Beating The Blues with Hockey and Barbie

The second term is definitely the most challenging one of the school year. The post-holiday letdown coupled with what can often be the grey, wet weather of winter conspire to dampen spirits and make for hard slogging. To combat these forces of nature, the school has been exceptionally busy in the classroom, in the sports arena (including Showcase games with Shawnigan) pursuing artistic endeavors, and numerous social activities around the campus. Our Showcase calendar included numerous basketball and hockey fixtures. “Hockey Night in Mill Bay” saw Brentwood and Shawnigan battle to a 2-2 tie in regulation time before a packed and appreciative crowd of 800 students from both schools. We all celebrated our shootout victory! Another highlight was the Senior Boys Basketball game held in the Woodward Sportsplex and livestreamed to the Brentwood community around the world. These events energized our student body and provided them with terrific opportunities to express their school spirit and support our athletes. We have had a number of dances at the school including the Match Maker Dance for Valentine’s as well as our Grade 12 class traveling to Shawnigan to enjoy a social evening with their counterparts. The value of that evening, among many, was to make some connections for the future as graduates from both schools will be going to some of the same universities, and history has taught us that Brentwood and Shawnigan grads make business and social associations that last a lifetime. On campus there have been three Open House events. Allard, Mackenzie and Alex Houses have entertained the student body with Saturday night events featuring food, dancing and socializing. Judging by the numbers, these thematic events have been popular attractions with Barbie, Rednecks ‘n Rattails and Under The Sea themes seen thus far. Hope House also hosted their annual Hope House Tea to bring a bit of British civility to the campus on a Sunday afternoon. One of the most engaging and rewarding events of the term was February’s annual Java Hut which saw 25 student and faculty music and comedy acts take the stage in the old dining hall. Almost the entire student body, and many faculty and staff families, enjoyed a superb atmosphere and some wonderful entertainment. The term has flown by with good-spirits and it is a credit to our students that the events have been well planned, well attended and thoroughly enjoyable. The atmosphere around the school has been excellent this term - long may that continue.