When I was a little kid, under the age of 10 years old, in the summer months, my parents would fly me and my sister to their hometowns of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, England, to visit relatives. My favourite place to go was the home of my grandmother (“Nan”) and grandfather (“Gramps”) on my father’s side of the family.

The primary reason: in her very small war-time refrigerator, my Nan always had a steady supply of mini chocolate bars which she kept in the “vegetable drawer.” Specifically, mini Mars bars (you know, the 19.7 gram “fun size” bars). They were tiny. Delicious. And, plentiful. A vegetable drawer filled to the brim with bars – at least 25 of them!

I can still remember running up their walkway, giving them a bird-bath-shallow hug, then blasting past them into their kitchen to pull open the fridge door and see “the chamber of gold.” Limitless chocolate decadence. This six-year old’s dream. In my mind, Mars was truly another planet!

As parents, as we think back to our elementary and high school days, conversations about who was our favourite teacher abound. Was it the teacher who was the nicest, in your opinion? The one who seemed to understand you the best? Or perhaps they were the one who you learned the most from? The one who taught your favourite subject? Or maybe, the one who sparked a previously undiscovered academic interest?

But rarely do we ask ourselves, “Looking back, what was the most important subject I took in school?” Likely courses that taught you to read, write, add and subtract (“The Three Rs”) from primary to elementary school would be at the top of everyone’s list. But, if we move beyond primary school, and consider our years in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, how would you answer that same question?

Part two of a series of three blog posts

In last week’s blog I outlined the size and composition of the TCS student body. In this submission, I explain the rationale for our school’s strategic enrolment and grade level targets. In next week’s blog, I will discuss the impacts on school culture, ethos and programming here at the School.

To review, our Junior School student body includes approximately 100 day students from across the region. Our Senior School comprises approximately 500 students of which roughly 200 are day students and 300 are boarding students. Approximately 50% of our boarding students live in Canada while the other come from beyond our borders. (While my last blog posts includes exact student body numbers, please allow me to reference these approximate numbers for ease when discussing overall composition and balance.)

I hope that whether you are working, retired, on holiday, or with family, that you are regularly asked how you are doing and if you enjoyed your most recent weekend. One of the myriad benefits of my job is that I am surrounded by 600 kids and 200 adults and we exchange with one another these basic, friendly, caring, short, impromptu moments every day. I will never tire of these greetings; they warm my heart every day.

At the time of writing this particular blog submission, it is a Monday morning (Monday, September 26th, to be exact) and the usual “How are you?” was quickly followed by, “What did you do this weekend?”