It’s not just [smaller] class sizes…

It’s a laptop-toting, leadership-prompting, university-focused extraordinary centre of educational excellence for girls that they’ll never forget.

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[Innovation] Virtual Literary Salons Our girls lead the way through the literary world, learning the power of virtual expression through a variety of IT initiatives. Our Writers in Electronic Residence (WIER) Programme is run once a week as a voluntary club after school in conjunction with a Toronto-based online Writers’ Workshop connecting student writers with their peers across the country.  Students post their work on virtual bulletin boards, called ‘Salons’, and have their writing viewed and critiqued by other young writers across the nation. Students also have their work viewed by at least one professional Author-Mentor, many of whom are female, providing positive female role models for our adolescent girls. The WIER programme has been operating at Trafalgar Castle School for five years with its membership growing each year.  [Integrity] Advanced Technology Integration The Clarica Scholars Programme partners Canadian teachers and students from across Canada with I.T. faculty from Acadia University and the University of Waterloo with the intent of advancing technology integration and interactive learning in secondary schools. Trafalgar has had the privilege of being selected to the prestigious Clarica Scholars Programme three years in a row. Empowered by participating in this leading-edge learning initiative, two students and two dedicated faculty members travel to the selected university for an intensive one-week programme. Students receive training in state-of-the-art multimedia classrooms while interacting with peers from across the nation.   [Perseverance] Embracing our Unique Interests The strength of our athletic and club programme is our ability to respond to individual interests, needs and talents. We strive for excellence in the context of balance. Our school teams provide our girls with the opportunities to develop positive self-images and develop confidence in their abilities. Team sports develop important skills of interdependence - critical for success in today's work world. Our parents report that a vigorous sports programme for girls helps develop a healthy self-respect for their bodies and develops physical fitness. With 15 sport teams and 17 energetic clubs, Trafalgar proudly reflects the broad range of interests and passions of our students. At Trafalgar, each girl is destined to find that which makes her special.

[Reasoning]

Learning to Debate & Negotiate

Trafalgar students speak out. They are confident, articulate and well-spoken young women, many of whom have honed their verbal skills participating in the School’s Debating Club. Challenged to compete in many forms of verbal exchanges, students debate parliamentary-style or in cross-examination mode taking their winsome words to regular meets of the Fulford Debating League, a 3-season challenge involving 21 schools.

There are also impromptu-style challenges that encourage girls to think on their feet with often only 12 minutes prep time per topic. The benefits are numerous. Students gain confidence in their ability to present their point of view ultimately becoming sound negotiators, a skill that will do them well in any future career.

[Co-operation]

One-in-a-Lifetime Adventures

This is the luckiest lot of Grade Six students in Canada! For four weeks of the year, their classroom is moved to Muskoka Woods, a residential outdoor education camp with such resources as a television studio, a radio station, a software animation studio, an ‘everything’ indoor, inline and skateboarding facility, golf and a ‘dream’ gym with 5-6 trampolines.

Their course of study includes rock climbing, mountain biking, dogsledding in Algonquin Park, crossing a high ropes course on spinning logs or speeding down a zip line – cooperative challenges in which the girls learn how to help one another in order to succeed. Living with 8 to a cabin, the girls work, eat, sleep, study and play together, activities that help form strong social bonds and develop keen problem solving skills.

As the first of our Connected Classrooms, every student has a laptop enabling them to integrate their learning online in new and innovative ways.  

[Compassion]

Learning to Serve Others

In 1878 the girls at Ontario Ladies’ College (now Trafalgar Castle School) regularly helped in the soup kitchen. Today, community service continues to be a part of everyday life.

Last year, ten students participated in Habitat for Humanity building a 7m X 7m home for Danny & Yadira Gomez and family  in Esparza, Costa Rica. They dug trenches, bent rebar and mixed cement in 90 degree heat often covered in dirt from head to toe. The 7 days were ‘intense’ but the pay-off was extraordinary. The group received daily smiles from to-be-resident, Carlos Gomez, 5, and took great pleasure in the unforgettable meals cooked by ‘mamaticas’, the women in the community.

Closer to home, students are actively involved in a variety of goodwill projects. They work with the Charles H. Best Diabetes Centre for Children & Youth, local Big Sisters groups and raise funds for community projects by organizing the Castle’s Annual Christmas Bazaar.

[Leadership]

Serious About Science & Technology

Science Women Are Terrific (SWAT) Club members promote recycling in the School while Grade 11 students create and organize the Science Olympics for Grades 6, 7 & 8 – an adventurous afternoon of homespun science challenges in which the younger grades attempt, for example, to build the strongest structure using spaghetti, move laser beams, construct a hut from newspaper and test rates of chemical reactions.

The SWAT Club is organized by girls, for girls with much time spent planning interesting and adventurous outings in the community.

[Immersion]

Advanced Study Programmes

Each year, several gifted and highly motivated Grade 9-12 students spend 5 days in May studying advanced programs as part of the E=MC2 Program at Queen’s University. Participants select courses typically found in Canadian universities including Hands On Pathology, Trial Techniques, and Advocacy and Introduction to Molecular Biology. Sitting in lecture halls taught by Professors and living in dorms gives students a first glimpse of university life.

[Success]

Helping to Excel in Math

The University of Waterloo hosts the Canadian Math Competition for 70,000 students from 1,500 schools each year in February and April. Dedicated to producing strong math capabilities, Trafalgar enters every student in Grades 9, 10, and 11 seeing it as a special opportunity to measure our strength.

[Resourceful]

Exceptional Support

Trafalgar Castle School boasts an exceptional Resource Centre with 12,000+ print volumes available for students including the most up-to-date encyclopaedic resources such as Literary Lifelines, Health Matters, The Illustrated History of Women, The World Book Encyclopedia and the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Additionally, the Centre boasts 300 online videos, 250 + videotapes including 32 tapes on “Canada: A People’s History”, 90+ CDs including 112 years of National Geographic and 2 dozen magazine subscriptions for student enjoyment and curriculum support. Online resources include The World Book, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and Statistics Canada.