Students were buzzing with excitement when École Stonewall Centennial School revealed a rebranding that also aims to boost school spirit.
On Wednesday, Oct. 8, staff and students gathered for a much-anticipated revealing of the school’s new nickname and logo; however, the project began long before that.
“The big idea here was to generate excitement and school spirit among the school community. The previous nickname was Sentinels, which students and staff were mostly unaware of. The logo was outdated, and we saw an opportunity for a community-building process and to build excitement,” said learning support teacher Zach Ward.
“We also have recently developed a set of updated school values and beliefs, which we wanted to be more accessible to students. Linking these values to our new nickname was a driving focus of this process.”
Last June, students learned about the project and the reasons behind it.
“Classes were invited to submit names that connected to our town, our history and/or our school values,” Ward said. “We received close to 20 unique responses and saw a lot of engagement from the student body.”
Over the summer, those names were narrowed down to the Top 6 — Stingers, Sentinels, Storm, Eagles, Lakers and Miners — and presented to students at the school’s opening assemblies in September.
“We made an effort to link each of the final names to our values and brought awareness to that through morning announcements,” Ward said. “Finally, a school-wide vote was conducted from Sept. 22 to 26. We received over 350 votes and had an overwhelming winner.”
The new name, with almost 50 per cent of first places votes, is the École Stonewall Centennial School Stingers.
“This fits with our existing school colours of black and yellow. It fits with our school values by thinking about the school as our hive. A hive is made up of hexagons, and each of our six values — accessibility, diversity, collaboration, responsibility, differentiation and student voice — makes up one side of the hexagon,” Ward explained.
“When we all come together as a learning community, we create our hive where individuals are valued for their contributions. We can work together in a respectful and accessible environment, and students have a voice in their learning and all our differences are respected and celebrated.”
Keeping on the same theme, Stonewall Centennial’s new logo features the school name with a bee or wasp in the middle.
“The background of the logo is made up of hexagons to form a hive,” Ward said, “which symbolizes our values and how each person comes together to create a successful learning community.”
Throughout the entire process, the school came together for a common purpose.
“Even though this wasn’t everyone’s first choice, we can celebrate what the new name and logo means for us as a school community,” Ward said.
“As a staff, we identified that we had to bring our values and beliefs more to the centre of our work as a school. We will be continuing to educate staff and students about what it means to be a Stinger and will be displaying posters and materials throughout the school to keep those values in the forefront.”
To extend the visibility of the new name and logo, the school is selling apparel such as hoodies, T-shirts and hats.
“We are hoping that students can wear their Stingers gear with pride and with a fuller understanding of who we are as a school and what we stand for,” Ward said.
“The online store will be open soon, and families will receive a link to the store. It is our goal to have all orders back and being worn in our hallways by winter break.”
