Trafalgar School - Echoes Yearbook (Montreal, Quebec Canada)

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SEPT. 8 OCT. 11 OCT. 20 OCT. 21 OCT. 29 School Opening Mid-term Holiday Inter-school Tennis Matches Trafalgar Day Hallowe ' en Party NOV. 1 NOV. 24 NOV. 29 DEC. 13 DEC. 21 Mid-term House Miss Christmas Carol Marks Competition Hasell Exams Singing DEC. 22 JAN. 11 JAN. 21 FEB. 7 9 FEB. 21 End of Start of Grad Public Mid-term Term I Term H Dance Speaking Holiday FEB. 22 MAR. 10 11 MAR. 16 APRIL 6 APRIL 19 Mid-term Marks Gym Dem. Spelling Bee General Knowledge Closing Start of Term III [ 13 ]

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THIS YEAR marks the end of one era for Trafalgar and the start of another. As ihe new building nears completion, the rear section of our old school approaches the day of its demolition. It is with a pang that we see the familiar classrooms and the time-worn but friendly laboratory about to become memories for those who are here and past history for those who have yet to come. But a change affords a certain amount of excitement, tempered with a few difficulties, and adapting ourselves to new conditions is not an impossible feat. Though there will be many new improved additions in the section of the school that is being completed, the heart of Trafalgar — her gym — will remain. Perhaps it is not the largest gym nor the most up-to-date, but it has character and reflects the mood of its occupants. On mark reading days there is a tense atmosphere; on the nights of the Gym Demonstration, there is an atmosphere full of excitement. Everything goes on in the gym, from House Competitions and basketball games to spelling bees and lectures. There is something about it, an elusive, intangible something, that has instilled itself within the four walls of the gym, and we who must leave Trafalgar will fondly recall the gym when we look back on our school days. When the last year of high school is reached, we realize how much we shall miss the daily drama of school life which we groan about from time to time. We shall no longer be quite so sheltered and guided. But though we shall leave Trafalgar and make our way in the various pathways of life we have chosen, there will always be the name of Trafalgar and what it stands for to honour and maintain. That is a very common statement, but the fact remains that the standards of Trafalgar, established and maintained over a long period of time, must still be maintained not only by the present students, but by those who have left and by us who are leaving. As we go out into the world, we would like to wish our Head Mistress, our teachers and all the girls the very best in the coming year — a successful entry into the new building and a continuance within it of the same school spirit that enhanced the old, of the same standards it upheld: and we leave with you this parting thought: It is better to travel hopefully than to arrive; and true success is to labour. [12]

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A LAST LOOK 1915-1955 WHEN, IN JUNE, the School fire-door — for this past year its front door — slams behind the last member to leave for the holidays, we shall have said good-bye to a large and important section of Trafalgar ' s building. Let us, as we leave them, think back briefly over some of the rooms in this building and the varied purposes they have served. Remember the Lab, which, with its high stools and tables, its little sinks and many taps, recalls for some the personality of Miss Cam, and for those of an earlier date, that of Miss Hicks whose Form, Lower VI, used it as a classroom. Across the hall, next the Art Room, was Room 11, for years the abode of Upper II with Miss Bedford- J ones, then for years occupied chiefly by a piano and an unidentified smell which was always referred to as dead rat . This useful room also served for Ross House ' s meetings, and was invaded periodically by all Houses in turn rehearsing songs, storing props, or putting on costumes, and going through all the frenzy of preparing for a House Competition. The overflow of this activity spread across the hall to the small room — once a classroom, then the Prefects ' room, and more recently the Senior VI room. There, as a result, one often found oneself teaching amidst a strange and heterogeneous collection; while Hallowe ' en sheets and masks seemed to remain on the shelves perma- nently. One year a flower-decked fence stood there for weeks after a Grad Dance. On the middle corridor was another room of many functions, that architectural freak known to us for the past ten years or so as the wool room , a place where Red Cross articles contended for space with stationery supplies, the mimeographing machine, and shelved text-books. Beyond this room lay the Prefects ' den, over which it was always advisable to draw a veil. In its earlier and more dignified era, this, together with the wool room, was a Staff room, and later became Miss Bryan ' s office. On one ' s left at the foot of the marble stairs, in the lower corridor, there was originally one large room, known as the playroom, and used for singing classes, and for recess in winter — milk and biscuits being distributed from the adjoining kitchenette. Later this was the Boarders ' Study, and later still, divided [14]