Torch - Spring/Summer 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foundational Cognitive, Social and Emotional Skills

Our Class of 2030 is currently in the Junior School. What will the world look like when they graduate? Honestly, we don’t know and neither does anyone else. That’s why we don’t educate girls for a specific career or calling, though they certainly self-select as they get older. Instead, we focus on the habits of mind and skills they need to set and meet goals, reflect on their own progress, manage difficult emotions, form constructive relationships and work with others to effect change. In other words, to be agents in their lives and world. We teach our Junior School girls the importance of adopting more than one perspective and persevering in tough situations—whether their own or on behalf of others. We know that compassion and courage depend on seeing the world through different eyes and staying the course, even when it’s bumpy. Our Grade 1 students show compassion when they return to the Kindergarten class to read with their younger peers and illustrate how much they will advance as readers in just one year. They remember how they felt when they were just starting out. We see both compassion and courage in our Grade 5 Recess Rescuers, older girls who look out for any situation that doesn’t seem quite right and work with a teacher to be part of the solution. In both cases, our girls draw on their skills and values to make a difference in the lives of others.

Making responsible decisions is an agency booster and an important part of a Havergal education.

Grade 1 students read to their Senior Kindergarten reading buddies.

SPRING/SUMMER 2020 • TORCH 15