Pickering College - Voyageur Yearbook (Newmarket, Ontario Canada)

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In Firth House we have a house committee, a group of five boys with one of them acting as chairman. They are elected by the boys of the Prep. They assist the masters in running the house, each one having a duty day when he helps the master-on-duty. They also take heads of tables when masters are absent. At the beginning of the year Murdoch Curry, Barry Dennis, Ron Farber, Peter Hopkins and Rene Watson were on the house committee with Barry Dennis as chairman. The next term Peter Hopkins and Rene Watson were replaced by Paul Fitzgerald and Ted Richardson, and after Christmas Tim Syer replaced Murdoch Curry. For the last term Paul Herman replaced Tim Syer, and Paul Fitzgerald replaced Barry Dennis as chairman. They all accepted their responsibilities and did their best to carry them out. Most Pickering students visit the infirmary for an aspirin or a band- aid. Some suffering from fakitis are admitted to the infirmary for a well-earned rest from classes. Occasionally, students have even obtained a crutch for no apparent reason, or a trip to the hospital, or a small snack to prevent them dying of hunger. The fortunate few have even been granted aglimpse of a T.V. show. Many strange happenings occur in the infirmary. One very amusing sight we shall never forget was Lloyd Greenwood drying his hair with the nurse,s electric hairdryer. We had afairly active year in sports. As a small school playing against larger ones we didn't have too many wins but we had some good games. In soccer, coached by Mr. Simons and Mr. Taylor, we had two teams. Barry Dennis was captain of the A team and David Beattie was captain of the B team. In the winter we had two hours a week of skating in the arena down- town. We had one hockey team with Barry Dennis as captain and Tim Syer as his assistant. The team was coached by Mr. Colin Beaton with assis- tance from Mr. Taylor. We had games with Upper Canada Collegein Toronto, Appleby in Oakville, Hillfield in Dundas, The Grove at Lakefield and St. Andrews at Aurora, as well as our home games in Newmarket. Although there was no formal instruction, many of the boys, some for the first time, did a fair amount of skiing on the school farm. In between seasons we played intramural games in the gym, and of course the Prep made their con- tribution to the various teams, Red, Blue, Silver and Gold in a number of events on Sports Day. One or two of the boys took part in the ceremonies of the Opening Ball Game and thereafter, although we had no team, we had a great deal of fun playing baseball. Every year the boys in Firth House produce a paper known as the Pickering Prep Press, to keep parents and friends informed of the happen- ings in Firth House, and also to provide a reading public for their jokes, poems and short stories. This year we had two editions, one in November and one in February. Since Mr. Taylor was staff adviser, we were able to get silk-screened pictures on the covers. Mr. Taylor,our art and English teacher, is a member of an antique auto club. He has a 1933 Buick, and an Austin limousine, and to save these from the salt and snow he drove a '49 Buick during the winter months. Many of us envy the fun Mr. Taylor gets from his old cars, and his mystery auto tours. Twenty-nine

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Preparatory Department When school opened in September, those of us who were not new to Firth House found it more or less as we left it except considerably cleaner. As we looked around we found that in accordance with the 10-year plan for Pickering, the assembly hall was larger, a new stage with plenty of room in the wings had been added, with an art room and a craft shop underneath, behind the Prep dining room. The craft shop had been newly equipped with tools and many interesting things can be made there. The old craft shop has been moved down near the barn and is to be used, so we are told, as a chicken coop. Looking a little farther, we also discovered that the Headmaster's house had been enlarged. Early in the fall Mr. Howarth, the farm manager, took us on a tour of the school farm, which consists of about 250 acres. He told us of the various uses of the land and which crops he grew in which fields, and ex- plained how we could have a great deal of pleasure on the farm without interfering with the working of it by remembering simple little things like closing gates after us and not chasing the pigs. This year we had more tutors than usual. We- started out with Ralph Simons, and Jim Gardiner, who left us at Christmas and was replaced by Hugh Ferguson. At the same time Peter Harper joined us as a tutor. The tutors have been most pleasant and friendly and, while they have been firm in enforcing the rules of Firth House, they are also ready to help you with problems and to play games with you. Five times during the year we have special week-ends, or 'flong week- endsu. The week preceding is filled with anticipation and little else is thought of. On the Friday at noon we leave for home and with mixed emo- tions we come back on the Tuesday morning. Halloween was a little different this year. Everybody, teachers, nurse, tutors and students piled on a bus and were off to the city to see f'My Fair Ladyn. Only one boy was lost and he showed up before it was time to go home. We all enjoyed the show, the trip, and, of course, the food when we got back to the school. fwenlv-ezglvt

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At Christmas the Prep put on a play based on A Christmas Carol . Ted Richardson was an excellent Scrooge, Bob Cratchit was portrayed by Rick Wellbanks, while Peter Johnson, Ron Farber and Jesse Greenblatt were the ghosts. We had a Christmas Candlelight service and we had Christmas dinner with the whole school when Santa Claus and his assis- tant Freda, the fairy, gave presents to the very young children, to members of the staff, and to certain outstanding students. The Prep also had three Christmas parties this year, one at Mr. Jewell's apartment, one at Mr. Jackman,s home, and one at Mr. Beer's home. We all enjoyed these parties. Mr. Beer read us two stories, - at Mr. Jackman's we listened to the record- ing of A Christmas Carol , and at Mr. Jewell's we talked and all signed his visitors' Book. After each set of examinations those who show great achievement or particularly good effort with no failures are honoured by having their names placed on the Headmaster's Listn. Members of the Prep have been so honoured three times this year: January 5th March 5th April 27th Peter Deverell Barry Dennis Jim Bridgman Wally Ducharme Peter Deverell Peter Deverell Paul Fitzgerald Rick Wellbanks Ron Farber Guy McLaughlin Paul Fitzgerald Rick Purdy Jay Francis Rick Wellbanks Paul Herman Duncan Young Tim Syer Rene Watson Rick Wellbanks This year we had our week of outdoor education at the Albion Hills Conservation School. The school is built like a ski chaletwith modern well- kept kitchen and a beautiful dining and recreation hall. The bedrooms are comfortable with plenty of cupboard space. The classroom or laboratory is well equipped with modern weather forecasting instruments, movie projec- tor, aquarium and all kinds of charts. We used the classroom for receiving instructions before and for making reports after our outdoor field trips. We watched them making maple syrup, we learned about beef cattle raising,and we visited a pioneer home where we learned about such things as spinning, weaving and candle-making. We learned to identify trees using a key, we studied animal tracks and one day we took a bus trip and visited several farms, a flood-control dam and the Heart Lake Conservation Area. Some evenings we saw movies on conservation topics and each night we had showers, hot chocolate and cookies at bedtime. Since, in four groups, we did allthe chores such as cleaning, sweeping, setting tables, doing dishes, waiting on tables, we had full busy days, but we loved every minute of it. The spring term seemed very short but it was busy. We had our Spring Festival with grade VIII presenting The Man in the Bowler Hat and Grades VI and VII doing They do not Discriminaten, bothdirected by Mr. Taylor. Then we had a long week-end, Quaker Relays and Sports Day. Oneday we were visited by a teacher from Rhodesia who had been studying in Toronto. He told us much about education in Rhodesia to which he shall be returning as a school inspector. There was the final banquet where Barry Dennis received the Firth House award, the Rogers Cane, having been chosen as the boy who had contributed most towards Firth House life. On Tbzrly