Sisler High School

Sisler High School
Location
Winnipeg , Manitoba
Information
Type	Public secondary (French immersion, ESL, Adapted, Life Skills, and Accelerated programmes)
Motto	Vincit qui se vincit ("One conquers who conquers oneself")
Established	1957
School district	Winnipeg School Division No. 1
Principal	George Heshka
Enrollment	1800+
Colour(s)	Red and Black
Mascot	Spartans
Website	www.sislerhigh.org

Sisler High School is the largest high school in the province of Manitoba with over 1800 students. It was built in 1957, and named after William James Sisler. As principal of Strathcona School in the North End of Winnipeg, W.J. Sisler was instrumental in helping new immigrant families adjust. He faced a great challenge in the fact that a majority of the students did not speak English; there were twenty-two countries of origin and eighteen language groups in his student body. In addition, many of his students came from areas where they were deprived their right to education. In his book Peaceful Invasion, W.J. Sisler says "Once they understood the value of education that was freely offered to them they took full advantage of all that we could give them". He adapted the education system for his immigrant students, and the provincial government of Manitoba soon officially adopted his method of teaching. Sisler High School today has a large ESL (English as a Second Language) program.

Teaching Excellence

Sisler High School has been recognized for teaching excellence. Principal George Heshka, who has been principal of Sisler High School for twenty-five years, has overseen the creation of various programmes such as the All-Girl classes, the 24-Hour Exile, and the humanitarian groups of Sisler High School.

Six teachers at Sisler High School have won Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence. This is the most that any single school has received this award. Mr. Chris Bandfield, social studies department head, also won Manitoba's Lieutenant Governor's Classroom Teacher Award, of which only one is awarded annually at the secondary level.

In March 2005, the school was recognized with the Canadians for a Genocide Museum Educator's Award for its contribution for education on issues surrounding genocide; specifically for its In Exile for a While programme. The school regards this to be a high honour, as it even edged out distinguished co-nominees—retired lieutenant-general, The Honourable Roméo Dallaire, and Inky Mark, Member of Parliament.

Sisler’s January 2009 English Provincial Exam Results

	Provincial	Divisional	Sisler
English (4S and General) Pass Rate: Mean:	84.7% 65.9%	81.4% 64.6%	92.2% 68.8%
Consumer Math Pass Rate: Mean:	79.3% 62.3%	75.2% 60.3%	86.3% 64.6%
Applied Math Pass Rate: Mean:	75.2% 61.0%	66.1% 57.1%	96.8% 73.5%
Pre-Calculus Pass Rate: Mean:	77.2% 66.2%	75.2% 66.1%	94.6% 77.7%

ESL (English as a Second Language) Program

Many students come to Sisler from other countries, learn English through the school's program and ultimately succeed in their high school studies. This program serves to integrate multiculturalism into school life.

Accelerated Program

Sisler High School's Accelerated Program allows students to enroll in grade 9 and potentially finish their first year of university by the time they finish their grade 12 year. Sisler High School offers five university courses, in conjunction with the University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. Those courses include: Calculus 1, Calculus 2, English, Physics, and Psychology. Sisler is the only school that has their AP students take both the University of Manitoba Calculus 1 and 2 courses. Prior to the 2005-2006 school year, Latin was also offered as a course. Advanced Placement chemistry is also offered, as well as many other enriched courses.

French Immersion Programme

Sisler High School's French Immersion has an enrolment of nearly 200 students. The French Immersion programme allows students to graduate with a French Immersion diploma, and full use of both official languages of Canada. Students enrolled in French Immersion are required to complete 14 credits of French-language courses. Two courses which are not offered in an English equivalent, and are therefore exclusive to French Immersion, are the Communications médiatiques (Media Communications) and Sciences humaines (Political History of the Twentieth Century).

The French Immersion programme also has compulsory participation in the Canadian Parents for French (CPF) Concours d'art oratoire until the end of grade 10. The Concours d'art oratoire (Contest of the Oratory Art) is a French-language speaking contest in which participants write their own piece on a topic of their choice and perform it in public. Alumnus and former president, Jan Raeimon D. Nato, is a three-time provincial champion of this competition, and placed second at the National level. Since then, he has been asked to speak at the CPF-Manitoba's 25th anniversary dinner, and at the Bureau de l'éducation française's French Immersion: Moving Ahead Into the Future conference. Many students go on to continue their studies at the Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface.

Visual & Performing Arts Department

The Governor General of Canada

Sisler High School's Visual & Performing Arts (VPA) Department offers courses in Art, Band, Choir, Dance, and Drama. With the widest enrolment of any programme at Sisler High School, the VPA Department appeals to many students. The VPA Department has gained Sisler High School additional repute.

In 2005-2006, Sisler formed their first Ukrainian Dance Group under the instruction of student Nathan Fletcher, an accomplished Ukrainian dancer. Sisler's Ukrainian Dance group had the chance to perform at Dance Manitoba, and received gold for Competing Bukovinian Ladies and gold with honours for Pryvit.

From 2002–2004 and in 2006, Sisler High School's choirs have won the Earl Grey Trophy, the highest honour for a school choir in the Winnipeg Music Festival. The choir also sends many of its members to the Provincial Honour Choir of Manitoba. In 2002, Sisler's Jazz Choir Jazz-Ma-Tazz received an invitation to perform at MusicFest Canada. In 2003, Sisler's Chamber Choir followed suit. In 2005, Sisler High School's Chamber and Concert Choirs also received recommendations to perform at MusicFest Canada.

On 18 October 2005, four members of Sisler High School's Chamber Choir joined the [1] Winnipeg Boy's Choir to sing O Canada at the official welcoming ceremony of Governor General Michaëlle Jean at the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. The visit to Winnipeg was Jean's first trip as Governor General.

The bands annually participate in The Winnipeg Optimist Festival, in which they have been awarded gold and silver medals. Sisler High School's bands have also been asked to perform with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra during the New Music Festival. Many students also perform with the divisional and provincial honour bands. Sisler offers a grade 9/S1 band, concert band (non-auditioned and generally for S2-4 students), jazz band (which is auditioned and again generally for S2-4 students), wind ensemble, beginner's band, and a pit band that consists of wind ensemble band members. The S1 band is scheduled into the school day, and accepts both beginners and non-beginners. The other bands practice before school, at lunch and after school.

In 2005, the dance troupe Sisler's Most Wanted brought home golds at the Winnipeg Dance Festival. The Sisler's Most Wanted dance troupe has its origins as an all-male dance troupe aimed at preventing crime, and has since then grown into a male and female troupe which is held in high regard throughout Winnipeg. Sisler's VPA Department Head, Spencer Duncanson, has received an anti-crime award from the Attorney-General of Manitoba for his leadership in the Visual & Performing Arts Department.

On 8 October 2002, Sisler High School's Jazz-Ma-Tazz ensemble and Sisler's Most Wanted dance troupe performed for the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II, during her visit to Winnipeg as a part of the Golden Jubilee festivities at The Forks.

Athletics

Sisler High School also offers a wide athletics program. It consists of traditional sports such as track, hockey, football, rugby, volleyball, soccer and basketball, but also includes sports such as cricket, curling, and golf. Intramurals are also very popular at Sisler High School.

In the 2004-05 season, the Sisler Spartans Hockey team won their first divisional and city championship by defeating Miles Macdonell Collegiate 4-2 at the MTS Centre. The Spartans finished first overall in their division and lost one game throughout the playoffs.

In 2007 both of Sisler High School's football teams made it to the city finals. It is the first time this has been done since the league was divided into two sub-divisions. The A division centennial bowl championship was won in a 23-7 decision over the Murdoch MacKay Collegiate Clansmen, and the AAA division Anavets Bowl trophy was lost to the Oak Park High School Raiders 29-19.

Sisler brought home the 2006 provincial championships in basketball, while the Spartan soccer team made their first appearance in over a decade at the Urban Provincial Soccer Championships in Brandon, Manitoba.

Sisler's Senior Boys Rugby Team won the first division provincial title in 2000-2001 with a clean record. The winning streak continued through the 2001-2002 season until a loss in the provincial finals. In the 2002-2003 season the team received an influx of young new players as a majority of the team had graduated the year before. This new team, led by half a dozen or so veteran players, lost in the provincial semi-finals. In the 2003-2004 season, won back the provincial title for Sisler.

Girl's Rugby has also started to take hold in Sisler; the team won the second-tier provincial title in the 2003-2004 season.

Sisler can now add the Champions of the Currie A Division Football to their long list of accomplishments in the 2011-2012 season.

Student Humanitarian Leadership

Sisler High School has gained recognition for its various humanitarian endeavours. These include Generation Peace, the Overseas Educational Fund, Global Medical Aid (GMA), the In-Exile Programme, and 30-hour Famine.

Generation Peace

Generation Peace was founded in 2000 and has grown to take on many humanitarian endeavours, achieving great success for international development. They mainly work with war-affected children through "War Child Canada", holding fundraisers to raise money for this organization. They have also worked with Tsunami relief, Hurricane Katrina relief and Christmas Cheerboard in the past. Their main events include "go nuts for donuts" sales, the annual Santa Gram sale, and, in collaboration with OverSeas Educational Fund, the annual Talent Show. Meetings are generally held at lunch and after school.

Overseas Educational Fund

OverSeas Educational Fund (OSEF) was created in 2003 by Jennifer Sault. Ultimately, OSEF raises funds and awareness for education overseas. They raise funds to support daycares in the Philippines through International Association for Transformation (IAT) as well as the Village of Hope initiative in Zambia. OSEF works through doing many fundraisers within the school, some of which including the Walk for Education, the Christmas-themed spirit day (entitled "Spartan Winter Wonderland"), food sales, dances, the annual talent show, holiday themed sales and events, as well as numerous others. OSEF also supports and operates with the many other humanitarian events occurring in the school. Meetings are held every Tuesday after school.

The In Exile Program

The In Exile Program was inspired by the Red Cross Exile program. Essentially this program simulates a refugee experience to spread awareness to high school students from numerous schools. It is held at Bird's Hill park annually. They have done both twenty-four and twelve hour exiles, both of which include a simulation walk, campground experience, guest refugee speakers, and "debriefing".

The 30 Hour Famine

The 30 Hour Famine is an annual schoolwide event that raises thousands of dollars every year for famished and underprivileged children overseas. Spearheaded by Mr. Parker, many Sisler students collect sponsorships for fasting for 30 hours. This event includes the "Break For Bread" dance in the evening in which faminers and non-faminers come together to dance, break dance and avoid thinking of food.

S.O.S.E.H.

The Students of Sisler Environmental Helpers is a program that attempts to reduce Sisler's carbon footprint and improve the school's sustainability. There are many divisions of the program, each in charge of its own project. This group is led by Greg Shedden, teacher at Sisler. The recycling team recently installed blue boxes in each classroom that can be filled with plastic bottles and metal soda cans; the composting team stores bio-waste such as fruit and vegetables and grinds it up to turn it into fertilizer, the SolarWall team plans to install solar panels in the theatre to provide ventilation and air conditioning. One of SOSEH's most challenging division is the geothermal project, it is led by student, Joana Beltrano, the goal is to install a geothermal furnace for the senior gym. Achieving the Geothermal plan for the school's senior gym accounts for the Winnipeg School Division's support. Currently, students are going around the hallways of Sisler, asking for change, "change for change", in order to support the costly project, and to promote the project's excellent environmental friendly goals for the school. On top of everything else, a low-priority BioSphere project is in the works: the project entails transforming the smallest courtyard of the school into a prairie landscape by planting grass and trees found in such an ecosystem. A glass roof will cover the courtyard and over time students will be able to witness the effects of global warming on a prairie climate such that the city of Winnipeg is emerged in. Ultimately, SOSEH's goal is to turn the whole school into an eco-friendly environment, in every way possible.

G.M.A.

Global Medical Aid faundraises to provide medication to people in third world countries. In 2006 GMA held a Dance Dance Revolution competition to raise money, the winner in the heavy difficulty category of competition to have a chance at challenging Canada's DDR champion.

Extra-Curricular activities

There are also many other extracurricular activities offered at Sisler. These include:

Yearbook Committee

Is a group in the school that is formed every year to collect information, take pictures, and to create the yearbook for their graduating class.

Freshly Pressed

Sisler has always encouraged core beliefs and values such as freedom of speech and freedom of equality. Freshly Pressed is Sisler High’s Student newspaper. Any student is able to submit to the news paper and students are encouraged to express their thoughts and ideas through this group.

Athletic Council

Sisler’s Student Athletic Counsel organizes school events such as Intramurals, School dances, and Mini olympics.

Christian Youth Group

Is a non-demominational group in Sisler that is open to everyone. CYG has weekly fellowships, on and off school grounds. CYG’s main focus is to bring Christ to the school. They also hold the annual Easter service and host Operation Christmas Child.

Robotics Team

In 2003, the rookie Sisler robotic team entered the Canada F.I.R.S.T. robotics competition. The team won awards or medalled in every category except for "Best First Year Team". The team won the "President's Cup" for finishing first place overall, including an amazing second place in the robot hockey competition.

S.T.A.N.D. (Sisler Teens Against Nicotine and Drugs)

Held a petition for the students and staff to sign, asking the administrators to ban smoking on school grounds, and got over 800 signatures. Several members went to a division board meeting where they held a vote about the issue. They voted to ban smoking on the school grounds starting September 2007. Several members were also interviewed for the Winnipeg Free Press, and had their photos published. This group has been praised in the Manitoba Legislative assembly and in the House of Commons. This particular student group was also invited to present at the National Conference on Tabacco and Health in Montreal. One of S.T.A.N.D’s most recent accomplishments is creating the first ever “Go Smoke Free Day” at the Red River Exibition.

Sisler's Science Squad

Known as SSS or S cubed. Visits Lord Nelson to put on mini science shows once a month for half the school year. The other half of the school year is spent for the prep and the showing of the annual Science Magic Show at Sisler's Science fair, and for aiding in running the Division's science fair while putting on a Science show for all the students. And recently when the nation's science fair was held in Winnipeg they were asked to perform another science show.

Distinguished Alumni

• Lloyd Axworthy, Former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, current President of the University of Winnipeg
• Gary Filmon, Former Premier of Manitoba