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If
you are parents of Havergal students, you
may be accustomed to hearing about fun,
yet unconventional, assignments at school. For
this year’s Grade 7 students, they used two
40-centimetre lengths of balsa wood, an elastic and
some popsicle sticks to make model bungee jumps.
Or, if your daughter is in Grade 5, she may have
asked one of her parents to help her google the Aral
Sea area near Kazakhstan to find out more about the
changing climate and landscape as part of a slow
journalism project in her Media class.
By the time your daughter is a teenager, you may
think that she can no longer surprise you, until
the day she reveals that she’s proposed starting a
blog about dementia as a way to explore what she
can do for your aging father, who’s recently been
diagnosed. Add in that she has connected with a
renowned expert in geriatrics to help mentor her in
the process and invited four other girls to join her
in weekly visits to a seniors’ home for the next
three months.
Or, if you’re an Old Girl reading this, you may be
smiling because these stories remind you of some of
the projects that challenged you as a student.
If you happen to have read the strategic plan
Havergal 2020: Our Vision is Limitless, you may be
aware that Havergal students are encouraged “to
have lively, enquiring minds, to think carefully about
the world around them” and, at the Senior School
level, to pursue “active thinking, experimentation,
cross-disciplinary programs and discussion for
understanding.” But, it’s even more fun to read about
how these things come to life in the classroom,
which is why we’ve put together a series of profiles
that demonstrate the discovery and inquiry that’s
going on at Havergal every day. We’ve even included
a profile of an Old Girl, who will inspire you as to just
how far curiosity can take a girl.
Stor ies of Di scovery and Inqui ry
Abound at Havergal
By Suzanne Bowness
Creating,
Connecting
and
Exploring
SPRING 2017•
TORCH
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