b'CHAIRS MESSAGEVenturing Further Together. Having assumed the role of Board Chair on July 1, 2022, and not having occasion to be at the school during a regular school day since my children graduated from Greenwood a number of years ago, I thought it was time to see it in action once again. And did I ever!It was a mid-autumn Thursday much like any other. I visited a Grade 7 class that was engaged in a Question of the Day discussion with many eager hands in the air, with full and very lively participation from all students equally. I heard O Canada wafting out of the music room. I looked in on Grade 11 Physics students solving problems on energy conservation, another class working on film projects and a Marketing class working on a plan to expand a business into a new market. Elsewhere and everywhere, students were working independently in quiet spaces, alone and in groups. And then the morning break came along. Suddenly, the halls and stairs were filled with life and positive energy. I carried that positive energy with me for the rest of the day.That was a regular day at Greenwood, post-COVID-19. Over the course of the year we saw the return not just to in-person classroom teaching, but to a renewed slate of outdoor education trips, community outreach, athletics, clubs, theatre productions and all of the other outings and activities that are so much a part of the schools life and culture.Twenty years after the schools founding, I can report that the school community continues to venture further together. It was wonderful to be able to celebrate our Emerald Anniversary with so many past and current members of the Greenwood family over a weekend full of events in October. People reconnected with old friends and made new ones. The gym was packed for an exciting, and dramatic, volleyball game against Lakefield. Students and even staff members performed on stage. People reminisced, as they always do at such events, and they shared the many journeys Greenwoods alumni have taken since graduation. At the same time, everyone shared in the excitement of the athletic, recreational and teaching possibilities that have been opened up by the recent acquisition of the properties on the south-east corner of Mount Pleasant and Balliol.All of these moments were made all the more sweet by our ability to gather together, in person, as a community and as a school. The COVID restrictions on in-person learning took a toll on students, staff and families. Emerging from those restrictions was quite literally like walking outside on a spring day for the first time after a long, hard winter. On behalf of the school community and the Board, I want to express our deepest thanks to the staff, the leadership team and particularly our Principal, Sarah Bruce, for leading the school through the difficult COVID journey.Greenwood Annual Report 2021/2022 2'