Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

One hundred years ago, when Havergal was founded, every student knew every other student. As the school grew, houses were formed (only three at the beginning) to enable older and younger students to get to know each other. To move forward, we have to evaluate the systems in the school regularly to see if they are appropriate or if they can be made even better. This year the house prefects and house heads and captains were charged with the responsibility of evaluating the house system to see if they could improve the system and, if so, to put forward a proposal for change.  The house prefects then provided more background about the assessment, while emphasizing that what they were about to outline were simply options presented to spark discussion. The first option was to eliminate the house system altogether and shift house responsibilities to forms. The second option was to maintain the status quo: forms and houses. The third option was to replace forms in the Senior School with small groups within each house, each overseen by a faculty member acting as a teacher adviser (TA), and that is the option that was chosen.  Each TA group is now made up of seven to 12 girls representing each grade in the Senior School, and each girl remains in that group until she graduates. Middle School students still meet in forms, but they participate on special occasions with the TA group they will join when they enter Grade 9. Given the particular needs of very young students, the form remains the key organizational structure in the Junior School. This fundamental change in the organizational structure of the Senior School required considerable planning— and a shift in thinking, on everyone’s part. However, the advantages have become very clear as time has passed. With the 1996 addition of two houses, Mary Dennys and Marcelle De Freitas, not only are there increased opportunities for students to take on formal and informal roles as leaders and mentors, but also a stronger sense of unity, of cohesion, because students spend more time in-house, as they meet most days

A House-themed page from Ludemus , 2015.

to one of the 10 Houses, which have been named after women who have made outstanding contributions to the life of the school. Until 1954, the Junior School was organized under a different House system, using names of Native tribes. Today, all students are in the same House system. Grade 6 students lead the Houses in the Junior School and elected … House Captains lead the Houses in the Upper School.  One of the most significant developments in the house system came in February 1995, when Ms. Robson made the following announcement in Upper School Prayers:

100  HAVERGAL COLLEGE