by Henry MacDougall
(click on images to enlarge)

YEARBOOKS ARE BACK!

For the first time in a couple of years KG has a yearbook, and we owe this honour to a parent of a student at our school.

The yearbook featured tons of student submitted photos, with places for signatures, and (of course) the grad quotes. It’s clear that an effort was made to include photos of as many students as possible in this year’s yearbook. Included was a section with group photos of clubs and sports teams along with lists of all members in each group.

Yearbooks were quite popular this year, and I hope that next year we will get them again.

KG ROCKS!

KG Rocks was a huge success this year, with around 500 tickets sold, and about $3,000 raised!

ROCKING AT KG (FROM LEFT) Nick, Noah, AND Yuika. *(EWAN STREIT PHOTO)*

It was a fun night, with performances from students of all grades and levels of experience. The show went on for two-and-a-half hours both nights. The money raised from the concert will go back into the King George music program, paying for the replacement of broken instruments, as well as the maintenance of guitars, basses, drums, and wind instruments.

Some students in Mr. Sinclair’s photography class also showed up to take some pictures on both KG Rocks nights, and hundreds of great photos were captured. Although I am only including photos by Albert and Ewan, Eric and Maxim, and Mr. Sinclair also took some amazing shots.

After the show, all the performers worked together to pack up the equipment before the end of the night. However, this year lots of audience members helped by putting away chairs before they went on their way.

Right now, the music department is looking for a high-quality fully weighted 88-key electric piano, as the others in the department are both quite old and are slowly failing. Because of this, it’s of high priority for the music department to get fully functional equipment, especially with an instrument as important as the keyboard.

As it is, the school fees for the music program are nominal, and KG Rocks is massively important for ensuring the continued existence of the program. Every year, lots of money is spent on guitar strings, reeds for wind instruments, drumsticks, guitar picks, tuners, and the list goes on. This constant maintenance massively subtracts from the amount that can be spent on new equipment.

If any readers out there regret not seeing KG Rocks and wish to donate to the music program, they can contact the school office. Help support young musicians and make sure students can keep expressing themselves through music!

FROM MY NOTEBOOK

THE GRADS OF ‘23 … This year, grad was spread across two days, with the ceremony and dinner/dance happening on different days. The grad ceremony took place at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, June 13 and the dinner/dance happened at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 16. In total, there were 108 students in the grade 12 graduating class of 2023.

KG CARNIVAL … On Friday, June 23 during fourth block, there was a carnival in the sports field. Volleyball nets were set up, and students could get free hot dogs, chips, and juice boxes. Students were also welcome to play soccer or simply hang out in the shade, as it was quite a sunny day.

NO NEW GRADING SYSTEM FOR US … It was recently announced that BC schools would be receiving changes to the grading system, in the form of a move to a proficiency scale, for K-9 students. However, since KG (and Lord Roberts) are Middle Years Programme schools, these changes do not apply to us, as we are already using the proficiency scale on report cards. This kind of grading system is focused on providing constructive feedback and giving the student a plan to improve their grades.

INTERACT BEACH CLEANUP … The Interact Club partnered with the Earth Club this month for a beach cleanup at English Bay! Accompanied by Mr. Stapledon, the group walked down to the beach on June 22 to help remove trash from an important part of our city. Bravo!

ORPHEUM FIELD TRIP … The Grade 9 Minis were invited on a field trip to The Orpheum Theatre last month, to discuss ideas about the future of Granville Street. Concepts of natural light, traffic, walkability, and reconciliation were discussed. City planners asked students questions about what they wanted to see on Granville, like if they were likely to stop by a heritage venue on the street. The input collected from this session is ultimately going towards The Granville Project, a city plan that will make Granville Street a safe, modern, tourism-friendly hub for Vancouver’s commercial ecosystem, while keeping the street’s original neon aesthetic.

REPORT CARDS … This year’s final report cards were sent out on June 29. These usually can be accessed through the My Education BC portal, however, the MyEd portal was shut down for the summer on June 30, making them inaccessible until August 14, when the portal will be opened again until the 18th. This opening is meant for students to see their summer school grades.

ALL IN ALL … Great work this year, great luck next year, and congratulations to those who are graduating! Have a good summer, KG.