Royal St Georges College - Georgian Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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STAFF 1 STUDENTS

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SCHOOL PRINCIP L REPORT OF THE JU IOR F... EDUCATIONAL St. George's College twith St. Clement's Schooll was host this year to the Canadian Independent Junior School Heads Association which brought together Heads from independent boys' and girls' schools from across Canada. Our meeting this year was at the Millcroft lnn, and featured members of our Junior School staff in several workshops. Without exception, the Heads were most complimentary of the quality of St. George's teachers. This year was the first year of Junior School Guidance courses designed for grades seven and eight. While our programme follows Ministry guidelines, we have a greater emphasis on mental health in an attempt to teach resilience and adaptation. ln conjunction with this theme, we presented a five-part course on parenting skills t The Teenage Years j taught by Dr. Ronald Clavier and attended by nearly 100 parents. Next year. it is our hope to continue this presentation by focusing on one aspect of teenage psychology. MUSIC Music continued to play a major role in the life of the Junior School over the past year. The choir, in ad- dition to singing weekly services in the Chapel, presented the Christmas Carol Service, and performed in several public events, such as a Senior Citizens' service at the Cathedral. Both the choir and the in- strumental groups performed for the third year in the Independent Schools Music Festival at Massey Hall. Plans are now under way for the fourteenth choir tour - this time to Germany. The band had its first tour: to Ottawa to perform at Elmwood School and Ashbury College. Future natiottal or international exposure is being considered. ln that Ottawa tour, the Junior School Rock Band had its first major performance. lt is my hope that tlte graduates of St. George's participate in a wide variety of styles of music but that everything be done to tlte highest standard. At the conference of Junior School Heads mentioned above, Mr. Demierre played tapes to demonstrate compositions created by our pupils ttsing cotnputers and synthesizers. The presence of bands, smaller instrumental groups, classical brass and woodwind. choirs, jan groups, the rock group. as well as our experimentation with elec- tronic composition, demonstrates the great diversity of the Junior School music programme. SPORTS Last October, the Junior School held a cross-country and sports day in High Park. This provided an early op- portunity in the year for both staff and boys to get together in a relatively more informal setting. This year, the Under 14 Baseball Team won the first Independent Schools Baseball Tournament Cham- pionship, and both the Junior School Cross-Country team and the Track and Field team did exceptionally well. ln spite of the lack of extensive on-site facilities, our teams have generally done very well against the better endowed schools. CULTURAL Last January, the Junior School presented an am- bitious and demanding drama production to an ap- preciative audience. Under the direction of Mr. Holdsworth, the musical play Toad of Toad Hall was performed using actors from Grade 4 to 8. The Debating Society has again been busy throughout the year rehearsing and competing every week in every term. Watch for our graduates in the House of Commons in the coming decades. A full programme was prepared for the Junior School Open House in February. When a major snowstorm developed, the event was delayed ttntil March and tlte better weather. ln spite of ottr optimism, we managed to hit the biggest storm of the winter on ottr second date. Convinced that we were receiving a message, we decided to postpone it for a year. SERVICE ln a departttre from previous years' walkathons to raise financial support for various organizations, funds were raised this year for Ethiopia by asking tlte pupils to donate money that they would otherwise has e ttsed to buy themselves treats. While tlte xll1l0lllll raised yy as not as large as in tlte past, l believe that this syslctll is mote effcctive in providing an immediate awareness and es- pcrience of giving, cotnpared to that aclttevetl lit collecting pledge money.

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