TIGER TRIBUNE
T. A. BLAKELOCK HIGH SCHOOL
Principal: Dean Barnes Vice Principal: Heather Stewart Vice Principal: Meena Sahi
Superintendent: Yaw Obeng Trustees: Tracy Ehl Harrison, Joanna Oliver
Be a champion, be a tiger!
Mission: The TAB community works together to inspire high achievement through quality programs, a supportive environment,
JUNE 2015
IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES
September 1-2
Pre-Registration 11:00-3:00
September 7
Labour Day—School Closed
September 8
First Day of School
Gr.9 Orientation 8:15-11:00
School BBQ 11:00-12:00
Classes 12:02-2:40
September 9
Photo Day
September 14
Last Day for Timetable Changes
The Junior Boys Rugby team had a fantastic season full of awe. The determination
and hard work of the Tigers led them to a season record of five wins and one loss. The
boys fought through hardships that came their way while managing to defeat all teams
in their division multiple times such as Hayden, Aldershot, Georgetown, and Vanier. As
the playoffs drew closer it became clear that our Tigers would be facing off against Vanier in the finals. This happened to be the only team that they had lost to in the regular
season and going into the playoffs they had a 1W-1L record against them.
With that loss still fresh in their minds, the boys were driven not to let that happen again.
They managed to overcome their opponent rolling out of this season with a championship victory over Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School. The final score being 43-5,
Vanier was decimated and defeated by our Junior Boys Rugby team leaving no doubt
as to which team deserved the victory.
Written by:
Spencer Palfrey and Nathaniel Bell
September 24
Grade 9 Program Night
October 1
Parent Connections Meeting
October 9
P.D. Day—No Classes
October 12
Thanksgiving Day—No Classes
October 13
5th Week Reports Mailed Home
October 15
Excellence Evening
October 16
Hall of Fame
October 20
Photo Retake Day
October 22
Parent Teacher Interviews
November 4
Take Your Kid to Work Day—Gr.9
November 11
Last Day Term 1
Remembrance Day
November 12
First Day Term 2
November 18
Mid Term Reports—In Class
T.A. BLAKELOCK HIGH SCHOOL
Address: 1160 Rebecca Street Oakville, ON L6L 1Y9
Phone: 905-827-1158 Fax: 905-827-5051 Web: http://tab.hdsb.ca
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From the Principal…
We are very proud of our school community and the involvement of students, teachers, parents, and other
staff members, who have devoted their time and energy to the success of many school activities over the
past year! I have thoroughly enjoyed being a guest at many year-end banquets which have celebrated accomplishments of our students in the areas of Athletics, Arts and Music, just to name a few. It was nice to
hear so many stories of success and excellence that were shared at these events, and the positive relationships which have been developed as part of these experiences. Parents, you should be proud of the great
work that your sons/daughters have done this year!
At this time, students will receive their final report cards for semester 2, with marks reflecting how well students have performed in their subjects. Please take time to review reports, set new goals, and take note of
areas for improvement. Our students continue to perform very well academically with outstanding results.
We recently celebrated the academic success of graduating students during our commencement ceremonies
on June 25 at the Oakville Convention Centre. Congratulations graduates for reaching this very important
milestone in your life! I would like to give a special thank you to all of the teachers and support staff who organized this evening, and also to our valedictorian, Alex Bowie, and our valedictorian runner up, Kyle Hicks.
Alex presented a very meaningful speech highlighting significant Blakelock memories for his fellow graduates. We were also able to witness Alex perform a series of songs on vocal and piano, as part of his presentation. Our graduates also celebrated their school prom, which was held on May 22nd at the Burlington Convention Centre. I would like to congratulate this year’s graduating students and wish them all the best in their
future endeavours.
The end of the year comes with mixed emotions because of some changes in our teaching staff at T.A.
Blakelock. We would like to say goodbye to a number of staff who will be retiring or going on to new challenges at other schools. Officially retiring this year is our senior secretary, Lesley Davidson and general
secretary, Lynn Jones. Lynn started working at Blakelock in 1990 and Lesley began working as senior secretary at Blakelock in 2002. Both ladies have been the first point of contact for students and parents at T.A.
Blakelock. They handled their duties professionally with exceptional service over so many years. I wish to
thank both Mrs. Davidson and Ms. Jones a happy and enjoyable retirement as they look forward to spending
time with their grandchildren. We would also like to say good-bye to educational assistant Ruth Berube who
is retiring. Ruth is looking forward to her time in Prince Edward Island. Also, Clarence Alvernez is retiring
after a successful career as our evening caretaker. Clarence is looking forward to spending time with his family up north.
Our teachers retiring this year include Janet Davis and Gail Kawaguchi. I would like to recognize both of
these teachers for their commitment to helping many students achieve success over their career.
Janet Davis
After teaching 10 years in Alberta as well as Peel District, Janet joined HDSB in January of
1999 at Iroquois Ridge then moved to T.A. Blakelock in the fall to teach mathematics. Janet had taken a few years to stay at home with her young children and move twice between
Calgary and Toronto with her husband. Oakville became her permanent home and T.A.
Blakelock became her 2nd home. For a number of years, she acted as a staff advisor for
the Blakelock Cheerleaders and committed to working with the Hall of Fame committee.
Many memorable moments were experienced during her teaching career but most enjoyable are those moments speaking with former students. Janet is looking forward to travelling
with her husband, enjoying time with her family and improving her golf game.
continued on next page...
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...continued from page 2
Gail Kawaguchi
Gail Kawaguchi, veteran Family Studies teacher began her career at T.A.Blakelock in
September 1979, and never left. She will be retiring after 36 years. After a brief stint in
the Science department, she concentrated on teaching nutrition while helping her students
learn how to cook in their memorable weekly food labs. She hopes they have acquired all
the "ingredients" for success. Gail is looking forward to fine dining and world travel, but
she will likely be wilderness camping instead! Bon appetit.
We would like to wish the following teachers who are going on to other school experiences all the best: Igor
Prostan, Dani Shaft, Elias Papoutsis, Anna Constantin, Alexiis Stephen, Adam Bonin, Calley Maeda,
Hillary Rivett, Christina Paquette, and Ian Beaupre.
We would like to extend a warm welcome to new staff members who will be joining us for the 2015-16 school
year. New Educational assistants include: Tamara Burnside, Jelisa Brown, Sarah Poxon, Stacey Chandler, and Joanne Van Dongen. Linn Maund is our new senior secretary and Doug Couper is our evening
caretaker. New teachers joining our Blakelock staff are: Katherine Atwell (E.S.L.), Logan Jeyanthan
(Math), Melissa Snedden (Special Education), Michelle Millington (Math), and Kaitlyn Teszeri (French).
We believe that high quality instruction and programs, a healthy physical environment, a supportive social
environment, and solid community partnerships will improve overall student health and increase student
achievement. We are continuing to incorporate new strategies in addition to our existing programs to support
this vision. We now have 9 new stationary bikes which will be used in regular and physical education classes
to promote energizing the brain and physical activity. Our highly successful breakfast program run by parent,
student, and teacher volunteers will continue to run next year every morning from 7:45 to 8:10 a.m. serving
breakfast to over 200 students. In addition, our Parent Connections program will run again next year and
provide workshops to parents once a month on topics such as “Understanding the Teenage Brain” and
“Social Media Safety” to name a few. Please contact our school council chair, Tracy Dalgleish, for further
information about this program (email address: tjmaleish@yahoo.ca).
I want to thank you for all of your support and I wish you and your families a safe and enjoyable summer!
Dean Barnes,
Principal
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Congratulations to Mitchell Barran for being recognized as T.A. Blakelock's Student of Excellence" for the Halton District School in the 2014-15 school year. A
student representative selected for this award needs to demonstrate outstanding
qualities in more that one of the following areas: Academic, Vocational, Athletic,
Self-improvement, Community work, Citizenship or Student Leadership
Mitchell has a 90+ average, is a competitive paddler year round as part of a provincial team, 6x provincial medalist and qualified for nationals since 2012. He is a
level one ski instructor and coach and instructs every weekend all winter. In track
he helped two TAB teams make OFSAA cross country, qualifying for OFSAA
south regionals in track and was the Cross Country MVP.
Last year he was the Oakville representative for the Queens Park inaugural model parliament. This year he is co-president of the Interact Club and has been a
member since Grade 10. Also he is a member of the Athletic and Student Councils for the last two years. He has lots of community volunteer hours under his belt and been a Relay for Life
participant for three years at TAB. There are not many students who can squeeze more from a day than
Mitchell. He is a student who has given a lot to this school for 4 years and has excelled in the academic, athletic (OFSAA athlete), vocational (2 tech awards), self-improvement, community work and student leadership.
Tigers in the Halton Sport Leadership Program
This year six Blakelock students participated in an asset-based leadership
development initiative for youth in our community. This program was collaborative in nature, involving a number of community partners including
the Halton District School Board, Halton Catholic District School Board, Town of Oakville and
the YMCA of Oakville.
Our Blakelock students joined a group from two other Oakville schools on more than fourteen different days,
including weekends and March Break, to engage in a variety of training and development sessions.
In May, our students were honoured at the program graduation ceremony which was held at the Oakville
YMCA. Congratulations to Christopher Ito, Troy Morris, Cierra Culos, Kissiah Griffiths, Carmen Fowler,
and Triniti Miller for their commitment and successes in the program. Great job, Tigers!
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STUDENT COUNCIL EXECUTIVE
Executive Council is an elected group of students who run and organize major events happening within the school. They are
responsible for making important decisions and organizing the flow of activities throughout the school year. Students involved
in Executive council are asked to do many things, which contribute to school culture, unknown to the remainder of the student
body. They are very hard working students who have accomplished great things this year. Congratulations to all of you!
Student Council Executive 2015/2016
Alexandra Moyssakos
Co-Prime Minister
Alisa Torano
Co- Prime Minister
Umaima Foda
Communications Minister
Sarah McCabe
Finance Minister
Megan Watt
Social Services Minister
Abby Udvari
Grade 10 Representative
Colten Slater
Promotions Minister
Victoria Rico
Arts and Culture Minister
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Recognition Assembly Highlights...
Math Contest
Congratulations to the following students for placing in the top 25% of Canadian students writing Waterloo
Math contests.
Dima Linkov, Jade Breau, Melissa Jiang, Paige Walshe, Nathaniel Bell, Jennifer Hu, Benjamin Wannan, Vivian Xu, Emily Drummond, Matthew Marini, Scott Yu, Henry Hu, David Wang, and Robin Kong.
Dima Linkov achieved highest mark at Blakelock on both Grade 9 Pascal and Fryer math contests. She
ranked in the top 2% of students writing in Canada and made Provincial honor roll.
Nathaniel Bell, Benjamin Wannan and Vivian Xu achieved highest marks at Blakelock on Grade 10 Cayley math contest. Benjamin also achieved highest mark at Blakelock on Grade 10 Galois math contest.
Henry Hu achieved highest mark at Blakelock on Grade 11 Hypatia math contest.
Robin Kong achieved highest mark at Blakelock on Grade 12 Euclid math contest.
David Wang achieved highest mark at Blakelock and placed in the top 1.5% of all Canadian students writing
Grade 11 Fermat math contest. He ranked 307th on the National Honour Roll.
Music Ensemble Awards
Grade 9 Concert Band: Awarded Silver Medal for their performance at Golden Horseshoe Musicfest Canada Regional Band Competition, Ancaster, 2015
Junior Jazz Band: Awarded Silver Medal for their performance at Golden Horseshoe Musicfest Canada Regional Jazz Band Competition, Ancaster, 2015
Symphonic Winds Intermediate Concert Band: Awarded Silver Medal for their performance at Georgian
Bay Musicfest Canada Regional Band Competition, Ancaster, 2015
Senior Jazz Band: Awarded Silver Medal for their performance at Georgian Bay Musicfest Canada Regional Band Competition, Collingwood, 2015
Senior Wind Ensemble: Awarded Gold Medal for their performance at Georgian Bay Musicfest Canada
Regional Band Competition, Collingwood, 2015; and awarded Gold Medal for their performance at Musicfest
Canada National Band Competition, Toronto, 2015
Shirlene Vella Junior Student Leadership Award
Shirlene Vella, a former TAB teacher, wanted to promote leadership potential among junior students at TAB
by acknowledging one Grade 9 and one Grade 10 student. This year’s recipients are:
 Grade 9 Mira Meikle, Grade 10 Matthew Casale.
Dean Hutchison Memorial Award
This award was created by Dean's friends in his memory and to honour his contributions to their lives after he
passed away from a rare form of cancer called Ewings Sarcoma. This year’s 2015 Dean Hutchison Memorial
Award goes to Dana Bradley.
Jodi Allison Memorial Award
This award was created by Jodi’s friend to keep her memory alive after she died tragically in a boating accident just before school resumed in 1988. They also planted a tree in her memory which is located outside
the back door by the music room. Jodi was an outgoing Grade 12 student who was described as a "good allaround person" who did well in school and was also involved in sports. This year’s 2015 Jody Allison recipient is Bradley Wood.
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CO-OPERATIVE EDUCATION
Congratulations to the following students who secured jobs with their Co-op employers:
KC-Leigh Bezuidenhout
Mason Gareau
Breanna Gordon
Rebekah Keene
Corey Maillet
Ethan McArthur
Krishna Patel
Chris Steele
Margot Stevens
Harvest Bible Chapel
Oakville Performing Arts
Anista Designs
Rona
Glen Abbey Golf Club
Plank
JConstruction
Spectrum Airways
Oakville Dental Office
We would like to thank the following Co-op employers who continually offer our Co-op students meaningful
learning and career opportunities:
Leading Edge Electrical
Harvest Bible Chapel
OTMH
Perspective Marketing
Oakville Dental Office
Armstrong Acting Studios
Oakville Town Pharmacy
AMEC
Tandet
Oakville Animal Hospital
Gladys Speers PS
WH Morden PS
Eastview PS
Innovative Arts
Merriam School of Music
Pine Grove PS
Oakville Christian School
Oakville Seniors Community Residence
Glen Abbey Golf Club
Crackpot
Brookdale PS
Carstar
YMCA
Spectrum Airways
UTC Aerospace
Kennedy Ford
Dorval Electric
Anista Designs
Rona
ATA Architecture
Oakville Humane Society
Gear Music
UTC Aerospace
By: Bradley Wood
In my 4 months at UTAS of Oakville I had a great time. The people
welcomed me with open arms and did their best to teach me all
about the work that they do, while still keeping it interesting. Some
of the things I did included monthly process control testing, failure
investigations and report writing. Each day there was something to
do whether it was by myself or shadowing someone else. There
were times when I felt out of place because of how little I knew
compared to the engineers, but I did feel comfortable once I
learned how to do some of the tests, and use the machines. The
work I did for UTAS taught me a lot about what engineers do, but it
also just helped me confirm that this is the right career for me. There were some exciting times like when I
watched the first test run of a new automated plating line, or when I sat in on an electroplating class, that
people from around the world flew in for. The people from M&PT were fun too, they were always in a good
mood and were friendly when I asked questions. They pranked me as well, where I was to deliver a fake
sewage test to the chemist, I read it and was totally confused. The chemist read it and took it seriously, so I
got even more confused. Eventually I was told I was being pranked, it was a funny afternoon and it lightened
the mood for the rest of my time at co-op. Since then we have had a productive relationship, where I did a lot
of their grunt work but I got to learn a lot about a field I am going into in the future.