Thankful

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Derek Logan

I spent the majority of my Thanksgiving weekend in Montreal with my son whose soccer team was playing in the Quebec-Ontario Cup. Watching competitive soccer while experiencing the culture and food of La Belle Province — what a great time! The Ontario victory in the two game series, by a combined score of 4-0, made the chore of getting out of Toronto… on the eastbound 401… on a Friday night… of a long weekend… much more worthwhile.

But what happened on the weekend that made it really special and memorable happened on Saturday night. A number of the dads and coaches and I went out for the evening. During our conversations, I learned that all were newcomers to Canada in the last twenty years: Carlos (Portugal), Danny (Jamaica), David (Guyana), Johnny (Iran), and Mike (Poland). They all left much behind when they immigrated, but did so in the hope of a better future for themselves and their families. Many of their stories sounded much like those my grandparents had when they immigrated from England.

These dads and coaches were all appreciative of the chance to create opportunity for themselves in Canada over the last couple of decades. I was thankful to learn of their stories and to be reminded of what a blessing it is to be Canadian.

Derek Logan
Head of School

How Do You Define Success?

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Derek Logan

This past Friday, at morning assembly, our school welcomed former Canadian Olympian Deidra Dionne. Deidra represented Canada during both the Salt Lake (2002) and Torino (2006) Winter Olympic games as a free-style (aerial) skier. She spoke to our students about goal setting, the feeling of being an Olympian, the importance of others in our achievements, and so many other insightful and important messages.

Deidra speaks to KCS.

Deidra, far right.

Deidra’s bronze medal from the Salt Lake Games.

The message that resonated with me centred on the definition of success. During her talk, Deidra mentioned her journey to compete in the Salt Lake Olympic games. She described how she and her coaches planned to get to her first Olympics so that she could eventually stand on the podium. She accomplished her goal by winning a bronze medal. By all accounts, people would consider that a success.

More importantly, she went on to describe her journey to Torino four years later. During training in Australia, she broke her neck. Given this, free-style skiing at the Winter Olympics in Italy would seem, to many of us, an unreachable destination. Not for Deidra. Once she decided she wanted to ski again, Deidra committed herself to get to Italy. And she did make it. After all of the jumps made by all of the skiers, Deidra finished 22nd in a field of 23. Given all she went through to get to Torino, she and her coaches, and all those who knew what she overcame to participate in another Winter Olympics, would consider this a success. And I think you would too.

In school, sometimes people equate success with winning awards, first place teams, and medals for some competition or another. There is no doubt you can consider all of those type of achievements success. This type of success is easily identifiable in assemblies and awards ceremonies. But there are so many other ways that our students should see themselves as successful: dealing with a difficult personal situation; overcoming a physical injury; doing something for the first time; improving their study or organizational skills, etc.

Deidra defined success in much the same way we’ve been defining success at KCS for 25 years: try your best in whatever you do. Success will follow.

Derek Logan
Head of School

There Was A Buzz Around Here Today

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Derek Logan

Today was an amazing day at KCS. Five of our teachers, including myself, had their heads shaved in support of The Terry Fox Foundation. You can see the before and after photos below and on our KCS Facebook page and through our KCS Twitter feed.

We set a goal at the beginning of the school year to raise $25 000, and if we reached the goal, the six of us had agreed to have our hair cut by Cos and Jackie from Cos on the Kingsway Salon/Spa. To see the excitement in the school leading up to today was tremendous. The students would come up to the each of us and say things like:

“Are you looking forward to having some taken off the top?”
“I can’t wait to see you bald!”
“Bzzzzzzzz.”
“Can ‘I’ cut your hair?”
“It’s going to get cold soon.”
“Hope you are enjoying your hair as its going to be gone soon.”
And my favourite, “Isn’t this great that we are helping people and their families who have cancer?”

Achieving a goal such as raising over $25K takes a little effort from a lot of people. We realize how our the parents, staff and faculty helped us raise the $25 000. A special thanks to our students who opened up their piggy banks, who asked for money for their September or October birthdays in order to donate it, and who went out into their neighbourhoods and asked for donations. It just goes to show that when many people contribute to a cause by doing what they can, it is possible to accomplish wonderful things.

Derek Logan
Head of School

Winning Without Coming in First Place

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Derek Logan

On Monday morning, our grade 3 cross country team went to their meet at Heart Lake in Brampton. I wasn’t able to attend, however, over the past 48 hours I have heard many comments from students and teachers that it was a great event. As usual, I heard about how hard our students competed, how much they enjoyed themselves, and how this event was a wonderful introduction for our youngest cross country athletes.

And then I heard another story. One that reminds me about the role an excellent coach, parent and teacher can have on a young person and how they choose to act.

One of our students fell at the beginning of the race. There was a question about whether or not he was intentionally pushed, but in the student’s words, “only the guy who pushed me will know…” He didn’t quit. Instead he got back up and ran until he couldn’t run anymore. After he finished running his friends came by, offered words of encouragement and checked in on him. Another student helped him by going to get his lunch off the bus. All wonderful gestures and not surprising from the students at KCS. What made this story even more heartwarming was what happened when the student realized he could not keep running. In the middle of the race, another boy stopped running himself and helped his classmate find a teacher. After he did this, the student got back in the race and finished it. The runner who was hurt said to his mom afterwards, “[He] stopped to help me”.

To Zach and Daniel, thanks for your efforts on behalf of our cross country team. More importantly, thanks for doing what is right. I’m proud to know both of you and you can be on my team any day.

Derek Logan
Head of School

Advice to Your Younger Self

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Derek Logan

Earlier this summer, I came across this article online on the ESPN website. Some insightful messages to us all regardless of whether or not we are athletes. What advice would you have given your younger self if you could go back in time?

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/9418365/notes-younger-self

Derek Logan,
Head of School

Hope for Habits for Today and for the Future

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ms. Gaudet

This past week was National Volunteer Week and Earth Week. The thing about celebrating weeks like this is that we hope that we raise awareness of important ideas. What we really hope will happen is that those ideas spread!

We have Earth Week activities at KCS:

Meatless Monday
Trashless Tuesday
Walk to School Wednesday
Turn off the Lights Thursday
Fill your Water Bottle Friday
Grade 7 service learning students reminded classes about energy conservation, water conservation, recycling, rain forest preservation, and more.
Grade 1 students participated in workshops presented by older students about water conservation and recycling.
Grade 2 students read books, wrote poems, and made posters about helping the planet.
Grade 3 students planted seeds and prepared soil experiments.
Grade 4 and 6 students cleaned up the school grounds and surrounding areas.
Grade 5 students will be calculating their eco-footprint using a carbon footprint calculator online.
Grade 7 students did a creative assignment about sustainable happiness. Sustainable happiness is ‘happiness that contributes to individual, community and/or global wellbeing and does not exploit other people, the environment, or future generations.’ (C. O’Brien)
Grade 8 students viewed Sharkwater, a film about sharks, their habitat, and the effects of humans on their ecosystem.

What we hope will happen is that our community learns about being friendly to the environment. We hope that they incorporate green habits that they will have for their whole lives, not just during Earth Week. We show this by having green habits integrated into our daily lives at KCS.

Similarly, we love and appreciate our volunteers at KCS! We don’t wait until volunteer week to thank them! Increasingly, our students are volunteering in our school and in the surrounding community. Once one person tells others how they volunteered to help, many of their peers are willing to join in the joy that comes from helping others. We are grateful to them and proud that they are making a difference.

Here are some of the many ways that students are volunteering:

Mentoring younger students
Providing lunch leadership to younger students
Leading chapels and assemblies
Conducting tours of our school to guests
Making gift baskets for local women’s shelters
Helping at a local church fundraiser
Refereeing basketball games for Special Olympics Ontario
Teaching younger students at figure skating
Caring for neighbours when they are sick
Sorting food at a food bank
Helping seniors at a retirement home

We hope that students see volunteering as one of the habits that they continue to do well after they have left KCS. We don’t have green habits only during Earth Week. And we don’t just volunteer or thank our volunteers during National Volunteer Week. But here’s to the happy future that comes from the habits learned at KCS!

Ms. Gaudet
Citizenship Coordinator

Kind Gesture Leads to Unexpected Encounter

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Derek Logan

Last Monday I was sitting in my office when one of our grade 8 students knocked on my door and asked to speak to me. He had been on our European Battlefield trip with his Dad in March and they had written a thank you letter to me (as well as the five other faculty and staff who were on the trip). In addition he gave me a Vimy Pin. April 9^th was the 96th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and he asked me to wear the pin the next day to commemorate the battle and honour those Canadians who had fought in 1917.

The next morning, I put the pin on and went outside during drop off. A parent rode up with her son on her bike. She noticed the Vimy Pin and said that she saw an article in that day’s National Post about Vimy. This led me to stop into our Business Manager’s Office later in the morning as I knew she had the Post delivered to her house. I asked her if she would save the article for me as I was interested in reading it. While standing in the doorway of her office, the Church receptionist overheard us talking. She asks me if she heard correctly that I was speaking about Vimy. I said yes, and then she asked me whether I knew the name of the designer of the Memorial. Of course, I couldn’t remember on the spot! That’s when she told me she was related to Walter Seymour Allward, the designer. She told me some stories, including that she has visited the Memorial twice, the last time in 2007 after it was refurbished; that she’s been in the catacombs beneath the Memorial; that Walter has other pieces of work at Queen’s Park, in Brantford, etc., and that he’s buried locally in Toronto. Her and her sister have researched Walter over the years. Of course this led me to a further conversation with one of our history teachers and one of the main organizers of our biannual battlefield trip. She said she would arrange for some of our students to interview the Church receptionist for their end-of-the-year history project.

The above story started with a thank you. A very kind gesture indeed, but one that had the added bonus of leading to an unexpected encounter at KCS. You just never know where good deeds will lead and where this story may go next.

Derek Logan
Head of School

Sportsmanship

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Derek Logan

A KCS parent passed this story on to me. Supposedly it’s causing quite a following in cyberspace with individuals taking sides on what the second place runner should have done. You can draw your own conclusions. Share the story with your children, and discuss with them what they would have done if they faced a similar situation.

http://www.sportdw.com/2013/01/ivan-fernandez-anaya-sportsmanship.html?m=1

Derek Logan
Head of School

Perspective

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Derek Logan

The following commercial was shared with me earlier this week. I’m sharing it not to promote the organization, but the message. In the grand scheme of things, sometimes the “problems” that we think we have are really not problems. I’m keeping this one in my back pocket to use with my kids the next time they complain about something inconsequential.

Derek Logan
Head of School

Happy Thanksgiving

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Derek Logan

Life is complex, so on my desk I have purposefully put a sign: Keep It Simple. I read it dozens of times a day when I’m at school.

I know we all have various things going on in our lives that can make each day challenging, and that we are all juggling commitments with our family, our jobs, our friends, etc. This Thanksgiving weekend, my wish is that all of you step back, realize the many things we have to be thankful for in our lives. Sometimes we let our hectic lives get in the way of remembering to be thankful for what we already have.

Derek Logan
Head of School