A Matter of Spirit Than Sport: The Introduction of A New Point System for Battle of the Grades

Who is the superior grade? When asking this question, many might consider their contributions to the school community, their school spirit, or maybe simply how often they show up for school. Surprisingly enough, these concepts are newer additions in the ‘Battle of the Grades’ competition meant to see the most well rounded grade. Even more shockingly so, some might laugh at the fact that this superiority was mostly determined by sports games.

Prior to this year, the winners of QHSS’s Battle of the Grades (or shortened to BOTG) was mainly determined by each grade’s performance in a bracket-style sports tournament, featuring sports such as basketball, badminton, soccer and volleyball. While there were other ways that the grades could get points through art competitions such as the Pumpkin Decorating and Rangoli Design competitions, they had provided a small amount of points that pale in comparison to the sports competitions. 

This lack of methods to get points, as well as the inconsistency of what activities can earn BOTG points, is what particularly concerned Mr. Curley, coordinator of SGO and manager of the event, to start considering the revisions of the accumulation of points. Some other variables were also considered, such as student feedback of the same nature, as well as how current NHS inductees could put their volunteer work for something outside of the hours they don’t need to have. 

As per by the new BOTG Point Protocol, points can now be earned by doing activities that intertwine well with the school. Some of these include:

• School Service: this can include volunteering for after school events such as Open House, as well as performing in the school-wide festival events (Homecoming, Fall Festival, Winter Festival) 
• Spirit Participation: This includes winning Spirit Week competitions as well as donating or participating in Multicultural Day.
• Winning Competitions: includes BOTG sporting events and decorating events, but also the mini games that occured in Festivals throughout the year. 
• School Advocacy and Attendance. 

Points can be recorded in the leaderboard in updates by filling out a specific point submission form and submitting it to the SGO director, Mr. Curley.

According to the October Townhall meeting, all these points will accumulate with the winning grade potential receiving some type of pizza party. A few months after this proposal, Mr. Curley also notes that a banner with the winning grade in the new building has also been a recent consideration for a prize. No prize hasn’t been finalized as of the publishing date, however, it still provides a great contrast to previous years that lacked a BOTG prize as a whole. 

Naturally, such a huge change with how an entire annual event is run would bring up some hopes for the success and overall betterment of the event itself and the people involved. Mr Curley in particular had said that the changes were based on the idea that “not everyone plays sports, this expands BOTG to [be] more inclusive to all students and students can participate in BOTG in ways that are able to suit their own [preferences]”. He also notes that with the amount of points the system already, it seems that it seems to be working to an extent.

As we near the next sets of events— Spring Festival, Multi-Cultural Day, and even the BOTG Sporting Event as a whole, the competition starts to heat up with how to get the most points. The only difference now is that many more can help plot for victory: not just those who are particularly skilled in throwing or kicking sports balls.