The Havergal community wishes our 2022–23 retired colleagues all the best on their adventures beyond the ivy.
Claire Davis, Boarding School Weekend Don
I started working at Havergal 26 years ago as the Weekend Don in the Boarding School. I remember my first weekends there as being overwhelmingly exciting. Meeting approximately 70 students from all over the world was truly enjoyable. After all, I had been a single mother to my two daughters and I had experienced everything with them. I thought, These girls can’t show me anything that my own daughters haven’t shown me. Well, I was completely wrong.
I would start work at 5 pm on a Friday after working for the Toronto District School Board Monday to Friday. When I started at Havergal, it was pre-cell phone and computer days. I got to really know the girls well. I would learn about the countries they were coming from and all about their different lifestyles. Most Friday nights were spent in The Boarding School Office, where I would hear all about their families at home. It was such an enjoyable time for me.
Now that I’m retired, I’m going to engage in some volunteering at a school or a hospital. I also look forward to spending time with my three teenaged grandchildren, who are very busy with sports. Mostly, I plan to get to know my new home in the town of St. Catharines, Ont. The future looks bright! I hope to travel some, as well as work in my garden in the summer.
Thank you, Havergal, for a truly awesome experience!
Risa Morris, Senior School Drama Teacher
Who knew that when I took a year’s leave from the Toronto District School Board that I would finish my career 23 years later still teaching at Havergal? I never understood how I got the job teaching Drama at HC. I never really thought I would fit in, but Linda Goldspink (who hired me) thought otherwise, and I am forever grateful.
Havergal allowed me to create wonderful worlds on the stage, from ancient Greece in Antigone, to the battlefields in Iraq in Macbeth, to inner city Montrael in Les Belle-soeurs and even to the Garden of Eden in Children of Eden. Together, my students and I have travelled through time, from Genesis to 350 BCE, to the 16th, 17th, 19th and 20th centuries, to the present. We have been absurd, real, musical, Shakespearean, dramatic and very comedic. We have covered issues from homophobia to apathy. The docudramas that the Grade 12s created each year challenged their audiences to think and feel and to leave wondering. The One Act Play Festival, featuring our student-written plays, left audiences in awe. Thank you, Havergal, for allowing me to live in these worlds, these times and with these issues. And thank you to the students who responded to my dramatic style of both teaching and directing. Thank you to all of the audiences who supported these brave students and who listened to the words and messages they spoke.
During my time as Drama teacher, I was allowed out of the theatre, too. I was Edith Naiby’s House Advisor for more than 10 years. I worked on the Celebration Saturday Committee for more than 15 years. I introduced Havergal to Youth Without Shelter, helping to raise several thousands of dollars, as well as develop more empathy and awareness for youth experiencing homelessness. I spoke numerous times at both the Upper and Junior School Prayers and was the Head of the school’s Faculty Association. But, most importantly, I have never worked with a greater group of people who had the students’ wellbeing and safety always at the forefront of their agenda.
This school is filled with bright, dedicated, caring and incredibly funny people. Both staff and faculty look out for one another, help one another and truly try to make Havergal the community that it is meant to be.
I am now in my second career as a secular humanist officiant; maybe I will marry some of you. And maybe someday I will get to become an RMT (registered massage therapy). As my students will tell you, if you have a platform to speak, don’t waste anyone’s time by not saying something meaningful. So, I’d like to say to members of the Havergal community: please remember how special Havergal is, and what makes it special is the community feeling that has been fostered. Take care of every member of our community, not just the loudest. Keep challenging one another to do what is right and to educate at the highest level, both academically and morally. Keep it up, Havergal—l’chaim!
Published April 2024
2023–24 Issue
