Latest News

Final Blog

Today marks our final blog for the 2020-2021 school year. 

You will receive two key communications from Havergal over the summer. 

• The first mailing will come on July 7 and will provide information about ordering textbooks, BYOD and summer reading recommendations. 
• The second mailing will come on August 25 and will contain important information about the start-up of school, COVID protocols, orientation week and sharing vaccination information with Havergal. 
• Student timetables will be available on Tuesday September 7.

Report Cards

• Upper School Semester 2 Report Cards will be available on Thursday June 24 at 9am.
• For more information about this report card please click here.

Gator Buzz: History & Horizons Project

2020-2021 was a year like no other at Havergal and yet the spirit of the school never waivered.  Led by a group of Prefects, students have put together a time capsule of sorts to ensure we remember this moment in history and all that our remarkable students and faculty have accomplished this year.  The project, Gator Buzz: History & Horizons is now available for viewing and I hope you will take the time to enjoy it.  Many thanks to Sophia Pawliw, Emma McCurdy-Franks, Nadia Salem and Sydney Patterson for their leadership and commitment to this project. 

Student Vaccinations

Vaccination is one of our best tools for protection against COVID-19. We are strongly encouraging all students to get a full series of COVID-19 vaccinations as soon as they are eligible, to help maximize individual and collective safety in our community.

In late-August, instructions will be sent to you regarding how to share your child’s COVID -19 vaccination receipts with the Health Centre. In the meantime, please hold onto these records.

Our vaccination policies are currently being reviewed and may be updated over the summer as we await further direction from Toronto Public Health and the Ministry of Education regarding vaccinations

Athletic Awards

On Tuesday, June 8, the sports prefects hosted an athletic assembly where the Overall Contribution Award was announced along with other sport-specific awards. The Senior Athlete of the Year and Sportsmanship Cup were also announced. If you would like to view the awards winners they are linked HERE. Congratulations, athletes! 

Math Contest Results

Middle School Caribou Math Contest Results

Congratulations! The Caribou contest is a series of math contests written worldwide each year. This year, there were over 15,000 eligible participants.

Several of Havergal’s middle school students placed in the top 5% worldwide:

• Sophie Zhang placed 11^th in the world, top 1%
• Tiana Zhang and Isabelle Ho scored within the top 3%
• Amelia Dey scored within the top 4%

Writing contests is just one way of challenging yourself to think flexibly. Although the achievements of these particular students are extraordinary, so too are the many ways in which our students push themselves to tackle problem-solving during lessons and problem openers, on contests like the Caribou or Gauss, or on extensions, puzzles and assessments.

We applaud all those whose curiosity and persistence lead them to new learning.

Grade 11 & 12 University of Waterloo Euclid Math Contest Results

In April, students in grades 11 and 12 participated in the University of Waterloo Euclid mathematics contest. This contest is designed for students in their last year of high school, or highly motivated mathematics students, to challenge their problem-solving skills.

Our top three finishers were:

• Fei (Sophy) Wu, who ranked in the top 10% of the province; 
• Seeyeon (Stephanie) Oh, who ranked in the top 18% of the province; and 
• Jiayan (Jessica) Yu, who ranked in the top 30% of the province.

The Math Department would like to thank all of the students who participated in math contests during this unprecedented year. We are proud of your resilience and your accomplishments.

Latest News

Manager of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – Introducing Ms. Raagini Appadurai

The Upper School had the opportunity to meet Raagini Appadurai in Prayers on Thursday morning. She has an extensive background in both education and consulting in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and most recently worked as a consultant where she created customized workshops, training sessions and learning opportunities for both students and staff. Ms. Appadurai will be responsible for developing, coordinating and implementing programs which promote equity and inclusion for students, faculty and staff.

Timetabling Update for 2021-2022

Middle School:

Next year, Grade 7 and 8 students will have a hybrid timetable where some classes will be full-year and some classes will be semestered or half-year. The full-year courses are Math, English, French, and Health & Physical Education, and the half-year courses are Science, Social Science, Art/Drama/Digital Wisdom, and Music/Religious Education. Having this timetable model ensures that we are able to follow the Ministry of Education requirements about the number of contacts each Middle School student is able to have while providing a developmentally appropriate learning model for the full-year courses.

• Semester 1: Students will spend half the day with the same students for their full-year courses. A student’s Form group will be based on their full-year class groupings. For the other half of the day, students will be placed into a second class grouping and they will have their half-year classes together. Meaning, they will be in two class groupings for Semester 1: the full-year classes/Form group and the half-year classes group.
• Semester 2: The full-year courses and Form groups continue to be the same as Semester 1 for half of the day. Students will be placed in a third class grouping for the other half of the day. Meaning, they will be in two class groupings for Semester 2: the same full-year/Form group and a different half-year group from Semester 1.

Therefore, over the course of the year, all Grade 7 and 8 students will be in 3 different class groupings. Having said that, if the COVID-19 guidelines allow for more contacts, then an additional class group could be added to Semester 2 for a total of 3 different class groupings in Semester 2. 

Senior School:

Senior School timetables are developed based on student course requests. Senior School courses will be semestered next year to ensure we are able to follow any Ministry of Education requirements about the number of student contacts each student is able to have. Students may have up to four courses in each semester and these classes will have different groupings of students.

Students will be in an Advisory groups made up of the students in their grade that are in the same House. Havergal Houses play a significant role in building community and our goal is to return to using this structure for our Advisory program next year.

Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe

On Thursday, May 27 we were fortunate to host Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe for an engaging and informative parent webinar on resilience and wellbeing. To view the recording of the event, click HERE. 
We would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes and complete this survey to share your thoughts on the presentation and provide feedback for planning future events.

Senior Virtual Art Exhibit – June 10 – 30, 2021

You are invited to join us for the Senior Virtual Art Exhibit which you will be able to access from home. The link will be sent out on June 10th, please share it with friends and family. You will experience artwork from all Grade 12 Art & Design students. You can also access the show through Instagram @hc_artspace, where you can leave comments for the artists.

Math Contest Update – Grades 8 – 11

In February, students in grades 9, 10 and 11 participated in the University of Waterloo Pascal, Cayley and Fermat mathematics contest. The contests are open to students internationally, and are designed for students to have fun and challenge their problem solving skills.

The Pascal contest, designed for grade 9 students, had 4741 students write in Ontario. Our top finishers were:

• Sophie Zhang who ranked 55th in the province; and 
• Kelly Wang and Lillian Wei tied for 176th in the province.

The Cayley contest, designed for grade 10 students, had 3592 students write in Ontario. Our top finishers were:

• Kristin Cho who ranked 22nd in the province,
• Emma Ren who ranked 46th in the province; and
• Olivia Zhang and Yang Hu tied for 161st in the province.

 And the Fermat contest, designed for grade 11 students, had 3952 students write in Ontario. Our top finishers were:

• Penelope Park – ranked 332
• Rachel Kim -ranked 444
• Linda Gu – ranked 558

In April, our grade 8 students wrote the Gauss Contest, a challenging contest created for our middle school students. Our top three finishers were:

• Selena Wang
• Isabelle Ho
• Angelina Tseng