Shawnigan Lake School - Yearbook (Shawnigan Lake, British Columbia Canada)

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HEADMASTERS REPORT Your Honour, Your Grace, Mr. Justice Bird, members of the Graduating Glass, boys of the School, Ladies and Gentlemen: 1 must begin my report by saying how delighted are my colleagues and 1 and the boys at receiving you all at Shawnigan today. We know that some of you have come great distances, and it means much to us that you have made the effort to support us during these Closing Ceremonies. Jn my report, 1 shall touch first of all on the academic side, in which aspect I believe I can safely say we have maintained a sound standard. In a country where so many of our youth think one is queer if one is interested in his studies, I feel we are making distinct progress and that each year the boys are taking more and more pride in their academic work and that in general they are beginning to appreciate the great values to be derived from the pursuit of knowledge. Of course, there are still many boys for whom studies do not come easily and who will be travelling home armed with books in order that they may have extra tuition in the summer; I would just urge them not to be discouraged — if they will just persevere, determined to show us in the sups in September that they are up to standard, we shall certainly do all we can next winter to continue their progress toward the University. With regard to our graduating class, it is difficult to tell at this time how they have done in their matriculation examinations. It is a matter of record that in the last five years we have had only four failures in our matriculation classes out of eighty-one entries, and that the results have been around an average of 68 per cent. Moreover, judging by the way this year ' s classes have worked and the amount of patient and careful teaching they have received, I feel that they will certainly maintain our standards. In connection with our determination to improve the academic standards of the School, it might interest you to know that, along with York House in Vancouver, we initiated this past February the first Independent Schools Work- shop — the purpose of which was to study better methods of enriching courses for quick students and better methods of teaching slow learners. About 115 teachers assembled from our various schools and we studied these matters for two days. The results were excellent: in the first place, it brought these schools together in a way which they had never experienced before; and secondly it got the heads of departments in our various schools thinking and analyzing and developing — and now committees have been set up to work on specific pro- jects and to produce conclusions for our next Workshop. For example, there will be a two-day Conference here at Shawnigan next week for all teachers in these Schools on the subject of an improved curriculum and improved teaching methods in mathematics. The fact that we have Dr. James, who is the Head of Mathematics at U.B.C., and Professor Farquhar of the College of Education in Victoria, coming to help us, will indicate the growing interest in the universities in what these independent schools can do. If these schools can work together and pool their wisdom and experience, I am quite certain that they can eventually provide the leadership which is so badly needed in the field of education in this Province. In the realm of sport the School has certainly had a most successful year. Not only did our 1st rugger XV and 1st track and field team have outstanding seasons, but also — which is more important — throughout the School in all

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SPEECH DAY On Saturday, June 24th, the Headmaster and Staff welcomed over five hundred parents and friends to the Annual Speech Day Ceremonies. The Ceremonies began with the closing service in the School Chapel where His Grace the Archbishop of British Columbia, H. E. Sexton, gave the address. He spoke on the importance of development of character in the education of future citizens. After the Chapel Service everyone assembled on the School lawn for the remaining addresses and the prize giving. It was a great privilege for the School to have as its Guest of Honour the Lieutenant Governor of the Province of British Columbia, the Honourable Major General G. R. Pearkes. After the Headmaster ' s Report, which is printed below, His Honour delivered a most interesting address. As he wished the gradu- ating class all success when they take the next step in their life ' s work, General Pearkes reminded the boys of all the mottos or standards adopted by many of the famous families in history and of how those mottos became a standard by which they lived and a guide for the young members of the family. He went on to say that term closing has a sense of accomplishment and a looking forward to the future; and he concluded by saying that all the tradition established by the School would be a help and guide to the boys as they progressed in their chosen occupations with courage, self-control and initiative. WW The Lieutenant Governor presenting the Sportsmanship Cup to D. Ross, major. With them are the Headmaster and C. Pentland, the Head Boy, to ho won the J. D. Groves ' All-Rounders ' Award.

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our games a distinct attitude of enthusiasm as well as good sportsmanship pre- vailed. To begin with the rugger, I must say we are very fortunate at Shawnigan to have seven first-class coaches — in fact, one at every level; and the boys are now being well taught right from the beginning. The main result is that our 1st XV has been playing outstanding rugby on schoolboy standards for a couple of years now. In fact, over these two seasons this team was undefeated in 24 consecutive school matches — and was finally defeated in England by Oundle 9-3. Realizing that Oundle has been undefeated in England this year and is considered at present as the best schoolboy team in that country, we were extremely pleased with the show the boys put up on that day. I might add that two days later they started another winning streak by beating Harrow 24-10. With reference to this trip which the boys made to England over the Easter holidays, it is my opinion that it was an unqualified success. We went, of course, for two reasons: first, we h oped to do sufficiently well to encourage more rugby in the schools of B.C., and second, we felt and feel that it is important in education to expose the boys as much as possible to standards, in every field, which are better than their own. I realize that some of you, on asking your sons how they enjoyed the trip, have received little more than a fine or it was neat, but I can assure you that over there their eyes popped and their response was spontaneous — and I can assure you the seeds of inspiration were sown, their horizons were broadened, their idea of standards improved and, in fact, from an educational standpoint, I think that possibly they got as much from those two weeks as from the rest of the year put together. The standard of cricket in the School has again been very good right down the line. This is due partly to the tremendous job Mr. Brierley has done on the development of true pitches. As a result of this and the good coaching of the several masters involved, there has been an unbelievable improvement in at- titude and standard in this sport over the past two years. I should like to con- gratulate John Brierley, who is the Captain of Cricket, on his selection as a member of the Canadian Under 21 Cricket team which is travelling to England at the beginning of next week. With reference to the Rowing in the School, 1 am pleased to record a splendid attitude by the boys in this Club. This is an expensive sport and the boys volunteered much help towards the maintenance of our equipment — for example the new roof on the shell house was put on entirely by the boys, and they have also helped with the fibre-glassing of two shells and with much other general refurbishing. As to performance, the highlight of the season took place in Seattle when our Senior Four rowed against the best schoolboy crews in Washington and, by winning, established themselves as the fastest school crew in the Pacific Northwest. With regard to our other sports, our Track and Field team was unde- feated, winning the Mid-Island Track meet and the Independent Schools Track meet; our Senior Basketball team managed to defeat both St. George ' s and University School; and our Cross Country team, competing against all the main high schools in the province, came fourth in B.C. In addition to these sports the boys have continued enthusiastically to pursue tennis, squash, swimming, sailing and gymnastics. Time, however, does not permit me to go into the details of all our games, but I can assure you that we make a special effort to teach our boys, particularly at their present age, to enjoy many games. More- over, while I have listed our results to you since they are indicative of the spirit