Torch - Spring 2015

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14HAVERGAL COLLEGE
What do you hope students
experience in the Junior School?
I believe deeply in the capability of our
students. The ability to be self-aware is
critical in each child’s development. Why?
Students who are able to identify their
strengths and challenges as learners, set
achievable goals and self-reflect are better
able to take responsible risks, to be flexible
in their thinking and to exude confidence in
all that they do. We hope the Junior School
is an environment in which students can
try out a number of things, ask questions,
make mistakes, see the humour in situations,
develop healthy relationships and learn.
Moving forward, what areas will
you be focusing on to support
students in the Junior School?
Working with Leslie Anne Dexter and the
administrative team, we have many exciting
initiatives in the works for next year. We
are looking at ways to further define the
Havergal experience in the Junior School
and to make greater connections between
clubs, House, the Student Institute Team,
Prayers, athletics and intramurals. One of
our greatest strengths is our community,
and we want to do everything we can to
build upon this.
Can you define what “Havergal
College” means to you?
What I love most about this school is the
careful blend of long-standing traditions
and innovative approaches to education.
There is a real sense of confidence that
comes from being an educational institution
for 120 years! Our strong history gives us a
solid foundation to ask why we are doing
things and how our values are connected to
everything we do. I feel privileged to be able
to share my passion and expertise with a
community that not only asks young women
“What will you do?” but also supports them
with concrete opportunities to put their
thoughts and ideas into action.
Investing in Education—Havergal Chair of Teaching & Learning
Professional development is the R&D (research and development)
of education. It provides teachers with the opportunity to gain new
knowledge, to explore innovative concepts, to share learning with
colleagues and to advance the practice of teaching. A member of
Havergal’s faculty gains the opportunity to take on a leadership role
in enriching the life of the school as the Havergal Chair of Teaching
& Learning, an opportunity made possible by an investment from
Michael and Heather Gardiner who established an endowment
at the school in 1998. Since then, the appointees to this position
have focused their research on a diverse range of topics (for more
information, visit .
Havergal Chair of Teaching & Learning:
September 2015 to June 2018
Congratulations to English teacher Laura McRae on her
appointment as next year’s Havergal Chair of Teaching & Learning.
As the Havergal Chair, Laura will explore ways to promote a culture
of thinking in the classroom by bringing together the rich range of
initiatives (such as Harkness Dialogues, Cooperative Learning and
Project-Based Learning) that we already have at Havergal College.
In this role, she will also consider how we might enhance the
effectiveness of these initiatives to enrich our students’ learning.
To investigate the range of their possibilities, Laura will work with
teachers who are interested in these methods, as well as with Learning
Teams and teachers who already use these varied tools in interesting
and effective ways. She also plans on having discussions with students
to determine which methods they find most fruitful and to identify
nuances of application that make various teaching strategies most
effective for them. She will fully examine the many varied ideas and
initiatives we currently use, identify those that are most useful to us
and most beneficial for students and make them as accessible as
possible for the widest range of teachers.
Junior School