Reflections of Havergal: 1994-2019

Brickman observed in her article entitled “What’s on the Agenda?” written for the June 2006 BTI , the agenda “is like a personal scrapbook of the year.”

In the last 20 or so years, considerably fewer bells have rung at the school and, in fact, since fall 2012, there have been no bells ringing at all in the Upper School, happy news for anyone who had happened to be directly under one when it rang. At the Junior School, a hand-held brass bell signals the end of recess and lunch. As well, the days and months and years at Havergal now provide more variety: there are days with Prayers or assembly or form or house; short days, long days, spirit days and weeks, each accompanied by the familiar sounds of eager minds and active bodies—and pure excitement. The rhythms of the school day are a little different for each grade, but students can easily anticipate the activities that give shape to every day. However, the school has at times reworked the daily schedule to reflect current best educational practices and the realities of students’ lives. For decades, students followed a five-day timetable, an apparently commonsense structure that, nonetheless, had real drawbacks. Individual courses suffered because days

What’s on the Agenda? BTI , June 2006

If students in Ellen Knox’s time had the school agendas available now, a comparison would reveal startling differences, and one of the most obvious would be the length of the school day. During Ellen Knox’s tenure, classes ended at 1 p.m., to counter the “fatigue problem.” Pages 32–33 titled “The Daily Routine” in Havergal: Celebrating a Century outline the daily and weekly routines of those early years, when many students were boarders whose days were strictly structured and whose behaviour was strictly monitored. As the epigraph at the beginning notes, “Between the bells—one said there were 52 in the day—lay the vibrant life of the school.” 

Student Agendas In recent years, there have been slightly different agendas for students in the Junior, Middle and Senior Schools, each with a cover designed by a student in that school. 

Agenda Covers 2008–14

Student agenda cover, 2011–12.

98  HAVERGAL COLLEGE