Trafalgar Castle School as a Character Community
Trafalgar Castle School was founded as Ontario Ladies’ College in 1874 by the Methodist Church of Canada and remained affiliated with the United Church until 1979. In 1959, due to the vision of the late Dr. Stanley Osborne, the Grace Chapel was built and used for regular United Church services. Although the school’s affiliation with the United Church ended in 1979, the Grace Chapel continues to be used for daily Chapel each morning.
Our Chapel programme is not tied to a particular faith as many faiths are represented in our school community. Our Chapel programme may be best described as supporting the concept of a “Character Community”. Character Communities have begun to appear in many places through North America both in schools and urban communities. Character Communities make conscious attempts to address values in a society that appears to have discarded values in a way that concerns many human beings.
Trafalgar Castle School’s Mission states, among other things:
As an integral component of Trafalgar Castle School's mission, we commit to the following shared values among all members of our school community:
- respect for tradition, particularly Trafalgar Castle School's traditions, in the context of an evolving society;
- the importance of a balanced lifestyle, including spiritual values and a sense of humour;
- the importance of civility and tolerance for others and a commitment to human rights and values.
Further, our Strategic Plan indicates:
Our objective is to develop young women who are well-rounded individuals to attain high levels of achievement, and to create and foster a strong sense of the Trafalgar community based upon reflections of our past and a shared vision of our future.
Our Chapel programme is one vehicle for achieving our mission. The full school gathers in the Chapel daily at the beginning of each school day. Each week of the school year is dedicated to a particular theme, related to the concepts of a Character Community. Examples of themes from the first term in 2003-2004 include citizenship, respect, honesty, responsibility, community and honour. Various members of our community, including the Principal, Faculty and Students speak to the theme on specific days. On Fridays we sing from the United Church hymn book or a collection of “Trafalgar Favourites”. We do not have a Chaplain, but rather our entire community leads reflections through the school year.
During the 2003-2004 school year one of our school goals is to continue to develop a school culture that fosters a healthy balance in the individual and school. This will be accomplished by tying our Chapel themes into discussion during our daily Academic Advisor periods, reinforcing the themes through luncheon presentations and linking the themes to the curriculum where appropriate. In 2003-2004, Trafalgar Castle School will also join Health Canada’s “Voices and Choices” programme to further address the goal of achieving balance in our lives.
Service is a theme that is very much in evidence among our students. I cannot begin to catalogue all of the community service activities undertaken by our students, both in school sponsored events and individual work, as many of the girls work quietly yet steadily at their own chosen projects outside the school. They do this willingly and in combination with a full academic load and enthusiastic participation in sports and club activities at the school. It gives me great personal comfort to see this generation of students committing to fulfilling one aspect of our school’s mission and further developing our Character Community.
One important tenet of Trafalgar Castle School’s philosophy is the development of balance in the lives of our students. As a school, we naturally work on the development of the intellect and healthy physical lifestyles, but as a Character Community we also hold high in our consciousness the need to nurture the spirit in its broadest sense.
