Roundtable Q&A Discussion About The Bishop Strachan School (2021)

I was a boarder, which means that during my time there, BSS was my entire life. I remember I would periodically have this realization that I was just so comfortable and content with every facet of my life at BSS — whether it be how confident and unafraid I felt to speak up in class and ask questions, or how strong the relationships I formed with my peers and teachers were, or most importantly, how ‘at home’ I felt in boarding. BSS provided me with the best ‘second family’ a girl could ask for. 

No matter how tough things got with academics, as a student who was applying to university in the U.S., there was never a time I felt completely beaten down or unsupported. I was always surrounded by people who were willing to lend a hand. Now that I’ve been away from BSS for a bit, I’ve realized that an environment like that is really hard to find: specially in a bigger university, there are so many other people and you might feel a little bit like a small fish in a big pond. But with all the confidence and toughness I’ve honed from my time at BSS, I feel ready to thrive no matter what situation I find myself in.

Heading to university, I felt very prepared. How tough the academics would be there was always in the back of my mind while I was at BSS. But I’ve just been so well prepared, especially with the study skills that boarding teaches you. Because, as a boarding student, we have mandatory study periods, every day for a certain amount of time. It really builds that routine and self-discipline in your own academics.

I really like the AP program because it gives students the choice to specialize in something that you are interested in, or are good at. I really like Science, and BSS is so great because it offers all three AP Sciences. I took Physics and Chemistry, and all of that is basically teaching you first-year university knowledge. So as long as you score really high on the exam, or even just take the class and do fairly well with understanding the content, first-year university will be very easy for you, and it will provide you with some credits for graduation.

The biggest thing for me that differentiates BSS is how well-rounded the student body is. There is really no cookie-cutter type of student that is most favoured. We have an incredible athletics program, but we also make a really big deal of the yearly collaborative plays and musicals with UCC. We have week-long exhibitions to showcase the stunning work of our visual art students, and we take our STEM students to Science and Robotics competitions around North America. At BSS, no matter what you’re interested in, there’s always someone who wants to help you foster it. Students really do get a lot of support to thrive in whatever direction you choose.

If BSS were a person, I would describe their personality firstly as ‘confident’. This doesn’t mean they’re the most extroverted or the loudest person in the room, but they are very sure of themselves and unafraid to take charge and lead. Secondly, I would say ‘passionate’ — BSS would be a person who is willing to take a stand on what they believe is right, especially with current events and social justice issues. Lastly, I would describe the BSS personality as ‘open-minded’, willing to adapt to change — which we saw a lot during the pandemic, being flexible as a school with all the unforeseen changes that came up.

I gave it a lot of thought, and I can’t think of one concrete thing I would change about BSS to make it better. And that’s because BSS is constantly evolving. Especially with the landscape of social issues in the world, I think BSS always embraces these changes head-on and listens to students.

Something that’s really valuable to me, that I will appreciate about BSS now that I’ve graduated, will be the friendships that I made there. When I first got to BSS, I thought it would be difficult, due to financial barriers and cultural barriers that I was, kind of, putting in my head and working myself up about. But when I got there, not only did I find a lot of students who were in similar situations as myself, and from similar backgrounds as myself, but I also got to connect with people who are just completely different from the areas that I grew up in. And I got to bond and form really great relationships with those peers, and that is something that I truly value.

When I was Head Prefect, my biggest goal was to focus on students like me who were receiving financial aid — to not only represent them but to make sure they feel like they belong. Because they DO! The school has done a good job by continuously welcoming them, and by making the financial aid pool even larger each year, so that more and more students can attend the school without worrying about the financial barriers. That was something I was working on as Head Prefect, and I got a lot of support from the school, which was really vital. So not only was it a students’ initiative, but we had all this support from faculty.

In Grade 11, I was co-head of the Black Student Union. That’s something that I hold close to my heart, because it was one of the first student unions like this that was being formed, and it started this whole movement at the school, in terms of speaking up and talking about injustices that are happening within — and more importantly outside — the school walls. That really allowed for students to find their voices, and work alongside faculty, which is something that is really important.

For me, what differentiates BSS is the support for the students that is available — whether it be mental health support or academic support, it’s all there, and it’s always available. I know as a boarder, we got special priority, because we were living there 24/7. But you can reach out to your teachers past school hours; they might not respond right away, but they will always be there, and have a response for you as soon as they possibly can.

Bishop Strachan School truly does celebrate diversity. I noticed that because, as a student leader, it was a focus for me, and the school always supported me in that. When I was doing speeches in Chapel and Assembly, talking about the importance of celebrating our cultures, it was something that everyone celebrated with me. That is something I truly appreciate. So in my view, BSS stands out because they celebrate who you are no matter who you are.

At BSS, as students we are split up into Houses — kind of like Harry Potter — from junior kindergarten through to Grade 12. And during our high school years, within those Houses, we are grouped up with students in our grade, along with a BSS teacher, to form a TAG Teacher Advisory Group. Your TAG becomes your support buddies all throughout high school. You meet once a week, and you bring in snacks and you have great conversations. Sometimes there are themes and you can focus on important topics. Sometimes it’s really just a safe community for you to ask questions and to just bond with people in your grade and to grow together as well. Earlier this year when I graduated, one thing I loved was being able to celebrate with my TAG, because we grew up together.

If BSS were a person, I would describe its personality as ‘loving’. I felt this especially in the boarding community, because we’re living there 24/7. The whole entire BSS community is loving, but for boarding students specifically, it’s a home away from home, and it doesn’t feel like that at all — sometimes it simply feels like your first home, and you don’t want to leave it.

‘Courageous’ is another word I would use to describe BSS’s personality. As a school, BSS is not afraid to step into the unknown and explore it — whether it be trying out for a new sport, joining a new co-curricular, or even standing up and demanding change from officials. BSS inspires students to be courageous.

Another quality of the BSS personality is its supportiveness. With my university applications, if it weren’t for the help of my guidance counsellors at BSS, I wouldn’t have so many incredible people bragging about me, and I wouldn’t have won the Loran scholarship, because they were there to push me and remind me of my potential, even when I wasn’t feeling it. That really got me to where I am now.

The advice that I would give to a student just coming into the school would be, ‘Be yourself and you’ll fit just right in. You will find your people, you will find your group and your club — and if not, you can make your own at Bishop Strachan School.’ I really wish someone would have told me that, because there is no specific mould for a BSS student, whatsoever.

As a family moving here from out west, we noticed that BSS has such a rich history, it’s a very well-known school, and it has an excellent reputation as a leading girls’ school in Toronto. From our tour and from all the interactions that we had in going through the process, we really felt that the school was a nurturing environment, an inclusive environment, and it just had a beautiful energy. We noticed that as soon as we walked through the doors. We were greeted, students had a smile on their face, there was action going on. There were people rushing off to get to their clubs, to different sporting activities, and you couldn’t help but feel like you wanted your daughter to be a part of it.

The campus at BSS has so much to offer. It’s physically a beautiful building. You can see that there’s been renovations done — it’s very progressive, it’s definitely a forward-looking building. The school has embraced STEM, which was also important to us when choosing a school, and the Science Lab was brand new in the Upper School, which was exciting for my daughter.

My daughter had actually never had the opportunity to really get involved in a community before we came to the school. And BSS offered such diverse opportunities for girls to get involved in community service, and really look outside of the classroom. That was a really nice feeling for us, to know that she would have those opportunities readily available to get involved in, as well as leadership opportunities. 

Has it met our expectations? Absolutely. My daughter started in Grade 7: she didn’t know anybody, and very quickly she had friends and was getting involved, and thrust into school life. She really never missed a beat. She was all of a sudden getting involved in teams and sports. She was on the Field Hockey team, and she had never played before. We didn’t expect for her to transition so seamlessly.

They know the stages that the girl is going through, whether it be in the Lower School, the Middle School, or the Senior School. Girls need different things as they transition. They might need more emotional support, or mental health talks, or how to manage social media, and we felt that the school really recognized those touchpoints, and supported our daughter.

In terms of the impact that BSS has had on my child so far, what stands out is how the school has made her feel like anything is possible. I think that that’s something that’s nurtured from every touch point, whether it’s teachers, faculty, or coaches. I think BSS does such a beautiful job of giving their students the sense that they can achieve anything, that they can set goals for themselves and find a path to achieve them. For my daughter, I see her eyes sparkle, I see her eyes light up, and see how excited she is to go into school every day.

The first word I would use to describe BSS is ‘nurturing’. When I send my daughter to BSS every morning, I know she’s going into a very supportive school where the teachers really care about her, friends care about her, and everyone wants her to succeed. On the flip side, as a parent, you also want your child to be nurtured by learning from their mistakes. I think BSS does an excellent job of recognizing that girls are going to fail, and girls need to fail, and they also need to pick themselves up and learn from their mistakes. So from a nurturing perspective, I feel that there’s a lot of continuity between the values in our home and the values at BSS.

The second word I would use to describe BSS is ‘charismatic’. There’s this energy to the school and it draws you in. The school draws the girls in and it makes them step out of their comfort zone, and embrace all that the school has to offer. It allows students to explore areas that they may not otherwise thought they were interested in.

I would also describe the school as ‘open-minded’. The school is open-minded in several different ways: it’s open to differences, it’s open to diversity, it’s open to change. Through the pandemic, we saw BSS pivot very quickly on various occasions. I see BSS as a school that’s open to ideas, open to questions, and to me that’s a really amazing thing.

We specifically chose BSS because they’re very much about the ‘whole girl’. It’s not just academics. BSS is academically rigorous, and I know that my daughter is getting an excellent education, but some schools are just very academic-focused. Some schools might be just sports-focused. BSS is really about putting someone into the world who, when they graduate, has strong values, has strong rules, has a strong sense of community, and who participates in the community.