Elmwood School - Samara Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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p)i$toty of (Jflmiuoob Elmwood School was founded by Mrs. Hamley S. Philpot in 1915, only then it was known as Rockcliffe Preparatory School. Just as today, little boys attended the school. In 1917. an old barn was moved next to the orginal, old house, in order to form an Assembly Hall and three classrooms. In 1923, the name of the school was changed to Elmwood School for Girls. It was in 1923 that the school ' s first yearbook was published - Samara. It had only sixteen pages - a far cry from what it is today, but it was good. The school motto officially came into being - Suc- cess is naught, endeavour ' s all. As well, the school song was composed. In 1925, the old house was demolished, and a three storey one was built to accomodate boar- ders. There were three dorms, the names of which can still be seen - Wynken. Blynken and Nod. Classrooms also had names - Honey Bear, for example. In 1930, the barn was demolished, and an Assembly Hall was erected. Three years later, the headmistress ' residence was built. Some fifty years later, changes are still occuring at Elmwood, almost constantly - both in the building and the uniform. A few years ago, we saw the kilt emerge, and this year, new prefect sweaters came into being. In the coming year, new ties will be introduced to go with the green and white kilts. They will be solid green; presently, the ties are green with yellow stripes. As well as uniforms changes, there are changes in the building. This year was the one that had the highest enrolment ever at Elmwood - somewhere around ' 220 students. Next year, looking to the future, there are going to be quite a few more students. Grades Three and Four will be separated; thus there is a need for additional teaching space. Fifty years ago, no one would have even thought of having machines to add and subtract large numbers with; but the computer age has hit Elmwood. The school has purchased three PET computers, and, as a result of this, will soon be starting a course in computer science. This should be a very successful course, and the computers will, no doubt, prove to be very worthwhile (especially for Mathematics! !). Doubtless, Elmwood will continue to grow and change with the times. But despite all these changes, and all the modernization that the school is going through, it still has a great history. There ' s a lot of tradition in Elmwood which will, no matter how modern and computerized the rest of the world gets, never be lost. 2 Parts of this appear courtesy of Kalli Varaklis.

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This year was Mrs. Gundy ' s first year as vice- headmistress; she replaced Mrs. Aldous in Sep- tember. Despite this fact, and also owing to the fact that she was often seen in the office last year, Mrs. Gundy did very well, and was also very helpful to the Samara Committee. As well as offering us her assistance, she would produce, from the depths of her office, mysterious packages and letters that were of special importance to the editors. Tha nk you, Mrs. Gundy, for all that you have done, for Samara and for the rest of the school. Well, dear Editors, you will be pleased to have accomplished your task, and soon we shall see the end result of your labours. I hope you will judge it a good experience. As you hound your reluctant, or merely dilatory contributors, you must sometimes be tempted to think it would be easier to write the whole thing yourselves. Yet actually, of course, the most valuable thing you learn is the management of other people and how to delegate responsibility I hope you have experienced at least some of the co-operation you deserve. It is a cliche to say that it has been a busy year, and it is a cliche I will be using at Closing in any case. Anyway, you will have all the real happenings chronicled on other pages, the drama productions, the games we won and lost, the successes at this and that. What we generally do not talk about is the ongoing, ordinary work and study that goes on. Each year we learn a little, even the oldest of us. Somehow you, the students, progress from learning to read to reading to learn. The books you carry to and from school get larger and heavier. Sums become Calculus and Algebra. One page stories become extended essays for the International Bac- calaureate. Mrs. Scott ' s demons become Mrs. White ' s young ladies. The staff learn just how much enthusiasm to expect from a class at three o ' clock on a Friday afternoon, and just how much of Grade Ten ' s History course is remembered in Grade Twelve. Everyone should treasure the Samaras of their school years. Hang on to this one. That was YOU, four or forty years back. Mrs. Whitwill 4