Hey Tigers! The 2023–2024 school year is well underway, so we at Tigertalk feel this edition is the perfect time to recap all the important and exciting events that have happened at Harbord so far this semester! Tigers, get ready for a trip down memory lane!

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We’ll begin with Harbord’s impressive athletic feats! In our fall season, our Tigers competed in many sports—Jr. and Sr. Boys Volleyball, Jr. and Sr. Boys Soccer, Jr. and Sr. Girls Basketball, Varsity Girls Field Hockey, Varsity Girls Ultimate Frisbee, Varsity Tennis, and Varsity Cross Country. Great job to the Sr. Girls Basketball Team and Varsity Cross Country team for representing HCI at OFSAA and a special congratulations to our October athletes of the month: Tiago Silva, Lyla Epstein-Shapiro, Alexine Pioquinto, and Aksel Bhattacharjee; and our November athletes of the month: Clark Tunis, Momo Winer-Takabatake, Bailey Flora-Kirsch, and Sydney Flora-Kirsch. We are so proud of all of our athletes’ dedication and accomplishments so far and can’t wait for more in the winter season!

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Next, let’s talk about some of the events our HCI clubs have organized this year. We started off with our wonderful club fair, an event that kicked off student-led activities and gave everyone an insight into which clubs they’d like to join! 

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Over the past few months, our HCI clubs have shown amazing enthusiasm and leadership through their many activities. Tigertalk has now published two editions, including our first print edition. The Choir Club and Cover Band Club have worked hard and each performed a touching number at our Remembrance Day Assembly. We have had multiple bake sales this year, led by our wonderful Cheer Team, Baking Club, and Key Club—those chai cookies were delicious! Bent on Change hosted a workshop on South Asian Queer Icons. Harbord’s Taiko Drumming Club performed the song Isamigoma beautifully at our welcome assembly. The Harbord South Asian Student Alliance hosted Diwali celebrations which featured traditional treats and diya painting.

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Our Eco-Council ran a week-long e-waste drive to prevent e-waste from being disposed of irresponsibly. The Harbord Jewish Culture Club ran a Sukkah Showdown in honour of the holiday Sukkot. The HCI Peer Leaders have made multiple meaningful visits to Grade 9 classes. We had a super successful Digital Literacy Week, where many clubs prepared workshops and games related to digital literacy. The Tiger Line team energized us every morning, and Harbord had our first Spirit Week with super fun costume themes and candy grams. Our fall season was full of fun student-led events, and we’d like to thank everyone who helped to make these spirited projects happen!

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Finally Harbord, let’s touch on our other school-wide initiatives and events this year! Firstly, our Grade 9 students went on a community building trip to Camp Robinhood where they had a super fun time with activities like archery and rock climbing. On November 1st, many of our Grade 9 students attended workplaces for the annual Take Your Kid to Work Day! We had multiple Tigers compete in the Canadian Senior and Intermediate Mathematics Contests. We celebrated Indigenous Education Month with morning songs by Indigenous artists and new stories and facts every day. Additionally, Harbord became 1 of 12 pilot schools for a new Student Safety Reporting feature in the TDSB Connects App. Members of the Safe and Caring Schools Committee will discuss the impact this feature has had on the school community when this pilot program comes to an end.

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Wow Tigers—that’s a lot of events! This concludes our semester recap (so far)! I sure had fun this semester—a sentiment I hope is shared by all of you! Let’s hope the rest of the semester is just as exciting as it has been thus far.