Brentwood College School - Brentonian Yearbook (Mill Bay, British Columbia Canada)

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The prospects for next year, because of the talent coming through the school, are excellent. Because of this we are planning to send 40 boys on a rugby tour to southern France at Easter 1980. Mr. Cowie, who joined us a couple of years ago and who was asked to build a basketball program, has done a tremendous job. Our seniors did well in Independent Schools competition, so much so that next year we feel they will be a threat to the larger public schools who will form our main opposition. Once again, we seem to have fair strength coming through the school in the junior ranks, so Brentwood ' s future in this sport is bright. If I may continue for just a moment, the Swimming Club won all divisions at the Independent Schools meet, and our seniors were zone champions. Swimmers such as the McNeill brothers, Holley Kushniryk, Tricia Havens and Catherine Hagen made this a gala year. The senior team followed this victory with a fine performance in provincial competition. In Cross Country Running, a team of simply outstanding long distance runners led by Blair Crawford, Brian Carr, Brian Williams and Peter Holmes, and coached by Mr. Wynne, won the Independent Schools Championship, the Island championship, and the junior and senior divisions of the major cross country event in the metropolitan area of Victoria. Our Outdoor Education program continues to thrive under the guidance of Mr. Richard Wingate: we have 30 students pursuing various levels of proficiency in connection with the Duke of Edinburgh Awards Scheme. This group, by the way, quietly and happily devotes a tremendous amount of energy to their sport and from it the school benefits because their number provides us with many of the leaders in our community. In tennis, I was impressed by our junior boys and senior girls ' accomplishments, as both teams won Independent Schools Championships. Furthermore, I know you will join me in wishing every success to Michael Mills and Tom Dalton as later this summer they will attempt to qualify to represent Canada in the World Youth Sailing Regatta scheduled to be held in Italy this summer. Winning championships and finishing near the top is, of course, not the goal. Our objective here is to offer a mixture of team and individual sports with a view to in- volving every student in an athletic program that: — stimulates the competitive urge that I believe is present in us all; — promotes good sportsmanship and a life-long interest in games; — encourages excellence; — and emphasizes the value of maintaining one ' s body in a healthy state. I think we have reached our objectives in these regards this year and, whilst doing so, several individual students have offered noteworthy personal performances. In the performing and visual arts this school devotes thousands of student and instructional hours to development of talent. We have these programs to develop the creative potential that we believe forms part of the makeup of every person. In addition, through our fine arts programs, we are attempting to demonstrate the degree of hard work necessary to achieve excellence and also to acquaint our students with what is fine, with what is good, in painting, drawing, pottery, drama, music, creative writing and dance, weaving, and photography. Our performance season began with Mr. Queen ' s production of Gilbert Sullivan ' s H.M.S. Pinafore, a most successful event in which we were delightfully en- tertained by a cast of over 70 students. In addition, I must mention the work done by our Stagecraft group and their director, Mr. Getgood, who aJways give us fine technical strength whenever we perform. In addition to the Pinafore production, we presented an evening of drama, dance, music, and graphic arts in mid-May. This performance, involving over 250 students, turned out to be far too long, but at least it served, both in scope and quality, to let this community know that the fine arts, on behalf of nearly every student in the school, are alive and well at Brentwood College. In my reference to academics and sports earlier in this address, I was able to point to some exceptional individual performances. This thread of excellence, I must em- phasize, finds its presence not only in these two sections of our curriculum, but in fine arts as well. For example, our entries dominated the winners list in local Arts Crafts competition. Provincially, the works of Douglas Jung and Nikhil Patel were amongst the 182 selected from 7 ,000 entries to be shown as part of the Emily Carr Art Exhibit now touring this province, and which later in the year is to be shown in Ottawa. May I congratulate Douglas and Nikhil and their instructor, Mrs. Jackson. I began by asking what meanings, what values, what purposes are served by the story which I have just related about our academics, athletics and fine arts activities. Before answering that question I want to pay tribute to the many people who have made the year such a tremendous success. Last fall I addressed the senior class and requested that they provide us not only with their full co-operation but with all the leadership they could muster. To me they represent a Grade 12 class that has given leadership, has cared for each other and, more than that, has cared for their school. It has been a tremendous privilege having the opportunity to serve them and to provide them with the opportunity to work with us. Amongst their number, over fifty served as prefects and many of them did simply outstanding work. I want to pay special tribute to the house captains who were such tremendous sources of strength to those who worked with them in the running of their houses. Here I refer to Ellis 8

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Although I dearly hope that the education offered here is much more than what we do in the classroom, I want to deal, appropriately I believe, with academics first. A summary of university enrolment undertaken last July revealed that 70 of last year ' s 84 graduates planned to continue their formal education by applying for university or college places. Among that group, I should point out, were eleven provincial scholarship winners. In this competition, 20 scholarships were allotted to our local school district, which includes two major public and three independent schools. Our students, in taking eleven awards of twenty, dominated the competition and thoroughly deserve our congratulations. In addition, our government, in wishing to recognize scholarship, citizenship, leadership and athletics, gives a very small number of prestigious awards called the Nancy Green Scholarships. Faced with province wide competition, three Brentwood graduates, Kyle Marsh, Dale Ban- nerman and Tom Pankratz, were declared winners. This past week, fourteen of our present seniors wrote government examinations in pursuit of this year ' s provincial scholarships. I have a great admiration for the dedication shown by this group and its teachers. Our very best wishes for success in this provincial competition go to Michael Burian, Tab Cuthill, Brian Dillon, Christopher Foy, Catherine Hagen, Stephen Hayne, Peter Holmes, Sandra Kouritzin, Shelley Milner, David Nelles, Laurie Mook, Kelly Salloum, Brian Williams and David Williams. Within the academic section of this address I would be remiss if I did not refer to our Public Speaking Debating Club under the able leadership of Mr. MacLean. We finished a close second to Lester Pearson College in provincial competition, with Miss Shelley Milner and Miss Ruth Buchanan representing our school and our Debating Society. Furthermore, Miss Buchanan was judged the third best debater overall, was awarded a $300 scholarship, and was named to participate in the National Debating Seminar which this year was held in New Brunswick. Finally, I must mention Catherine Hagen and Lindsay Dutton, whose submissions to the University of Victoria Humanities and Science Symposium led to their selection as Presenters to the fine group of talented students from across this province who were chosen to participate. Although our subject prizes awarded later in this ceremony are intended to recognize academic excellence at all grade levels, I must point out that many industrious, if not talented students, ones who have either ranked near the top of their class, or have shown marked im- provement, will regrettably not be mentioned. Without naming the scores who deserve recognition, I want them to know that they, too, have our admiration for respond- ing to our academic expectations and, more importantly, to their own high personal standards. It is appropriate then, to say that we have set high academic standards; that our students, by and large, have responded well; and that in many, many cases, the degree of excellence achieved fully justifies the fine reputation for scholarship this school has achieved in Western Canada and, indeed, across this nation and in many other countries throughout the world. The foregoing reference to the international scene provides me with an opportunity to direct the attention of this report to the athletic side of the school. I am sure many of you know that last summer our lightweight and heavyweight rowing crews enjoyed a most successful tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland. The heavy eights won the Irish Junior Championship and reached the final at the Royal Henley Regatta in England, finishing second to an excellent crew from Eton. This past rowing season our Rowing Club, which has a membership of 96 students, virtually outclassed every other school in the Pacific Northwest that engages in this challenging sport. The heavy eight were once again provincial champions and represented the province in the national championships held in St. Catherine ' s, Ontario. Although we have won this championship on two previous occasions, this year we were disappointed as our crew rowed well in an ex- tremely competitive race and finished with a third-place bronze medal. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to our rowing coaches, Messrs. Carr and Queen, and to the Captain of the Rowing Club, Blair Horn, for their tremendously successful year. I also want to point out that 26 girls were enrolled in rowing this past year and the standard of these crews has increased considerably. Their coach, Mrs. Garvey, and the young ladies involved, are to be congratulated for the huge improvement that has taken place over the season. I cannot begin to give you a complete summary of our accomplishments in athletics, as we have at least 18 different sports. I must say a few words, however, about some of the more major areas of involvement. In Rugby, in a year in which we expected to be rebuilding, I must congratulate Brian Sharpe for giving such excellent leadership to the 1st XV which by the end of the season showed surprising strength both in terms of deter- mination to do well and in skill. For example, in the final game of the season we were beaten by a score of 3-0 in the last minute of play by the school which eventually went on to win the Independent Schools Championship. 7

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House Prefects under Peter Holmes and his assistant, Brian Williams, the Privett House Prefects under Jens Goldgrabe and Mike Maxwell-Smith, Blair Horn and Scotty Matheson of Whittall House, Randy Ross John Fitzpatrick of Rogers House, Tammie Morrison of Alex, Kelly Salloum and Elizabeth Bittorf of Hilton, and Didi McKillop of Mackenzie Of these, I must pay special thanks to Tammie Morrison, our Head Prefect and Blair Horn, her assistant. They worked extremely hard on behalf of the school for the entire year. To Miss Morrison, who ' became the school ' s first female head prefect, I pay an extra tribute, not because of her gender but because of the outstanding way in which she assisted me, helped my staff and led her school this past year. To my entire staff, that is, the 35 who are directly connected with teaching roles, and the 65 others who support the running of the school on the domestic side under Mr. Crookston, go my sincere thanks. I can assure you that successfully operating this type of school is not an easy task. Many people, including the parents and students of course, must be credited with being an in- strumental part of our success, but without huge con- tributions by house masters, heads of departments, teachers, secretaries, business manager, clerks, cooks, and all the others, this whole enterprise would not be the institution that I have so many reasons to admire. It saddens me to say that we must bid ' goodbye ' to our two nurses, Miss Maisie Rainey and Mrs. Betty Cocker. Miss Rainey is taking a well-deserved rest for at least a portion of next year and Mrs. Cocker is joining her family in a move to Edmonton, Alberta. I am sure that fine replacements for these ladies will be found, but I want to tell you that they have gone well beyond the call of duty in providing nursing care on behalf of our students. We will miss them dearly but, of course, wish them well and hope that they will keep in touch with us in the future. From my teaching staff of 35, two are leaving. We say a sincere ' thank you ' to Dr. Grafton, who has been with us for two years, and to Mr. Malby who joined us last September, and extend warm wishes to them for personal happiness and continued professional success. We also extend a warm ' farewell and thanks ' to Mrs. McKerrow, assistant housemistress to Miss Holden for the past seven years, and to Celia Courchene and Marion Saunders, our telephone girls who have worked so hard on our switch- board for the past two years. We wish them all well. This past term we were delighted to have two exchange students as our special guests. The happy faces of Brent Barootes from Trinity College School and Chris Wilson from Ridley College will be missed next year. I trust, in- deed I insist, that they recount a positive story about their Brentwood experience — we have enjoyed you both and wish you success next year. I have an optimistic and confident view of the school ' s long term and immediate future. The Board of Governors is attending to our capital needs by engaging in a planning process for the replacement and upgrading of older facilities. You should be aware that interest in this school has never been greater and that the inquiry and ap- plication rates have exceeded all expectations. In respect to enrolment, I want to acknowledge and congratulate the 13 young ladies who joined us in our Grade Ten class last September. With ease, poise, and success they have fully participated in all of our programs. Indeed, there is no doubt in my mind that they added to the strength of the educational and social fabric which holds our school together. Demand for places for both girls and boys at all grade levels, as I mentioned, is great, but we will not be increasing the size of the school. As suggested last year, I want our numbers to slowly settle back towards a 325 mark. This year we had 340 enrolled, and next year I am anticipating that we will accept 335 students. As your Headmaster, I would hope that the interest that is being expressed in this school primarily reflects the respect we enjoy from our parent community, but it would be folly if I did not recognize that the success of our school is, to a certain extent, a consequence of the failure of many others in this country to satisfy those parents who want their school to emphasize discipline, dedication, mutual respect, and consideration for others. The foregoing positions, of course, represent the fun- damental planks of the Brentwood College philosophy. Indeed, they answer the questions which I posed to begin this address. What values do we espouse? What ends do we seek? What purposes do we serve? Ladies and Gentlemen, all those connected with Brentwood College — the Board of Governors, the staff, your Headmaster — are doing their very best to demonstrate that genuine achievement and the full development of the potential of each individual in the school is based upon self-discipline and dedication. We know that our students, from time to time, do not meet their personal goals; we know that from time to time we, as a staff, fall short of success — however, we recognize and try to teach our students that failures and disap- pointments can also be overcome through the application of a self-disciplined and a dedicated approach. Above all, in guiding this community and giving it leadership, my staff and I, in everything we do, try to respond to a very apparent truth. We know that any school which intends to promote excellence of any kind and has the strength to survive adverse times, must stand for mutual respect and consideration for others. With those goals in mind, we hope that we have served you and your families well this past year. For my part, I must say that it has been a tremendous privilege to work on your behalf . W.T. Ross Junel979 9