Hawthorne Public School (Ottawa)

Hawthorne Public School is a school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 2158 St. Laurent Blvd and represents around 210 students from Kindergarten to Grade Eight from over 50 countries around the world. Hawthorne Public School is home to many programs, including English as a Second Language (ESL), the General Learning Program (GLP), Special Education (SELC) and the Gifted Program.

History

Hawthorne has a history that dates back to 1859, when the settlers of Green's Corners, a farming village southeast of Ottawa, built a small log schoolhouse.^[1] It was replaced in 1873 by a wood-frame structure, and probably became known as the Graham Schoolhouse.^[2] In 1873, the village postmaster chose to rename the village "Hawthorne," but it is not known exactly when the name became attached to the schoolhouse, which had also been known as School Section # 16 (SS #16) since 1859. It is clear that by the time that a new, red-brick building was constructed by John Alexander in 1899, it was called Hawthorne Public School. Each of the three schoolhouses had been in slightly different locations within the village, which was centred on the intersection of Walkley, Russell and Hawthorne Roads. The one-room schoolhouse of 1899 served the area until January 1961, when the current two-storey, multi-classroom school opened on St. Laurent Blvd. to serve what was by then a burgeoning suburb. The official opening was held in February 1963.^[3] The school initially included Grades 1 through 6, but in 1968 a new wing opened for Grade 7 and 8 students.

Academics

Hawthorne is known for its strong mathematics program. In the City Wide Regional Math Olympics, Hawthorne has won several times. This is mainly attributed to Hawthorne's strong gifted program, with the only competition being Glashan and Katimavik Public School. For the past two years, Hawthorne has sent a team to the provincial Math Olympics. For the past several years, Hawthorne has also sent many students to the Regional Science and History Fairs, with many award recipients. Hawthorne has also sent some teams to the All Science Challenge, a local science-trivia competition between citywide grade 7s and 8s. However, due to the lack of high schools with a gifted program near the school, most children coming out of the gifted program end up using cross-boundary transfers to attend other schools. High schools that Hawthorne students attend after graduation include Lisgar, Bell, Merivale, Colonel By, Canterbury, Hillcrest, and Ridgemont.

In 2006, a book called Hawthorne Writes was published with the help of fundraising and donations from the families of children involved with the project. The book featured stories written by students of Hawthorne in the format of the popular series "Chicken Soup." Stories in the book came from a large array of grades from grade 1 to grade 8, with stories written by faculty as well. The stories were then translated into many different languages by parents, teachers and students in order to promote and display the school's multiculturalism. After completing their stories students were able to choose an available language to translate their story into. Languages included English, French, Chinese, Spanish and Romanian. Media coverage was present from many different stations. Every student got to take home a copy of the Hawthorne Writes book in exchange for a donation of $8 or more (although the donation was technically optional, it was encouraged nonetheless).

Classes and Programs

There are many classes at Hawthorne, including gifted classes and ESL classes. The grade 1/2 gifted class merged with the grade 3/4 gifted class in the fall of 2008, and subsequently, the grade 1 gifted was removed. Because of these events, there was a class with three grades, which could lead to uneven education among the students, as the curriculum of grade 1 and grade 3 students is significantly different(in grade one most students would be learning basic vowels and pronunciations while in grade 3 the curriculum extends to multiplication). These events led to questioning among both students and parents as to why the funding for the gifted program is so low as to force the school into integrating three grades into one class. In the fall of 2010, the Grade 2 gifted class was eliminated, leaving only Grades 3 through 8 gifted classes at Hawthorne. And, in the summer of 2012, the Grade 3 gifted class was eliminated, leaving only the juniors and intermediates the option of joining the gifted program.

Athletics

Basketball

Hawthorne Public School was recognized for their strong basketball program. They had a streak from 2001-2007 and 2009 where they won the Regional Championship gold medal(s) in the Southeast Region of the Ottawa Carleton Elementary Athletic Association every year. Their crowning achievement was an Intermediate Boys City Championship in the 2002-3 season. Hawthorne has sent 3 players on to the NCAA: including Shayok Shayok (UMKC), Marial Shayok (UVA) Yar Shayok (Detroit), as well as Abeer Farhat (CIS -Carleton) Jennifer Wolfe-Bard (OCAA-Algonquin), Greg Carter (CIS - Lakehead University) Henock Araia (CIS - Windsor) Girum Musema (OCAA - Algonquin) Braeden Wilkinson (OCAA - Georgian) Samatar Ahmed (Professional in Qatar). Hawthorne was and is a feeder school for many of Ottawa's top teams including Ridgemont, Hillcrest and more importantly ST. Patrick's who has been at the top of the city standings for almost two decades. In recent years Hawthorne has given grounds to Roberta Bondar in the Southeast region.

Badminton

In the 2008-2009 year, Radu P and Chuheng Xing won first place in the board finals. In the 2009-2010 year, the Intermediate Boys badminton team won the board competition. The team members were Chuheng Xing and Brian Wang.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hawthorne Public School (Ottawa).

• http://www.hawthorneps.ocdsb.ca
• http://esip.edu.gov.on.ca/english/profiles/school_info.asp?ID=B66184&schoolid=250848
• http://www.ocdsb.ca/PDF%20files/profiles/2008_2009/HAWT.pdf