Horton High School

Happy New Year Horton Griffins!

I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season during these uncertain times. Our school staff has been focused and determined to make Semester 1 a success for our students. Now that it is nearly complete, we must insist that you encourage your son/daughter to begin to refocus on their school efforts in 2021. During the last four months our students have been very resilient in uncertain times, and have made many academic accomplishments. We wish to continue the same level of focus and work ethic moving forward in 2021, finishing up semester 1 strong while preparing for a solid start to semester 2 in February.

Community Support

Poverty is a reality in our community but our programs continue to offer support for many families. Horton strives to help create a special holiday for everyone. Horton devotes much time and effort to help those in need during the Holiday Season and throughout the year. The Horton Equity Initiative provided many families in need with food, small gifts and other needed essentials. Many thanks to Kim MacDonald and Sandy Coldwell for their tireless efforts to help provide support for many local families.

Semester 1 Exams

Although exam notes have been in our newsletters for a few months, it is now time to focus on preparation for the start of exams on January 25th. We continue to send proactive messages to all our students, encouraging them to put in a full commitment to their academics. It is now a good time to encourage your son/daughter to begin preparation for the exam event. Please support your child at home in getting them to start preparing for their exams now.

Grade 9 students will be writing exams for the first time, which may cause some anxiety. Please try to keep them at ease, their teachers will be having conversations with them so they feel good about the experience. This is very typical and normal for all high school students, and it is a valuable experience to develop lifelong coping strategies for future academic adventures. Preparation is one of the best strategies to combat exam anxiety. Please let your child know that their anxiety is normal.

Preparing for exams is an engaged process that should begin with few weeks of preparation. Please support your child at home by getting them to start preparing for their exams right away, with 30-60 minutes of review a night. This makes a big difference when it comes to exam time. If your son or daughter is not preparing, please ask questions and direct them towards solid study habits and preparation.

A copy of the exam schedule is present in this newsletter edition, as it was in December. It is also posted on the Horton website and in the student Google classroom. Please take a look so you are aware when exams are scheduled. Our teachers will inform students when and where their exam will take place (classroom), but it is very important for students to note those details. As in previous years, we will complete attendance each morning and contact home if a student is missing from an exam. It is always awkward to call a home on the morning of an exam only to have a student tell a parent they had no idea they had an exam that day. Please refer to the exam procedures contained in our online student agenda and refer to the exam schedule as often as needed. Once again, we need to ask for you to support us on the issue of students who are not writing evaluations or completing alternative assessments to stay at home on exam days. If a student does not have an exam (or other forms of assessment) on a particular day or that week they will not be permitted to hang out in the school for the purpose of being with their friends. We also encourage students who have finished for the day (at lunch for example) to find safe transportation home; we will make announcements to reinforce this as exam week gets closer.

Semester 2

Semester 2 will be set to begin on February 1. The start of a new semester is a busy time at any high school, much like it is in September. In addition to regular startup items, we also begin to focus on planning for the next school year. Horton will be starting the process of meeting with students regarding class registration, visit and plan the transition of our feeder school students, create a school schedule, assign jobs, and before we know it preparing for a June closing, including the 2021 graduation. This year we will have some alternate plans if needed in place to accommodate Public Health Guidelines due to Covid 19.

School Registration

Please talk to your son/daughter about their preparedness for selecting courses for next year. Much like exams, this process can cause some nervous anxiety in our students. However, we do have comprehensive plans in place to prepare them to make informed course selections through meetings with students and advisory programming. The student Google classroom will play host to all this scheduling information, please ask your student to look through this material in preparation for course selection. Never hesitate to reach out to school administration or the guidance department for support with the process. Many more of these details will be present in our February newsletter.

School Community

It takes many people to help guide our students to success, please continue to contact your child’s teacher or school administration regarding your child’s social, emotional and/or academic growth. I am confident the Horton school community will continue to provide programing to help students reach their potential.

Jodye Routledge

Principal

Newsletter—January 2021

Horton High School is an authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) World School. We are one of approximately 4000 schools in the World, in over 140 countries that offers an IB program of study. This is truly an educational gift.

Students in IB World Schools like Horton, have a special opportunity as they enter into grades 10 and 11. Students can choose to pursue the IB Diploma Program (grades 11 & 12) as an alternate, free, open-access pathway through high school.

IB students are encouraged to think independently, drive their own learning, and take part in a program of education that can lead them to some of the highest ranking universities around the world.

IB students develop increased cultural awareness through the development of a second language, providing them with the skills to engage with people in an increasingly globalized, rapidly changing world.

Horton pre-IB (grade 10) is an opportunity for incoming grade 10 students to study an enriched curriculum, where they are actively able to explore new ideas and stretch themselves academically. These transferable skills better prepare and inform students to choose the IB Diploma Program during course selections of their Grade 10 year. Upcoming classroom visits by our IB Coordinator & current pre-IB / Diploma students will be taking place in February. Classroom visits take place for each of the grade 9 math classes and the grade 10 pre-IB classes.

Impressive. Yes?

Horton students will be selecting courses for September 2021 during the last week of February. Students will be completing their course registrations prior to March Break. An upcoming virtual informational meeting for the IB Diploma Program will be taking place in early February 2021. This meeting is intended for students/families currently in grade 9 and grade 10 pre-IB. It is important for you to be well informed, so that we can work together to support your young student in making upcoming decisions for course selections.

This month I will send out personal screen recordings, outlining the broad strokes of the IB Diploma Program. These can be viewed prior to the February meeting. It is my hope that by getting the smaller videos out to you sooner, you will be able to marinate in the shared information. My hope is that these recordings will help to facilitate those burning IB questions you may have in preparation for our virtual time in February.

Stay well, stay safe.

Mr. Fuller, IB Diploma Program Coordinator jasfuller@gnspes.ca

Find us on the web at www.ibo.org and https://hortonib.com

Student Services

Transcripts: Grade 12 students, if you would like your Semester 1 final marks be sent to a post-secondary institution,

please complete the Current Student Transcript Request form found at:

https://sites.google.com/gnspes.ca/hhss/current-student-transcript-request

These transcripts will be sent during the third week in February. If this does not meet your deadline requirements, please see Mrs. Langille in Student Services.

Horton Holiday Hoorah

2020 presented our world, our country and our province with challenges, but our humanity persevered. This December a great group of elves buzzed about sorting, packing and counting food and money prior to the break. We successfully raised $1400 and over 500 kilos of food; all of the proceeds were divided and delivered to our community food banks of Fundy, Hantsport and WAIC. Many thanks to Renata Verri, and her Horton elves for their organization and hard work that made this event once again a huge success. It has been in operation for an amazing 17 years. Thank you to all the community members, staff and students that came together to offer their support for HHH through the many donations that we received again this year.

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness

Desmond Tutu

January 2021 - Horton Exams

Exam Writing Locations: Teachers will notify students of their writing locations as the examination period draws closer.

Students will not be released from classrooms prior to ½ hour before the end of the examination time. Individual teachers may offer students who require extra time the opportunity to stay longer if requested.

Horton exams in the A.M. will finish prior to the end of AVRCE exams. These students will be permitted to leave the building once their evaluation is over and must stay away from the area where the AVRCE exams are being held. Room changes will occur for AVRCE exams to be held in locations that will enable more privacy for these students.

Exam Conflicts: An exam conflict occurs when a student is scheduled to write two exams at the same time. It is the student’s responsibility to identify the conflict to his subject teacher. Teachers are asked to review the Exam Schedule with students. Conflicts should be resolved by teacher/student coordination in order to arrange to write the exam at another time.

Horton Hall: During the examination days, January 25th—28th, Horton Hall will be utilized as a study area during exam hours. This means that a quiet environment must be maintained in that area during those times.

Missing Exams: Exams are to be written on the date scheduled.

The only exemption is for serious illness. This requires a note from a doctor.

AVRCE Exams 9:00 am -12:15 pm

NSE Exams

(Provincial Exams)

9:00 am - 11:30 am

maximum 12:00 pm

Horton Exams 9:00 am - 11:30 am

12:45 pm - 3:15 pm

WORKING HARD is important,

But there is something that matters even more:

BELIEVING IN YOURSELF.

~ Harry Potter

Horton High School - January Exams (2021)

Morning Exams are 9:00 - 11:00 Afternoon Exams are 12:45 - 2:45 Most exams are 2 hours long, with an extra 30 minutes available if needed.

Course

MONDAY, JAN 25TH - AM EXAMS

English 10 - Provincial Exam

English 12 African Heritage

English and Advanced English 11

English and Advanced English 12

IB Chemistry 12 Lab (A. Coldwell)

Math 9

Pre-IB English 10 (Provincial Exam)

MONDAY, JAN 25TH - PM EXAMS

Biology and Advanced Biology 12

Business Management 12

IB Chemistry 12 Lab (A. Coldwell)

Science 10

TUESDAY, JAN 26TH - AM EXAMS

English 9

Math 10 AVRCE Cumulative

Math 11

Math 12

Math at Work 11

Math at Work 12

Pre-Cal 12 - AVRCE assessment

Pre-IB Math 10 Cumulative

IB Chemistry 12 - Labs (A. Coldwell)

TUESDAY, JAN 26TH - PM EXAMS

African Canadian Studies 11

Biology and Advanced Biology 11

French Language Arts 10 and 11

IB Math SL 11

Sociology 12 (academic)

WEDNESDAY, JAN 27TH - AM EXAMS

Chemistry and Adv Chemistry 12

IB English 12 Oral

Math 9 Immersion

Physics and Adv Physics 11

Pre-IB Bio 11 (J Fuller)

Pre-IB History 10

WEDNESDAY, JAN 27TH - PM EXAMS

Core French 10, 11, and 12

Global Geography 12 (Millar and Crowell)

Global History 12

Health and Human Services 12

IB English 12 Oral

Law 12

THURSDAY, JAN 28TH - AM EXAMS

Accounting 11

IB English 12 Oral

Chemistry and Adv Chemistry 11

Physics and Adv Physics 12

THURSDAY, JAN 28TH - PM EXAMS

IB English 12 Oral

Friday, January 29th—Marking Day—No school for students

“As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has

something that no one else has - or ever will have - something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each

other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression.”

Fred Rogers, You Are Special: Neighborly Wit And Wisdom From Mister Rogers

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 5 6

7 8 9

10 11

First day back for students

12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 NSVS Exams

22 23

24 25 EXAMS

26 EXAMS

27 EXAMS

28 EXAMS

29 Marking Day – no school for students

30

31

January 2021

February 2021

February 1 - Semester 1 begins

February 10/11 - Grad photo retakes

February 11 - Report cards go home

February 15 - Heritage Day — no school

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels. ~Unknown