Fall Term Co-curricular Wrap-up

December 16, 2022

Academics

GNS

On Friday, December 9, students from both the Middle and Senior School choirs headed to the BC Parliament Building for a quick afternoon performance of festive, holiday pieces such as Somewhere in My Memory from Home Alone, and a Christmas favourite of Perfect Christmas Night from The Grinch. Following the performance, they also had a private tour of the building.

After a weekend of rest, the choirs along with the GNS Grade 6, Middle School and Senior School bands and choirs from the Junior School, headed to the Farquhar Auditorium at the University of Victoria on December 13 for their final winter performance of the year: Songs of the Season.

“I really enjoyed the concert because I got to hear everyone play and it was fun to hear the newer bands and choirs right before the more experienced ones,” commented Averi Kuo ’28. “You can really hear how much the bands and choirs improve each year.”

The concert provided a wonderful opportunity for the whole school to come together to celebrate the end of a great term and to showcase the talents of the students and their teachers.

Of course, other co-curricular activities are also busy.

In Photo Club, organized by Ms. Elbert, students have been participating in creating surrealist Christmas photos featuring GNS students in multiple scenarios.

“I really like the new Christmas project. The mixture of photoshop and photography makes for

a really interesting blend of skills to learn,” explained Clio Milwright ’26. “I also love the fact that these particular photos aren’t meant to look ‘nice’ in the traditional sense, but are instead supposed to be a bit surreal and confusing. It means you can make as many mistakes as you like because no one knows what the end result is supposed to look like but you.”

Ms. Easton and her debaters are also still hard at work, preparing for an upcoming regional debate tournament in late January. But, even though every debate meeting is still focused primarily on preparing for the tournament, Ms. Easton has also encouraged the winter spirit by bringing in both large and small candy canes. It turned out that butterscotch candy canes actually taste pretty good.

On December 14, Hannah Goharian ’24 and Sophie Pathak ’24, along with other Round Square members, hosted the annual Winter Market in support of the Children’s Health Foundation of Vancouver Island and raised $324.70 in total!

“I think the Winter Market went well and we had a great turnout,” said Sophie Pathak ’24. “I am definitely up to helping to plan it again next year and I think it’s a really fun winter tradition.”

On offer this year were stickers provided by Erin Plecas ’25 to raise awareness about the Period Project, baked goodies, hot chocolate and silent auction items. Alexis Kuo ’24 contributed to the market by selling her photos of the local ocean, flowers and wildlife, some of which were taken at our very own Pemberton Woods Campus.

As the 2022 school year comes to a close, there is no sign of student activities slowing down as GNS heads full steam ahead into the new year!