Elmwood School KEY INSIGHTS

Elmwood is rightly proud of the traditions that it represents, as well as its ability to provide an innovative social and academic environment. At times in its history, Elmwood has been at the very forefront in that regard, most pointedly in 1978, when it became the first school in Canada to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. When the Primary Years Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Programme (MYP) were added, it became the first girls’ school in North America to offer the entire continuum. Even today, Elmwood remains the only full-continuum IB World School in the city (and one of only 20 in the country).

When asked what he hopes the students gain from the Elmwood experience, Head of School James Whitehouse says, “I really want them to leave confident—that they are able to stand up in any room, in any situation, and be who they need to be to be successful and to hold their own in any situation.” That includes fulfilling their academic potential, as well as experiencing the breadth of the Elmwood offering, be it acting in a play, participating in sports, an art show, making music, or contributing to the leadership of the school. “All those things that will open doors for them,” says Whitehouse. Elmwood teaches its students to understand themselves, their talents, and their sense of what they’re capable of. Its graduates have the capacity to take calculated risks and to bring themselves forward in all contexts.

Overall, there is pride placed in the culture and community that the environment describes. “There is a sense that this is their home base,” says Teresa Marquis, instructional leader of English. “Even when they leave, they don’t feel like, ‘Okay, I’ve left that be[1]hind, thank God.’ It’s more a sense that the school is a part of who they are.” Many retain significant contact with their instructors and peers well beyond the high school years.

ON SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

While new to the headship, James Whitehouse has been at Elmwood since 2012, serving as deputy head of the Middle and Senior Schools in what the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools described as “a profoundly influential tenure.” He came to Canada from the U.K., having taught worldwide, including positions in Australia, England, and Hong Kong. The leadership team includes two deputy heads, a director of IT, a director of finance, a director of co-curricular learning, and the executive director of advancement and community relations. All report directly to the head of school.

ON THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

From the street, Elmwood presents as pleasantly modest. The main building sits close to the road, and the whole property is visible and inviting to those happening by. When we arrived early one day—this was just a couple of weeks into the new academic year—the rugby team was running drills on the field. Inside, a student orchestra was rehearsing, the sound echoing breezily through the halls. The school wakes up each day in waves, rather than in a rush, and there’s a nice hum to the environment before and after the instructional day.

ON THE STUDENT COMMUNITY

The students, in our experience, are delightfully precocious, vocal, and outgoing. They have an ability to take calculated risks and extend themselves academically, which serves them well within the Elmwood environment. “They’re just more academic than I was at their age,” admits teacher Alyson Bartlett. “They believe that school is very important to them, and for that reason, it’s a really nice place to teach. They are putting up their hands to ask if they can go a bit farther with an assignment, and you have to plan more than you think you’re going to need because they work faster than you think. They’re kind of incredible, actually.” The students, in their way, express that as well. “I think the students are intelligent and mature,” one told us. “And we can actually have genuine conversations with meaning. … Their insights are interesting because, well, they’re smart.”

The students are highflyers, to be sure, and they’re not prone to hiding their lights under bushels. That said, the environment is one that is built around the knowledge that no one is good at everything, and not everyone is going to be a head girl or the scholar with a 98% average. Success is seen as girls working toward their strengths while having the capacity to see and appreciate the strengths and successes of others.

Whitehouse tells the story of a girl who struggled throughout her career at Elmwood—but when she received a subject award at graduation, she got a standing ovation. “And I don’t know how, say, the Grade 7s even knew about her, but there was this spontaneous, universal applause,” he recalls. “When she began at Elmwood she was highly academic but struggled to know who she was. Through her time here, she gained a strong sense of self, and she left, top of her class, to attend Queen’s.” His goal is to continue that tradition of equal parts excellence, empathy, and support. “What Elmwood does is get them into a place where they can be who they are, where they can achieve their potential.” The school is very much centred on possibility, creating opportunities for students to explore their world and to find their place within it. The ideal student is a girl looking for a vibrant, challenging, and community-oriented academic environment.

ON THE ATHLETIC PROGRAM

Elmwood’s athletic offering is broad, particularly given the size of the school and the campus. Rowing is a key sport for the school, with sculls kept at the Ottawa New Edinburgh Club, accessible via a short, charming walk through a residential neighbourhood. The rowing program is headed up by former Olympian Derek O’Farrell. At the risk of understating it, student success in rowing is substantial. Abigail Butler, who graduated in 2019, was recruited by Fordham University to their rowing program, and two others have followed a similar trajectory in the same year. Their success has further buoyed the program, and participation within it is high. Rugby is another key sport that Elmwood excels at in competition.

“The priorities for me as a coach and an athletics director are health and working together,” says Ivan Sambles, senior school athletics director. “Picking yourselves up when you don’t achieve what you wanted to in competition. Learning to fail and learning to lose gracefully, and then reviewing what we can do differently, and how can we grow in the future. … One of the most vital things we can learn is, when things go wrong for us, we take a breath. This wasn’t the outcome we wanted, so what went wrong, how can we get the outcome we wanted, and try again. Let’s go again. Let’s not just give up when something goes awry.”

ON THE ACADEMIC ENVIRONMENT

Some schools have more of a frantic energy or equate that kind of energy with rigour. To its credit, Elmwood doesn’t. Students regularly stop to chat amiably with teachers in the hallways. They are interested in the faculty members’ lives, and that interest is very evidently reciprocated, even during just a quick walk through the school. At one point during our visit, some rowing sculls needed to be moved. Catching wind of this, Whitehouse jumped into action, gathering a few students who were on their lunch breaks at the time to pitch in as well. It seemed the most natural thing in the world—the head of school, a teacher, and some students all lending a hand together. It’s perhaps a small thing, but it offers a nice glimpse into the culture of the school and the sense of community that exists within it.

A belief formalized in the IB curriculum is that the work of the classroom should be about the world outside the classroom and that instruction should prepare children for what they’ll find out there. In the early and primary years, that’s the natural environment. Windows in the classrooms look out onto the play spaces and the school garden, where they grow produce to learn about where food comes from and for use in the cafeteria. The windows are large, which also helps to bring the outdoors in.

When we visited, the Kindergarten class was beginning a unit titled “Into the Woods: Forest Kindergarten.” They had been outside doing tree studies, during which they recorded observations about a specific tree—they had their picture taken with it, too—that they will visit at intervals throughout the entire year. Says Kate Meadowcroft, Junior School teacher, “What I like about this unit is that the central idea is so broad that wherever their interest is, we can make space for it in the unit.” She feels it’s a good example of the approach of the school particularly and the IB more generally. A key aspect of the IB Early Years Programme is agency and ensuring that the students, within a set framework, have a say in what they’re learning. That’s clearly in evidence here.

ON THE WELLNESS PROGRAM

The students are known within the school environment, and staff and faculty rise to the responsibility of ensuring their safety in all areas, from academic counselling to time management skills to mental health. The approach to discipline is positive. “Kids will behave well if they can,” says Frances Marchand, nurse/counsellor, and she sees it as her role to give them that opportunity. “It’s about building those kinds of relationships”—ones that are caring, close, and based on mutual respect. She believes that modelling is key for all staff and faculty, but especially for her role as student counsellor. “Girls have to see me in different capacities,” which includes coaching field hockey, attending intramurals, running the outdoor education program, and being present in the hallways. “Because then it’s safe; they see me as a real person. You know, I’m not just up here with my little bun and stern glasses. Because then they’d stop coming.”