Little School – Page 50

In 2013, Code.org launched the “Hour of Code Challenge” on its website to teach computer science to school students, enticing them to complete short programming tutorials. It involved getting people to write short snippets of code. About 20 million people participated and over 600 million lines of code had been written. By October 2014, about forty million students had taken the Hour of Code class, and a second Hour of Code was held in December 2014.

York House participated in the Hour of Code on December 4th. On that day, students in all classes worked on a variety of different coding projects. Scratch Jr., Robot Turtles, Beebot, and re-designing a Google logo on Scratch were just a few of the activities. Coding and computing skills are a critical path to security and prosperity in today’s job market. We really want our girls to be passionate as they learn how to use technology to solve problems in their day-to-day lives and make a positive impact on the world. Learning the basics of coding and participating in the Hour of Code teaches a highly valued skill and is also incredibly fun!

Charmalee Kirk
Education Technology Coordinator

On the evening of Saturday, October 28, we gathered as a community for the York Rose Ball at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver to celebrate 85 years of our wonderful school. After a year of preparation and friendship, the YHS Alumnae Association and the YHS Parents’ Association came together to give us all a magnificent evening.

Guests arrived to the music of our talented senior students and a welcome cocktail. In the smaller of the two ballrooms we were able to participate in an 85 item Silent Auction. This year we tried something new with our Silent Auction: Givergy, a new digital platform that allowed us to bid from our phones or the tablets provided at our tables. This was definitely a first for us and proved to be great fun and hugely successful as non-attending members of our community were able to participate. Guests then entered the larger ballroom which was magnificently decorated in white and gold with accents of yellow roses and greenery — such a wonderful theme.

Once seated, the fun began. Jonathan Macdonald, our illustrious MC, and Marc Bergevin, our dapper auctioneer, guided and entertained us through the evening to raise funds for scholarships, and our students. The live auction was a huge success and we extend a heartfelt thanks to Marc for his time and dedication to our school. Then, we were in for a huge treat. Our own Shannon Chung (mother of Danica in 1Y) entertained us with a stunning rendition of Adele’s “When We Were Young”. Shannon was accompanied by our own Head of Music, David Gueulette. Thank you!

After the auction, the dancing began. The band, Famous Players, had us all out on the floor dancing the night away. We were still tripping the light fantastic at 1 am!

Thank you to everyone for joining us to help celebrate 85 years of York House School — and here is to the next 85!

Until next time!

Gillian Smith ’81
YHS PA President

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