Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

Page 8 text:

Dear Branksome, You all have something in common, whether you are from China, Canada, England or Tim- time you will always have something in common — a year at Branksome. That one year is made up of many different experiences: Welcoming Miss Roach back to Branksome as a head mistress instead of as a student. Cheering together at inter-school sports or cheering against each other at inter-clan and class games. Celebrating the end of exams and consoling or congratulating each other over the results. Finding that you are assigned to scrubbing the overpass for your Prefect ' s hour and making the job go faster by scrubbing each other as well. Going to a dance with a friend and after the long bus ride finding that you are the only ones tall enough for each other. Being able to say that you have lived a whole year together and are still relatively sane. Walking home from swimming with wet hair because the dryers won ' t work and finding our braids frozen stiff when you get there. Making your first announcement in Prayers and being asked to repeat it by the people at the back of the gym after you have already run off the stage. Being in a play and having to compete with the radiators to make yourself heard. Going on a diet and finding out that it ' s Ram- abai Week. Screaming in adoration to the vibes of the Freaky Strawberries. Putting these fragments together you get a year at ' Branksome. There are so many sensations which are experienced, happiness, sadness, friendship, hatred, indigestion, that one would be unable to mention everything. But whatever, you have all had a year where friendships have Deen made and life nas been shared. I thank you all for my most unforgettable year at Branksome. meet next year or in thirty years Love, Meg

Page 10 text:

Have there been many changes since you were there? It won ' t be difficult for you because you ' re a Branksome graduate. You must notice a big difference coming to Branksome from a large secondary school, Sucn are the questions and remarks often directed to me. Of course there have been many changes, for it has been over twenty years since I graduated, and nothing can remain the same, and, certainly, it is difficult to assume a different position in a new e nvironment among people one does not know. But, strangely enough, I have always found a sameness in people wlrerever I have been, and so, in many ways, I do not find Branksome so very different from my other schools. Most of what I say now stems from the fact that Branksome is a small school. I see it as a school with a real sense of community. We assemble together every morning, we know each other and where we belong, we are aware of what activities are going on in the school, and have the opportunity to participate fuljy. Brank- some is a school of few rules other than those pertaining to uniform and safety. The buildings, iri)ajense, be- long to the students. There are few locks and few places in the school which sSannot be fully used through- out the day. It is a school where most activities are actually run, and run well, by the students themselves with little staff intervention. It reverberates with chatter and laughter. I always like to welcome visitors for this reason, for Branksome has the happiest atmosphere of any place I have been. Finally, it is a place where grievances and suggestions for improvement CAN be heard, discussed, and quickly acted upon if possible. But too often students passively accept or grumble quietly when they should consider it their responsibility to speak, or they resort to games of cops and robbers when they should be reasoning out solutions. I admire and love Branksome students — and I really mean this — for their vitality, humour, ready assist- ance and their dependability, but I would like to see Branksome grow as a result of increased student involve- ment, of their taking more responsibility for the excellence of their school as a place of learning and recrea- tion and as a place of residence. i t } M f i 1 i I 1