Mark your calendars!

Awesome Rockway events are happening over the next three weekends!

We start this Friday, May 1 with the amazing Youth Earth Summit (YES). Tons of speakers, food, music, and merchandise supporting our earth!

Click on the poster or go to the website for more details.

Then join us next weekend, May 8-9, for Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest presented by our Grade 11-12.

It's a very funny show and you won't be disappointed!

Click on the poster or go to the website for more details.

And finally come back on May 14 for an incredible evening of music in support of the Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support.

Rockway student and alumni bands are putting together a great show. Sure to get you rocking!

Click on the poster for details.

Rockway Soccer: Game 2!

Rockway's Tori Barratt runs over St. David goalie.

The Flames continued the league season with games yesterday against St. David Catholic Secondary School.

The boys team suffered their second loss, falling to the Celtics 4-0.

The girls showed that they are contenders for the title this year by beating their opponents 2-0. Good pressure throughout the game led to great goals by Iman Sabrie and Steph Fast. The defense showed their grit and gave the Celtics few good chances until late in the game. The Record ran a story today that summarizes the league and puts our girls in the hunt!

Our Flames are up against PRDG on Wednesday where we hope that we can get our boys into the win column and continue strong play from the girls. Go Flames!

Author Debra Ellis visits Rockway

Our grade 6-8s were privileged to hear Debra Ellis (author of 20 books including The Heaven Shop and the Governor General's Award-winning Looking for X), as she paid a visit on Friday. She spoke to the whole group and then held a workshop for our budding authors

She spoke, read, and answered questions about her books and gave our students a chance to hear about the places they are set. Ms. Ellis has traveled to the Middle East, Africa, and Central America to give voice to the children in these places by writing stories inspired by the struggles they face.

Each year, the grade 8s read the book The Heaven Shop, which gives a face to the orphans of AIDS in Africa. To hear Ms. Ellis talk about the children she met before writing the book was inspiring!

glimpse... Student Art Exhibition 2009

Rockway artistic talent was on display last Thursday in glimpse..., Rockway's annual art exhibition.

Grade 9-12 students were featured in a variety of mediums: painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, collage, mixed media. There is a ton of technical and creative talent among ourstudents and the exhibition was a feast for the eyes!

The evening also featured a Fair Trade Cafe put on by the Social Concerns Committee and musical performances by students.

Thanks to the Visual Arts Committee and art teachers Helmi Wiebe and Karen Scott-Booth who put in hours of work and made the evening amazing!

Soccer Teams Kick-off the Season

The Flames were on the soccer field Wednesday in their opening games against St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School.

The weather was a nasty mix of 5^oC, wind, and drizzle and all the teams struggled with keeping warm, especially on the bench.

The boys team fought hard but succumbed to a strong opponent 2-0. The girls struggled as a team but escaped with a 1-1 tie.

You can follow the league at http://cwossadistrict8.com/ and keep reading this blog for the updates.

The next game for both teams is on Monday vs. St. David's Catholic Secondary School.

Go Flames Go!

Waterloo Region High School Choral Festival

On Tuesday, April 21, our Gr. 10 choir participated in the annual Waterloo Region High School Choral Festival at the Centre in the Square.

The guest conductor for the massed choir was Dr. Gerard Yun, Wilfrid Laurier University, and three chamber choirs were conducted by Mrs. Nancy Kidd.

The students had a good time connecting with other choirs and sharing in the joy of music making. We are fortunate to have a world-class theatre so close and being able to sing on that stage was a real highlight for our students.

Thanks to Mr. Dirks for his work preparing the choir and continuing to connect us to the broader school community!

Girls Soccer Tournament

The Girls Soccer Team kicked off their season with a tournament at Galt Collegiate Institute, April 17-18.

With some members of the team involved in MSEC music festival and other pursuits, the team was down to one sub. This left lots of soccer for the remaining members who represented themselves admirably.

Two games on Friday resulted in two late goal losses, 1-0 each against Paris DHS and the host GCI.

Determined to do better on Saturday, the girls responded by beating Waterloo-Oxford 1-0 and tying Our Lady of Lourdes 0-0.

The girls improved dramatically through the two days and look forward to the regular season starting on Wednesday against St. Benedict. The Boys team also kicks off their season on Wednesday.

Go Flames Go!

Grade 8 Winds & Strings at Kiwanis

Last Wednesday, our grade 8 Music Students participated Stratford's Annual Kiwanis Music Festival.

The students played before an adjudicator (though it is not a competition). Ms. Hoffman and Mr Dirks thought that the students played very well.

Kiwanis festivals are held all all over Ontario and around the world. To find out more go to http://www.kiwanis.org/

For more information on the Stratford's festival, click on the picture.

Gr. 12 Encountering Faith Chapel

Tuesday's chapel was led by the Gr. 12 "Encountering Faith" Class.

With music, words, and video the class let the student body in on some of the issues they talk about, speakers they have heard, and actions they have taken. Many students were surprised and excited to hear how the class had "prayed in colour" for the entire school. Sara and Brittany unfurled a banner with the name of each person in the school written in a variety of colours. The time spent writing their name was a way to pray for each person individually.

As this is the first year for this course, we look forward to hearing more from this group and seeing the interest from younger students in taking the course in the future.

Students go the extra mile

The grade 10 History assignment was relatively straight forward. Teacher John Moyer expected that a service assignment would see students spend an hour or so dedicating time to a cause that they were interested in. He was humbled and impressed to see that students went beyond the assignment, revisiting soup kitchens and connecting more with their chosen cause.

Sara Wyngaarden and Alana Zehr made quilts from scrap fabric that they plan to donate to Mennonite Central Committee. What a wonderful example of inspired service!

D8 Badminton Jr. Results

Rockway's athletes played very well on Tuesday in the District 8 Badminton Tournament.

Our team finished 3rd out of 7 which was awesome and Andy Lin won the boy's singles. He's off to CWOSSA next Wednesday (April 15th).

Good luck Andy and congratulations Flames on a great competition!

China Blog Update

There are now tons of pictures on the China Exchange Blog.

Check them out!

Math Contest Week!

Students in grades 9-12 are participating in Canadian math contests through the Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing at the University of Waterloo.

The Fryer (Gr.9), Galois (Gr.10), Hypatia (Gr.11), and Euclid (Gr. 12) contests give our students the chance to stretch themselves and compete against other students throughout the country.

Many of these contests have been a part of inspiring our students to pursue Math, Computing, Engineering, and Physics in post-secondary learning. Math is fun and creative!

Stay tuned for results in the next couple months.

Pictures and stories from Florida

Check out the pictures and stories from the Florida Science Trip over the March Break!

Guatemala Pictures Added

Check out some pictures from the amazing Guatemala Service Trip on their blog.

They have a ton of stories that we hope to add soon!

Spring Sports Begin for High School

With the smell of spring in the air we know that it's time for spring sports!

The Badminton season is underway and the Track & Field and Soccer teams have started to form. Our athletes are excited to compete and show their school spirit.

Our badminton team competed at a tournament last Friday at Resurrection. Watch out for Andy Lin, who was points away from the championship match, and Bonnie Fung, who was so close to getting back to the championship side!

The soccer and track seasons start in a couple weeks. Our Jr. High athletes will be involved in several one-day tournaments (3-pitch, soccer, and track&field) through May and June.

We have some very talented athletes and we are excited for all of them to challenge themselves, each other, and other teams in their sports.

GO FLAMES GO!