During the months of April and May, over 200 students from our High School and
Elementary School panels took part in the Halton and Ontario Skills Competitions.
On April 5th, students competed in the Halton Skills Competition at Robert Bateman
High School. Halton Skills is an event where students from Grade 4 – 12 from the Halton
District School Board and Halton Catholic School Board demonstrate their technical
skills in a friendly but competitive environment. This year was the 27th for the event.
This year, Ascension Catholic Elementary School became the first HCDSB school to
serve as a host site for the competitions.
Students in both elementary and secondary from across the Board took part in
competitions ranging from culinary skills, to carpentry to LEGO robotics. HCDSB teams
performed incredibly well with 32 students receiving medals.
Also of note, this was the first year for students to take part in a robotics demonstration
as an extension of the MInistry’s CODE Robotics initiative. Approximately 30 primary
and junior students from the HCDSB were given the opportunity to share what they
have been learning in their classrooms to a panel of observers. All of our students
embraced the opportunity to demonstrate their God given talents in a challenging and
rewarding environment.
Students who received medals at Halton Skills move on to Ontario Skills which is a
province wide skills competition held at RIM Park in Waterloo on May 2nd-3rd. Ontario
Skills includes students from across the province who received medals at their Boards’
regional competition. Ontario Skills also supports Pathways planning with exhibits from
colleges, trades, OYAP and the workplace. As part of the events at RIM, the Student
Success team facilitated 10 busloads of HCDSB students to go and observe the
competitions and to immerse themselves in the Pathways information presented
throughout RIM Park. All in all, approximately 500 HCDSB students experienced
Ontario Skills in varied forms.
HCDSB students returned from Ontario Skills with 4 medals — 3 Silver (Secondary) and
1 Bronze (Elementary). Congratulations to all of our student competitors and a special
thank you to the staff who dedicated their time, effort and mentorship to our teams.
