Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School

Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School
Address
1490 Ogden Avenue Mississauga, Ontario, L5E 2H8, Canada
Information
School board	Peel District School Board
Religious affiliation	Public
Superintendent	Anthony K. Edwards
Principal	Elaine Topping
Vice principal	Bonnie Baker Fraser Kidd Sandra Trupp
Grades	9-12
Language	English
Mascot	The Hawk
Colours	Green and Gold
Founded	1956
Enrolment	1,072[1] (May 18, 2011)
Homepage	http://www.gordongraydon.com, http://ibtgraydon.com

Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School, "Gordon Graydon", "GGMSS", or simply "Graydon" for short, is a Canadian high school serving Grades 9 to 12, located at 1490 Ogden Avenue in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The school opened in 1957, and celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 26, 2007. It was named after Gordon Graydon, a Canadian politician who died in 1953. The school's slogan is "Palma Per Ardua": Success through Hard Work.

Gordon Graydon is home to the International Business and Technology Program (IBT), where students join an enriched program that places an emphasis on business and technology skills to supplement their academic studies. The school also has a tradition of hosting the Peel High School Chess Tournament (since 2005), is also home to the only Flexography Program (Flexography) in the region, and places an emphasis on education, athletics, and the arts.

The majority of the students are IBT students; the remainder consist of mainstream (local) and vocation students. In the first two years of high school, IBTs and mainstreams have separate classes.

The IBT Program has one only school in the South Peel Region of Mississauga, and therefore most students cannot walk to and from school. The majority of the IBT Program students use the GGAM IBT Bussing for transport to and from school.

International Business & Technology Program (IBTP)

The International, Business and Technology (IBT) program is an innovative program that enriches and extends the traditional secondary school curriculum in order to prepare students for the challenges of an increasingly complex world. It continues the program offered by middle school, Allan A. Martin.

Grade 8 Graydon Outlook (GO) Conference

The Graydon Outlook Conference is an overnight conference designed to welcome new and upcoming grade 8 students into the IBT Program. The conference is set up much like a leadership conference where the students are split up into groups with Leadership Developers guiding them through sessions. The sessions are created to foster leadership skills and allow the students to make friends and become comfortable with each other, so they will have an easy transition into high school.

Grade 9 Laptop Program

The Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School's laptop program is only available for IBT students. The program allows students to use their laptop in their Geography, English, Science, and Business classes. The subject material and courses themselves are no different but the students will learn additional information using a computer than normal IBT students. The laptop program is mostly beneficial to the IBT business course, as for the majority of the class, business related computer programs are used.

Grade 10 Laptop Program

The Grade 10 Laptop Program was added in the 2009/2010 year. It is similar to the Grade 9 Laptop Program. The Laptop Program is available in the Business, History, English, and Science courses.

Grade 10 Business Venture

In their Grade 10 business classes, IBT, students are responsible for designing, marketing, and advertising a new product to the school as a course requirement. Each class is typically divided into two businesses, each of which sells their own product during the school's lunch periods and during open houses. They usually sell for a period of two months during which they are required to keep a log and track of their finances.

School Traditions

There are many traditions at Gordon Graydon, including:

• Grade Nine Olympics: A day of fun and games to welcome the new Grade Nine students . The event occurs at the end of September and is run by senior students in the Student Athletic Assosciation (SAA).
• Talent Show: Students of Gordon Graydon organize, plan, and perform in a talent show. This occurs during the second semester of the year.
• Culture Shock Events: The Chinese Student Association, Christian Club, Muslim Students Association, and Sikh Student Association combine to run movie nights, cultural dances or cultural costume days, in order to raise awareness of the diverse number of cultures at Graydon.
• GO Conference: The Graydon Outlook or "GO" Conference occurs near the end of second semester for IBT students entering the school in the following year, and is run by older students in the IBT Leadership Council.
• Peel High School Chess Tournament: The president of the Graydon Chess Club organizes an interscholastic chess tournament between all schools in the Regional Municipality of Peel. Graydon has finished in first place ever since the tournament was founded in 2005.
• Thinkbiz : A business competition, organized annually by GGMSS under the Globalinx club, in which all Peel high school teams are invited to participate and compete.
• SAC Elections: The whole school gathers in the gym to elect the following year's student government after watching candidates' speeches. Classes return to their homeroom where they cast ballots.

School Clubs

Gordon Graydon is host to many different clubs and teams. Students receive one "activity point" for 10 hours of extracurricular participation, and the school gives awards to those who reach a certain number of points.

Activity Point Awards

• 25 points: Junior Activity Award
• 40 points: Senior Activity Award
• 70 points: The Principal's Letter
• 90 points: Athletic Award
• 90 points: Club Activity Award

Students earn one regular point for each ten hours of involvement with a particular team or club.

Clubs at Graydon

• Ambassadors: GGMSS representatives in several school events, help out with Grade 9 orientation, organizes parents on IBT Information night, serves as communication between the Graydon student body and parents / visitors.
• Audio-Visual Team: Works to provide technology help for presentations and shows. In charge of managing all technical equipment (sound and lights) during school events such as Talent Show, grade assemblies, Theatre Graydon, etc.
• Association of AYD (Aspiring Young Doctors): A club dedicated to students interested in pursuing a career in medicine. AYD raises awareness about current health issues, discusses new medical findings and participates and organizes several school wide fund-raisers and events^[2]. AYD has also worked with several hospitals and raised funds for the cancer division in the Credit Valley Hospital.
• Graydon Chess Club: One of then newest clubs in the school (founded in 2005), the Graydon Chess Club became the school's largest club at over 100 members in 2006. The club, its founder, and its members have been recognized for proficient organization and for consistently dominating the Peel High School Chess Tournament, which is also hosted by the club. The club also held a large party in 2006 for retired chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov's 43rd birthday.
• Dance Club: A club that teaches students different styles dancing. This includes but is not limited to breakdancing, krumping, popping, and choreography. Five members of the breakdancers are expected to compete at Bots (Battle of the Schools), an interscholastic breakdancing tournament held in Mississauga.
• Debate Club: Debate club participates in several formal debates on the regional, provincial and national level. The debate club is also known for participating in international debates at University of Harvard.
• Duke of Edinburgh: A club that allows the students to set personal goals and strive to achieve them. Service, expedition and exploration, skills, and physical fitness are the four categories in which they excel. If the students succeed in any of the four categories they are awarded a broach by a member of the Royal Family.
• Graydon DECA Chapter: Graydon's chapter of the internationally recognized marketing and business competition club. Frequently competes at the provincial competition in Toronto, Ontario. Many students from Gordon Graydon place well in the provincial competition and further advance to the international event. Graydon DECA Chapter had the largest chapter in Ontario in 2010/2011 term, with over 120 members.
• Gay Straight Alliance (GSA): A social and supportive group for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students, and their allies. Responsible for the annual event the Coffee Haus and Day of Silence.
• Free the Children: Fights for more rights and better living conditions for children in poorer regions on the world, particularly in Third World nations such as in China & India
• Globalinx: Organizes and runs a regional, one-day business competition known as Thinkbiz
• Graydon Reaching Out (GRO): Provides volunteer opportunities for students, and organizes charitable events in the community for all Graydon students
• Green Team: Previously known as the Environmental Club, the club takes charge of planting around school, raising awareness for global environmental issues and encourages people to follow the "3R Rule" (reduce, reuse & recycle). The club successfully purchased and initiated the use of large blue bins in the cafeteria in 2006.
• Hawk Talk: Responsible for creating the school's newspaper
• Humanity Graydon: Works with several NGOs to organize events and raise donations for community or global causes, such as taking part in the 30 hour famine, letter writing campaigns, and inviting guest speakers.
• IBT Leadership Council: Initiated in 2006, it organizes roadshows, Grade conferencess, GO conference, Grade 9 information sessions, keeping IBTs updated about portfolio checks, and taking care of many aspects of the IBT program.
• Improv Club: Members practice improv acting.
• Investors of Tomorrow: Members participate on an online stock market competition. It was the first club under the Investors of Tomorrow branch formulated in 2002 by four Graydon students, now the largest student run organization in Canada with branches in Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, and Hong Kong.
• Junior Band: Grade nine students who meet and practice weekly to improve their skills. They also participate in the annual Christmas concert as well as Canada's Wonderland music festival.
• Jazz Band: Participates at the Christmas concert and the festival at Canada's Wonderland with Jazz, Latin, or Rock.
• Math Club/Math Help: Provides math help and student tutoring during lunch or after school to study for upcoming tests and quizzes. They also organize the math conferences, guest speakers, and celebrate Pi Day.
• Model United Nations: Model UN club has weekly discussions and debates about international affairs, current economic issues. They also compete in various Model UN Conferences.
• MOSAIC: A club that brings together the execs of various cultural and religious clubs in school (SSA, HSA, MSA, EACC) as a forum for discussion and planning large scale events at school, such as Cultural Week.
• Photography Club: Members discover photography techniques, as well as learn how to utilize Adobe Photoshop to enhance their photos. Best photographs are displayed at the Sky Light restaurant at school.
• Prom Committee: Organizes the Grade 12 Prom by booking halls, selecting the theme, decorations, and menu. Club members selected through application procedure.
• Speakers Club of Interviews and Presentations: An association where students learn skills that can be applied during interviews, presentations and while speaking in public.
• Radio Graydon: Conducts the morning announcement and creates the broadcast presentations on the televisions around the school
• Reach for the Top: Members practice and test each other on general knowledge questions from a wide range of topic to compete at the annual Reach for the Top competition between high schools.
• Robotics: This is officially a club, though considered more of a team. Responsible for building a robot that competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition. It is divided amongst different teams: Mechanical, Programming/Electrical (previously separate teams) and several others.
• Security Team: An ever-growing and expanding team in Graydon, the security team monitors large events and ensures their smooth operation as well as the safety of the students of Gordon Graydon.
• Semi-Formal Committee: Organizes the annual semi-formal open to all grades.
• Science Club: While performing cool experiments, they also provide students help with chemistry, biology, and physics while preparing for science competitions.
• Student Athletic Association (SAA): A student run association in charge of planning several athletic events such as extra curricular activities, Grade 9 Olympics and the athletic banquet at the end of the year.
• Student Activity Council (SAC): A student council dedicated to planning student activities. SAC is also in charge of funding all school clubs and teams. SAC also organizes school dances, spirit days, and the semi-formal.
• Table Tennis Club: A club for passionate table tennis players. Players meet afterschool and participate in practice sessions and school wide tournaments.
• Talent Show Committee: Organizes the annual school Talent Show.
• Theatre Graydon / Drama Club: Puts on many shows for the student body and the neighbouring community. The cast and crew work tirelessly, putting many late nights in to their club. As a result, Theatre Graydon's members frequently receive more activity points than members of any other club

Athletics at Graydon

Gordon Graydon has many athletic teams, including the following sports: basketball, tennis, archery, badminton, swimming, field hockey, volleyball, soccer, rugby union, baseball, softball, and many more. An athletic banquet is held each year to celebrate accomplishments in athletics. Many students look forward to this event.

The Physical Education department's slogan:

Proud of the Past, Celebrating the Present, 'Building for the Future!

Teams^[3]

• Alpine Skiing
• Archery
• Badminton
• Ball Hockey
• Baseball
• Basketball (Bantam Boys/Junior Boys/Senior Boys/Varsity Girls)
• Cross Country
• Cricket (Varsity)
• Hockey (Ice hockey (Boys), Field (Girls))
• Golf Team
• Soccer (Varsity Girls/Junior Boys/Senior Boys)
• Swimming
• Tennis (Junior/Senior)
• Table Tennis Team
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Volleyball (Junior Boys/Girls, Senior Boys/Girls)

Notable alumni

• Andrew Tai - Owner of Investors of Tomorrow
• Lomus 'Lomaticc' Babber - Singer/Songwriter
• Tyse Saffuri - Singer/Songwriter

External

• Gordon Graydon Website
• Gordon Graydon IBT Bussing Website
• Peel Board Website on Gordon Graydon
• Investors of Tomorrow Website
• IBT Information Website

References

1. ^ Peel District School Board. "PDSB - Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School". PDSB - Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School. Peel District School Board. http://www.peelschools.org/schools/schools_details.asp?p_schoolid=2222. Retrieved 18 May 2011. 
2. ^ "The Association of Aspiring Young Doctors". GGMSS Clubs. CourseCentral. http://coursecentral.org/clubs/ayd. Retrieved 17 October 2011. 
3. ^ "Athletics". Student Life at GGMSS. Gordon Graydon Memorial Secondary School. http://schools.peelschools.org/sec/gordongraydon/StudentLife/Athletics/Pages/default.aspx. Retrieved 17 October 2011. 

Coordinates: 43°35′03″N 79°34′09″W / 43.584246°N 79.569211°W / 43.584246; -79.569211