Students new to École H. J. Cody School were given a warm welcome last Thursday, and learned about many opportunities available to them both inside and outside of the classroom.
A pizza lunch and presentation outlining school activities were held over the lunch hour, and provided an official welcome for Cody’s newest students.
“We hope you’ve enjoyed your time learning at H.J. Cody so far, and that today we will make it an even better experience,” said Breina Jones, a Grade 11 student and Leadership team member.
Fellow student Heather Watson offered some welcoming words.
“By the end of this lunch, we hope that you will feel a stronger sense of belonging and feel happy to be here.”
Teacher Brett Gardiner introduced a welcome video, and spoke of the different ways in which students may get involved with school sports, clubs and activities.
“There is some absolutely awesome stuff that goes on here,” he said, before listing some of the things students can “be a part of at this wonderful educational institution”.
He said there are a large number of sports available for students, including golf, football, curling, volleyball, basketball, cross-country running, track and field, archery, soccer and badminton.
Other opportunities lie in music, drama, art and various clubs and groups.
“There is so much stuff going on, and that is definitely not all of it,” said Gardiner. “This place is not just all about math and social and science and that stuff. It’s about meeting people and doing fun things.
“We’re happy that you all joined us, and we’re proud to have you, so get involved and do something.”
Drama teacher Jacqui Renwick was grateful to the school’s leadership students for putting on the lunch.
“We’ve had lots of leadership students do this in the past, but this is the first group that has totally run with it and they did awesome,” she said. “We are a small but mighty group.”