Hawthorne Public School (Ottawa)

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Hawthorne Public School
Your Future is Now
School type	Public
Established	1960
Principal	Mrs. Kopczewski
Faculty	35
Students	500
Location	2158 St Laurent Blvd Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 1A9  Canada
Website	http://www1.ocdsb.edu.on.ca/hawtweb/

Hawthorne Public School is a school in Ottawa, Canada. It is located at 2158 St. Laurent Blvd and represents more than 500 students from Kindegarten to Grade Eight and over 50 countries around the world. Hawthorne Public School is home to many programs, including English as a Second Language (ESL), the General Learning Program (GLP), Special Education (SELC) and the Gifted Program.

Contents 1 History 2 Sports 3 Music 4 Academics 5 Bikes

[edit] History

Hawthorne was founded in 1960 as a Public School within the Ottawa Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). The original buildings has not changed since, and many areas of the school are in need of repair. Recent funding for the school was spent on a new playstructure which, ironically, is no longer the "playground center."

[edit] Sports

Hawthorne Public School is known for its strong Basketball teams. In the past 6 years,the Intermediate Boys Basketball Team has won five regional championships and one gold and one silver medal at the City Championships. The Intermediate Girls Basketball team has won 4 Regional Championships in a row(2004-2007) and two Silver medals at the City Championships. The Junior Boys Basketball team has won 5 of the last 6 Regional Championships. Hawthorne usually finishes third or fourth at track meets and is not as good in the field of soccer or volleyball as other sports. Although sports have not been successful in the past, 2006 was a good year for sports. The intermediate girls won volleyball and basketball in the regional level. The boys won volleyball, football and basketball. Both basketball teams placed second in the city wide championships. The teams also played at the Scotiabank Place and went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. Hawthorne has won so many championships because of the great coach they have, Mr.McMann.

[edit] Music

Until 2002, Hawthorne's Music Program consisted of only old violins, violas, cellos, and double bases. In 2003, Hawthorne Public School received several thousand dollars from the Emmy Awards to purchase band instruments. Since then, our music program has been a work in progress!

In 2005, Hawthorne took part in the 1st annual Music Monday event. Music Monday was created to promote music in schools, and is celebrated on the first Monday of May. The choir was bussed to the NAC to take part in a nationwide video-conference and several proficient music students were sent to the Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre to play for the children on a variety of musical instruments. The school continues to participate in this event, and had a breakthrough in 2006 with a visit from Marc Garneau, Boris Brott and David Jones on May 1 (Music Monday).

Later in 2006, Hawthorne took part in a band exchange with Goulbourne Middle School for two days, playing with their band and preforming in front of a student audience from both schools, as they visited each other for one day. This was a success and the band and gifted homerooms enjoyed the experience very much.

Here at Hawthorne our musical philosophy is as follows: "Music is not just about playing an instrument...think about it!"

[edit] Academics

Hawthorne's academic program, though not wealthy, is rather high in the city. The estimated school average was around 68% in the school year and four students won awards at the Citywide Science Fair. Hawthorne is also known for its very strong mathematics program. In the City Wide Math Olympics, Hawthorne has won 16 years out of 24. This is mainly attributed to Hawthorne's strong gifted program, with the only competition being Glashan and Broadview. It is widely believed that the source of Hawthorne's success is the fact that the gifted program is very small- there were only 15 grade 8 gifted students in 2004, and that the math teacher- Mr. Braden- is very good and was able to privately teach each student if necessary.

In 2006, a very special project was created at Hawthorne. A book called "Hawthorne Writes" was published with the help of fundraising and families' donations. The book featured stories written by students of Hawthorne. They were then translated into many different languages by parents, teachers and students themselves. Media came to witness the celebration of diversity that was taking place. Every student got to take home a copy.

[edit] Bikes

In the City, Hawthorne is seen as a very poor school which excels at the Math Olympics and Basketball. Hawthorne receives most of its fundraising money from former students. Starting in 2002, a millionaire, who had attended the school, died and stated in his will that each year, his family would buy a CDN 110$ bicycle, bike helmet, bike chain, and bell for every single Grade 6 Student to promote physical activity.