Aldershot School

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Aldershot School
Address
50 Fairwood Place West Burlington, Ontario, L7T 1E5, Canada
Information
School board	Halton District School Board
Area trustee	Mary-Elizabeth Dilly
Principal	Ron Maruya
Vice principal	Marg Parsons, Gus Mihailovich
School type	Public School
Grades	7 to 12
Language	English, Core French, French Immersion
Motto	Veritas Nos Ducat Truth Shall Lead Us
Mascot	Lion
Team name	Aldershot Lions
Colours	Green and Gold
Founded	1962
Enrollment	Under 725 (2007)
Homepage	http://ald.hdsb.ca/

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Aldershot School, also known as Aldershot High School, is a grade 7-12 school located in the Aldershot community in the south-western corner of Burlington, Ontario. Although the current school was constructed in the mid 1900's, the original Aldershot School was built in 1870^[1], making for the oldest continued name of an educational institution in Halton region.

Originally a high school (grades 9-12), in 2001 grades 7 and 8 were added to the school to make use of some of its excess capacity. The school's enrollment is approximately 500 high school students and 200 elementary school students. Since 2003, the school has made dramatic improvements in student achievement and student provisions.

1 Aldershot Vision
2 Rankings
3 School Events
4 Athletics
5 Other Accomplishments
6 Miscellaneous
7 Notable alumni
8 See also
9 External links
10 References

[edit] Aldershot Vision

The Aldershot Vision reads: "Aldershot is an inclusive environment that develops and challenges individuals to learn and live responsibly in a global community."

The school's Latin motto, Veritas Nos Ducat (meaning Truth Shall Lead Us), speaks to a remarkable honour system in place during the 1970s. At that time, any misplaced belonging in the school was essentially guaranteed to make its way to its rightful owner, and in some cases, take-home exams were permitted, bearing that the student not use outside information and write the school motto on his or her test. The remnant of this implicit system is in the school's also traditional, annual Honour Society listing, which notices students who have achieved distinctions in academics at a level of above 80% in every course being taken.

[edit] Rankings

Scores based on EQAO scores and literacy tests place Aldershot far and above other schools in Halton, having been ranked first for performance by the Halton District School Board's (HDSB) annual reviews. It was the top rated school in Halton according to Toronto Sun (2007), and the 13th best school in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). From 2003 onward, the school's rankings have fluctuated within the top 50 schools in the province, arriving at the 2007 rank of #16, and 2008 rank of #12 school in Ontario, according to the Fraser Institute.^[2]

Halton itself has been ranked by Maclean's national crime ranking report as being the safest place to live in the GTA, and one of the top 15 in Canada.^[3]

[edit] School Events

Annual events run by the school's Student Leadership Team include: Relay For Life (May), Spring Carnival (May), Beach Day (March) and more. Other regular events include the Semi-Formal Dance, Prom and Pep Rallies.

[edit] Athletics

The school's performance in athletics has been marked by numerous regional wins, despite being one of the smallest schools in Halton (In Halton D3 football Aldershot is half the size of the next smallest school, Lester B. Pearson) such as Sr. Boys Volleyball OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations) favorites for second straight year 2006 & 2007.

The 2004 Aldershot Football Junior Football team is considered by many to be the most dominate junior program of all time. The team average over 40 points per game and had an undefeated record of 9-0. The team was led by Lucas Van Beek, Sean Donnel, T.J. DuHamel, and Terry Hetherington.

Individual student achievement has been great, such as those of skaters Carla Coveart and Catherine DeVries as members of Canada's highest achieving synchronized skating team^[4], NEXXICE for the period of 2005-2008.

Female sports teams at the school are often called the Aldershot 'Lady Lions'.

2008 Basketball:

Aldershot's Elementary boys basketball team finished in second place in the regular season with a record of 8-1. Aldershot then defeated Rolling Meadows in the first round of the playoffs to go to the finals against Central Elementary School. The team lost to Central though in the finals.

Aldershot Elementary Basketball Team Roster:

Point Guard-Paul Howarth, Shooting Guard-Cole Clemontino, Small Foward-Jor Christian Paler, Power Foward-Matthew ("Coop") Cooper, Centre-Dylan("Big D") Thayer

Bench:

Nick Quinn (SF,PF), Graham Kelly (C,PF), Jordan Peacock (SF,PF), Ryan Dinney (SG,SF), Usman Baig (SG,SF), Richard Males (SG), James Rybicki (SF,PF),

Coaching:

Head Coach: Nick Manjolovic, Assistant Coaches: Mike Wark, Alyssa Blakey, Omar Razek, Manager: Omar Razek

In the regular season, Paul Howarth led all scorers with an average of 13.5 ppg. Dylan Thayer led all players in rebounding with 12.4 rpg. Jor Christian Paler leads in steals with 2.6 spg.

[edit] Other Accomplishments

Aldershot has had a significant presence in music competitions both in the past and at present^[5]; achieving gold, silver and bronze medals in regional and provincial competitions such as MusicFest Canada and the OBA Concert Band Festival, at both junior and senior band levels. In 2008, both Junior and Senior Bands achieved a gold level at MusicFest Canada.

Aldershot has been noted within the Halton Board and even the province of Ontario for innovative and unique initiatives. These include the ECO Studies program^[6] - a Specialist High Skills Major program in conjunction with the Royal Botanical Gardens, Ontario - and the consistent integration of both elementary and secondary students through Halton's first Link Crew program, a creative breakfast program for students, and a range of extracurricular options on par with schools of over 2000 students.

One of the two 2007-2008 HDSB Student Trustees^[7], Jason Bhopalsingh, is an Aldershot student and the school's first Student Trustee elected to the Board.

[edit] Miscellaneous

The equivalent of a Student Council at Aldershot has been called the Aldershot Student Leadership Team (SLT) for decades, and is unique amongst other provincial high schools for not only having a non-traditional name, but a non-traditional structure, with no such designation as President, Prime Minister etc.

The Aldershot School mascot is a stylized golden lion, most often represented clawing upward to a stylized medieval crown.^[8] A traditional symbol/marking at the school is a simplified, pawprint (consisting of 4 circular shapes).