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Newsletter for Students, Parents and the Community
March 2015
Mrs. Gwen Giesbrecht, PAC Chair 2014-2015 - Phone: 604-876-8571 - email: gwengi@shaw.ca
Issue #3
BRITANNIA GIRLS TABLE TENNIS TEAM — PROVINCIAL CHAMPIONS!
Britannia's Table Tennis teams had a very successful season after a four year hiatus. The Boys' team competed in
doubles and team events at the Provincial Tournament. Led by Frank Liao, a provincially and nationally ranked player,
the team was competitive in every match. The Girls' team was a juggernaut, undefeated in league play, winning a spot in
the City Finals and dominating in the Provincial Tournament, sweeping all the events, winning gold in singles, doubles
and team competition. Congratulations to Ivy Liao (3 golds), Rose Huang (2 golds), Tiffany Chen (1 gold),
and Madgen Liao (1 gold)! Britannia is set to host Van Tech in the City Semi-Finals
for a chance to move on to compete for 1st place in Vancouver.
MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
BRITANNIA MUSIC PROGRAM
Since returning from their Christmas break, music students at
Britannia Secondary have been busy preparing for the March
event, Music of our Schools, where Britannia Secondary band
students were joined by their fellow musicians in Britannia Elementary and Lord Seymour Elementary for a night of band
music. Also, we have had some very impressive guests come to
work with our students. For the world music students, Sayon
Camara, a master drummer from Guinea, came to give a
workshop where students learned traditional drumming straight
from a master. Gerardo Alfonzo, a famous Cuban singer and
song writer, came to speak with the junior and senior bands
about music, culture and living in Cuba. Finally, Fiona Blackburn, vocalist extraordinaire and conductor of the B.C. Girls
Choir, has been wor king with the Britannia Choir, as an
Artist in Residence, for the months of J anuar y and Febr uary. These experiences have been tremendously enjoyable and
valuable for our students.
Alex McKechnie
Dear Parents, Guardians and Britannia Community;
We’re into the spring and the end of this school year is well in
sight. You’ll find this Britannia Newsletter full of many great
activities and opportunities for Britannia’s students. The school
has many things for us all to be proud of, and we hope you express your pride to family and friends.
Our Venture Mini School for Grades 8-10 had too many applicants to accept them all for September, and this is a great sign
of the way in which Vancouver families are realizing what a
gem our school is. Additionally, as an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, Britannia Community Secondary
continues to graduate 100% of our IB Diploma Program students. We’ll have an even larger class of IB Diploma Grads in
2016. Our Hockey Academy is growing next year, and we’ll
have a couple of International Students here for Hockey as well.
These are exciting times for the school community.
CARVING PAVILION
Of course, we’re thrilled with the new Carving Pavilion, and
work on landscaping and artwork continues this spring. With
all the activities such as The Street2Peak Kilimanjaro Trip, the
Science Fair, Table Tennis and Basketball championships,
and a recent visit from our Yokohama Sister School (Minato
Sohgoh Senior High), our students need to r emain focused
on attendance and achievement. Please let us know if there’s
anything we can do to help, and feel free to contact teachers,
counsellors or administrators as need be. Our email addresses
as well as current announcements and activities are all available on the school website.
As there are many wonderful activities ongoing in our school,
Squamish Nation Artist, James Harry with his Grandmother,
it is important that we not overlook our students’ many talents. I hope we do not miss any herein, but if we do so, please Ronnie Ross, Retired Principal, Grandview Elementary, paints an
additional panel in the newly erected Carving Pavilion on the Britanlet us know so we can continue to champion our Britannia
students. A recent student presentation to celebrate Black Hisnia site. James blends Squamish Nation and Kwakwaka’wakw
tory Month is a case in point. With Mr. Chenoweth as
Nation designs into one uniform design.
their sponsor, Simmba – a group of Britannia students – created a moving and inspirational presentation to celebrate African
culture and the many contr ibutions of Black people and culture to our lives. On Friday, February 27th, Vicky Bwishe, Godas Muhoza, Chris Bruce, Iftu Taju Mohamed, Megan Pakkala, Natasha Pakkala, Michelle Nyoni, Mariama Boima,
Abdi Ahmed Yasin Osman and Florence Uwimana all sang,
danced and acted their way into the hearts and minds of students,
staff and parents alike. Thank you also to Mr. Henderson’s excellent tech crew: Caleb Showers-Cornell and Allister Southwell. It was a joy to watch.
Finally, I want to thank the staff and students for making me so
proud of them and their work. I hope the pride shows in our
Newsletter and on our website: http://britannia.vsb.bc.ca/ Also
be sure to check out the Support Society:
http://www.britsupportsociety.com/
Geoff Taylor, Principal
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Britannia Students, Kiara Lawson (L) and Allie Keitlah,
help choose colors from a color wheel palette and
eagerly assist Artist James Harry with his project.
MINATO SOHGOH SISTER SCHOOL EXCHANGE
The 2014-2015 school year
marks the 10th anniversary
of the Minato Sohgoh and
Britannia Secondary
sister school connection!
Britannia Secondary students ar e
planning a trip in November 2015
to visit the Minato students at their
home school in Yokohama, Japan
with their teachers Ksena Tatomir
and Harry Yuen.
The Britannia Exchange Club meets every Wednesday
at lunch in room 216. The club welcomes
newcomers — those interested in traveling to Japan in
November or those just interested in participating in
international communication!
Masaki, a talented calligrapher from
Minato Sohgoh painted a banner with the
kanji character 絆 “kizuna” or bond”
symbolizing the close relationship between both
sister schools.
BRITANNIA SCIENCE FAIR
Honourable Mention
GOLD MEDAL CHAMPIONS!
Ivy Liao & Helen Su
On Thursday February 5th 2015 over 75 Britannia Secondary
Students competed in the annual Britannia Science Fair and
we are proud to announce the Champions of the Fair and Honourable Mentions. Congr atulations to ALL of our Br itannia students as they worked extremely hard during the last three months
completing their projects and this year's science fair competition
was by far the best we have ever had! Special thanks also go to
the Let's Talk Science program for supporting us through the
UBC Science Mentorship Program.
“Digestion”
Grade 9 Champions (in no particular order)
Benjamin Chung & Kezmen Chen
“Poo is Cool”
Lucy Guan & Eero Gaffney
“Bind it Up”
Ishmum Ataur & Jeph Vina
“Digital Doctor”
Honourable Mention
Jericho Catungal & Luk Pham
“Give Me More”
Grade 10 Champions (in no particular order)
On Friday February 20th , 2015 these Champions also competed
in the Vancouver District Fair where they went up against the top Tasnia Kamal & Madgen Liao “Natur al Pr eser vative
Exploration“
scientific minds in the district. 7 of the 9 Champions made it
through and competed at UBC at the Greater Vancouver Region- Pascal Spino III & Jonathan To “Rethinking Gr een Ener gy”
al Science Fair.
Caleb Showers-Cornell
“Time Flies”
Grade 8 Champions (in no particular order)
Honourable Mention
Thanusri Udhaya Kumar
“Which herbs have
Saffron Van Der Linde & Tahlia Ifada
antibacterial effects?”
“Plants Growing in Different Wavelengths”
Billy Grayer & Steven Ta
“Power Plant”
Grade 11 Champions
Jacy To & Jenny Feng
“Testing Plant Growth”
Ridge Zhang & Timme Zhao
“Surface - Active Agents Cleaning only gets harder”
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TECHNICAL STUDIES
UBC student teacher Mr. Firth conducting a bicycle unit lab with Power Tech 10 students!
Ace-It student Kevin Huang working
on a Maserati at Cantrust 4s
Autobody and Service!
Ace-It student Benny Rong performing a computerized 4 wheel alignment at Wallis Motors!
Ace-It student Ian Villalon performing
a tire repair at KAL TIRE!
Ace-It student Albert Tsan computer
balancing a tire at OK Tires and Wheels!
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Ace-It student Carlos Ampie working on a
MR BEAN mobile at Goodyear Auto Service!
Since October, 8J9J
has had three great
projects come to us:
choir with Maggie
Lauzon, Ricochet
Project and Healthy Together.
We are working out hard at
Outreach! Per sonal
Trainer Garrett from Practical
Power Fitness has been
leading us in weight training
at the Britannia Fitness
Centre twice a week! In our
last session the students
completed 64 squats with
weights!
Maggie Lauzon is a newly cer tified teacher from UBC who wanted
to try choir with a completely inexperienced group. We were they!
Our students selected music and she
led us. We started with Sam Smith,
"Stay", "Crazy Train" (Ozzy
Osbourne), "Waving Flag" (K'naan)
and covered 12 other songs. We
sounded great! Multi-platinum
album soon?
Outreach goes Beast-mode! Six Pack City!
STREETFRONT
Streetfront is getting
Ricochet Project is an inter national theatr e initiative which br ought prepared for their
monumental trip to
two professional actors to our drama classroom who led us through acAfrica! On March 5th,
tivities that culminated in a digital interview. Our students' responses
have become part of a bank of youth narratives accessed by playwrights twelve current and forto create drama productions for worldwide presentation. We are looking mer students, along
with 3 Britannia stuforward to seeing "our" story on stage!
dents will arrive in
Arusha, Tanzania and
Healthy Together is a Health Canada pilot project to encour age
will become the first
better food choices and activity in youth. Students prepared pasta,
school group in Canadiwraps, yogurt parfaits, burgers and banana muffins. We learned about
de-stressing stretches, healthy exercise options and about Canada Health an history to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! This is the start of a 10 year project
that will see Streetfront go to 5 different continents on five different
Guidelines.
expeditions - all in the hopes of making kids truly believe that anything
is possible if they commit, persevere and dedicate themselves to a cause.
We enjoyed a Lunar New Year outing at Aberdeen
Centre (a gor geous example of Bing Thom architecture) and completed a scavenger hunt that
introduced us to many new foods, luxury items and
Lunar New Year tr aditions. Most inter esting item
- dried snake.
The bulbs we planted
in September are
starting to bloom! And "FryBread Friday" is going str ong. We r aised
enough money to fund our February 23
outing to Extreme Air Park in Richmond
where we bounced on the biggest indoor
trampolines ever! We are planning two
more "Frybread Fridays" to fundraise for
a "Wild Play" day of high rope adventures in Mapleridge. LIFE IS
GOOD at 8J9J! OUTREACH
Outreach , Streetfront and 8J/9J par tner ed with Hey Way Noqu to take the
students to a traditional cleansing ceremony (SWEAT) in North Vancouver. All
the students had a wonderful time. Thanks very much to Alex and Jessica for
arranging the sweat and to Fred and Robert, our
elders for the day!
The Sweat - Alec Dick
A mainstay at Streetfront is our commitment to physical activity. Our
internationally celebrated running program has never been stronger with
kids pushing themselves
beyond expectations.
Everyday I am met with
numerous students asking
if we can “please go on a
run”, or “is it a run day?”
Multiple times, I have
watched as 3,4, 7 kids
have left the portable not
happy with running a
meagre 10 km but asking
if they could hammer out a
15 km. It’s an amazing
thing to witness and I’m so proud of them trying to change their lives
through our physical model.
We've established a number of amazing partnerships that are just starting
to come into effect. We will be doing a number of kayak trips through
Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak; we will be having two of our mor e
committed students (Allen Alec and Brandon Legrande) professionally
trained in surf ski (an incredibly nimble and fast form of kayak); we are
initiating a series of rigorous trail runs for our hardcore runners led by
one of Vancouver’s greatest long distance athletes, Alex Blodgett; and
finally we will be hoping to start up a mountain biking program on the infamous North Shore.
Trevor Stokes, Teacher, Streetfront
As hot as day
As dark as knight
The steam rolls down your back
The smell so hypnotizing
The sound so quiet
Like space, you can see
Anything or nothing.
Connecting to the inner you.
Back in the womb you are
Only to exit out of there,
A new person
Life in the sweat.
In preparation for this expedition, we have been on numerous hikes and
outings, trying to prepare ourselves as best as we can for what’s in store.
These outings have ranged from hikes up Mount Seymour to a full on
physical immersion at the Richmond Oval to trail runs at Deep Cove and
Pacific Spirit Park.
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ATHLETICS
JUNIOR GIRLS BASKETBALL— CITY CHAMPIONS!
The Junior Girls had a fantastic season winning the Vancouver
City Championship Banner and finishing 4th at the Lower
Mainland Championships! We narrowly missed qualifying
for the BC Provincial Championships by 5 points in a semi-final
loss to Seycove. Some of the team highlights this season were
an undefeated record in the Vancouver league, an honourable
mention r anking thr oughout the season and the awesome
waterslide at our Abbotsford tournament hotel. This has been
one of the best finishes for a Britannia Junior team in school
history. The future is bright as all but one player are Grade 9s
competing at the Grade 10 level. #GoBruinsGo! From L to R - Back Row: Alice Pham (Manager), Sophia Huang, Emma Julé, Malena
Mokhovikova, Devon Herrin, Malia Terry, Luk Pham (Manager), Ms. Mitra Tshan (Coach). Front Row: Karalee Antoine, Lucy Guan,
Kara Huang, Sabrina Wong
SENIOR BOYS BASKETBALL
The Senior Boys has had a great season so far - placing 2nd in the City Championships and 2nd in the Lower Mainland Championships!
Immanuel Gautani and Dylan Joe wer e selected to the All-Star team. Inspir ed by Coach Ming and Coach Hoang, they ar e r anked 12th in
BC and have competed in the AA Provincials at the Langley Events Centre from March 11-14! (Results were not available at print time of this
newsletter.)
BRITANNIA BRUINS SENIOR GIRLS BASKETBALL
The 2014 / 2015 Senior Bruins enjoyed a great season with a final record of 19–13. The
team finished in first place in the Vancouver league but our plans to five-peat in February
when the Vancouver Championships were held at Britannia ended in a disappointing loss.
Five years in a row as Vancouver Champion was our goal! Later in February the Bruins
advanced to the Lower Mainland “AA” championships and just missed qualifying for the
Provincial Championships. Brit was currently named as “Honourable Mention” in the
Provincial rankings. Player s have made a wonder ful effor t to impr ove and accor ding
to Coaches Evans and Stokes, this is one of Brit’s hardest-working teams ever! Because
Lilin Zhang is our only gr ade 12 player ther e is a belief that Br it will have a
breakout season next year and remain strong for the foreseeable future. Our highlight was
the trip to San Diego during Xmas break where we played in the Bonita Optimist Invitational. Although we finished 0–4, we were very competitive and it was a great learning
experience. Trips to La Jolla and downtown San Diego were lots of fun. Mitra Tshan led
the team on several shopping expeditions in the never-ending search for the perfect bargain. We explored Los Angeles on our off day, enjoyed Hollywood, the beach, UCLA and a Laker game at Staples Centre. Team members: Lilin
Zhang, Julian Duong, Jeanne d’Arc Le, Lauren Powell, Jereena Oracion, Christina Hoang, Angela Ngo, Allie Keitlah, Saffron van der
Linde, Trinity Brien, Jennifer Hoang, and Donna Pham. Managers: Winnie Lei and Francine Su
BANTAM BOYS BASKETBALL
What a wonderful experience for 13 individuals to learn to work together and achieve great things as a team. The Britannia Bruin Bantam Boys
Basketball team wor ked together to for m a unit that gr ew in their love of basketball and appr eciation of each other as team mates. They
were finalists in the two tournaments they attended and distinguished themselves as great representatives of Britannia. In the City Championships, they had a close 2 point loss in the semi-final finishing 4th overall and can claim to be amongst the best in Vancouver!
HOCKEY ACADEMY
Britannia Hockey Academy students joined the Japanese Exchange students
during what was the first time on ice-skates for most of the visitors from Yokohama,
Japan. Academy students have been har d at wor k honing their hockey skills this
year while participating in various field trips: skiing/snowboarding at WhistlerBlackcomb, indoor rock climbing, and curling at the Vancouver Curling Club. Students have a 1-0-1 record this year in their games against Sentinel Academy.
Go Bruins!
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Event
Date
Good Friday
Friday, April 03
Easter Monday
Monday, April 06
Non-Instructional Day
Monday, April 27
Victoria Day
Monday, May 18
School Leaving Ceremony
Tuesday, June 09
Monday, June 15 – Thursday, June 18
School Year End Exam Period
Provincial Exams Begin
Wednesday, June 17
Report Cards Issued
Thursday, June 25
BRITANNIA SECONDARY SCHOOL
1001 COTTON DRIVE
VANCOUVER, BC V5L 3T4
TELEPHONE: 604-713-8266
FAX: 604-713-8265
WEBSITE: http://britannia.vsb.bc.ca
PRINCIPAL: MR. GEOFF TAYLOR
DIRECTOR OF INSTRUCTION
Mr. David Nelson - 604-713-5994
SCHOOL LIAISON TRUSTEE:
Mr. Christopher Richardson - 604-713-5000
PARENT ADVISORY COUNCIL CHAIRPERSON:
Mrs. Gwen Giesbrecht - 604-876-8571