by examinations. Each semester is divided into two terms for purposes of mid-term reporting and the delivery of half-credit programs. Progress reports for students are issued after the first month of the semester. Mid-term reports are issued at the end of the first term of each semester. At the outset of each semester, all students receive, in written form, the method used to calculate the term portion of the mark in their subjects.
[edit] Elementary students
Elementary students are on a full-year schedule of three terms with most subjects taught in rotation on a four-day cycle. Report cards for each term are sent home with students in December, March and June. Elementary classes continue throughout the secondary exam periods.
[edit] Extracurricular activities
The Woodlands Senior Concert Band is known to achieve a triple gold standing, competing at the 5 level, at MusicFest throughout the past decade. Aside from competitions, the band has also been invited to several music festivals such as the Harrogate International Festival. The band has visited places such as Mozambique, Morocco, and Midtown Manhattan to participate in video game related activities.
The Woodlands Soccer team has gained a lot of potential from last year's standings where they scored 35 goals, the most in all of Peel, but unfortunately lost in the first round of playoffs. They look to gain the championship standing this year (2007).
Due to The Woodlands' focus on academics, many sports teams either preform poorly, or go unnoticed. However, the football and cricket teams have done fairly well in recent years, and usually draw a strong attendance at home games.
Other sports teams include: Badmington, Basketball, Baseball, Volleyball, Girl's Lacrosse, Track and Field, Tennis, and Archery. A men's Rugby team is currently being organized by Mr. Rosenblood, though lack of sustained interest may cause it to be cancelled.
With the school's emphasis on academics, The Woodlands preforms very well in competitions such as DECA, CNML, various University of Waterloo math and engineering contests, and various international language competitions. A good example is the Peel Region German Contest in which The Woodlands won first, second, and third in groups two and three.
The Woodlands School also has a strong Drama program, which provides a major production every year. The Drama department also fields very strong competitors in the Sears Festival, where a Wooldands play in invariably included. "Theatre Shorts" is another drama event which presents a series of one-act plays.
[edit] Mascot
A common complaint among Woodland students was the lack of a school mascot. In response to this, Zain Ghadially became the official mascot of the school in 2005. This mascot is seen as untraditional by most current faculty as he often represents The Woodlands in economic-themed competitions as well as sports. However, Zain Ghadially never fails to make an appearance at a table tennis or cricket match in which the school is competing.
[edit] Jail-like appearance
Many students from other schools often comment on the jail-like appearance of The Woodlands. The cafeteria has bars over it, and as mentioned above, few classrooms have windows which are not incorporated into classroom doors. The only rooms with views to the outside world are the Shop and Auto rooms, (these windows are near the 20ft. ceiling) various staff rooms, room 109 (music), and the Dark Room, which has blackout curtains. This last room is used by the photography class to develop photographs.
[edit] External links
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing copy edit from January 2007 | All articles needing copy edit | Articles with unsourced statements since January 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | High schools in Ontario | Educational institutions established in 1969 | Gifted education | Mississauga, Ontario
