Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

OVERVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GUIDING L IGHTS

Advice from Brenda Robson

Brenda Robson 1963–Present

That simple but profound perspective on nurturing students’ independence informed everything she did as a teacher and an administrator. It is her dearly held belief that a primary responsibility of educators is to help students develop values that will sustain them as they become independent adults. Students saw those values demonstrated not only in Ms. Robson’s physical education classes, but also in her approach to community engagement and the nurturing of leadership skills. As well, students heard those values thoughtfully explored in Ms. Robson’s many contributions to Prayers. With respect to community engagement, Havergal has always shown concern for those beyond the ivy who are facing personal, cultural or financial challenges.

There is a very good reason that Havergal’s August assembly hall is now called Brenda Robson Hall. In 2005, Ms. Robson retired from her position as Dean of Students after more than 40 years of steadfast devotion to the school. She has been a guiding light for the entire Havergal community since her arrival from England in 1963. At the celebration of Ms. Robson’s exemplary career, former Vice-Principal Rosemary Corbett, speaking to a packed hall, asked those who came to honour Ms. Robson to picture a moment in Havergal history: [L]ook back to 1963 … to the Havergal gymnasium. Benda Robson, newly hired physical education teacher, is walking the length of the gym and back—on her hands … Yes, the school had hired an outstanding all-round athlete. She had left teaching at a Quaker boarding school for girls in England to take up a position at Havergal Ladies College … [She] was in Canada for only two years before she was playing on the Canadian field hockey team while also competing in tennis and riding. Little did Havergal know in 1963 how profoundly this young woman with her feet in the air would influence decades of staff and students. Nor did it know that she would come to embody the school’s most cherished values. Recalling her first days at the school, Ms. Robson said, “I felt immediately that I belonged in this community: the way [the staff] talked to one another, the way they interacted, it felt like this was the place for me to be.” The Havergal community unreservedly agrees: Ms. Robson personifies all that a superb educator can be. In a sound portrait made in 2011, Ms. Robson recalled advice she received as a young teacher in England prior to her arrival in Canada. It was advice that shaped her philosophy of education, and it was, she said:

Brenda Robson, former Dean of Students and current staff at Havergal.

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