News
Sorting Hat Makes its Decisions
The first Grade 8 students to come out of Samuel House learned where they will take their next steps on the Shawnigan Journey in the Sorting Hat Ceremony on Saturday, June 8.
A highly anticipated event for our youngest students as they complete their first year at the School, the Sorting Hat Ceremony is where Grade 8s are informed in which House they will spend the next four years.
Boarding houses are special homes away from home for our students, and the students they live with and the House staff become family for them during their time at the School. For each student, their House automatically becomes “the best House on campus.”
Shawnigan’s campus is frequently compared to that of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter books and movies, and the Sorting Hat is just another way that the School has embraced those comparisons. Students take turns sitting under the hat and are told their House assignments. Presiding over it all are Executive Director of Admissions Mrs. Gaynor Samuel and Head of School Mr. Larry Lamont.
Once they learn where they will be going, the students receive a package including a T-shirt in the colour of their new House, and current Grade 11 students welcome them to the fold. After sitting with their new housemates for Chapel, they joined them in the afternoon for inter-House rugby.
As much fun as the Sorting Hat Ceremony is, it requires a painstaking process to get there as Mrs. Samuel and her team determine the best situation for each student. Many factors are considered in establishing the best fit for a student. Similar considerations are made for incoming students who didn’t attend Shawnigan for Grade 8. Mrs. Samuel and her team will sit down in July and take a week each to place the incoming boys and girls into their Houses.
Mrs. Rainbow Bartlett, one of the House Directors for Samuel House, penned a beautiful poem as a farewell to the Grade 8s girls who are moving on. The poem, titled Wildflowers, describes each of the 23 girls as a flower and ends with the following stanzas:
So, with lots of care and lots of light
A tether here, to get it right
Rich warm soil will always win
And stop those roots from shrivelling
Delightful as their petals bloom
They brighten every single room
So, keep your riches, keep your gems
I love them all… and I pick them!
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
