Roundtable Q&A Discussion About St. Clement's School (2020)
St. Clement's School alumni, current students, and parents shared their insights on the school’s culture, values, strengths, and weaknesses. Hear what Emma Coster, Alex Tinmouth, Carmen Chong had to say about the school.
Highlights from the Q&A discussion
Emma Coster — alum
Emma Coster attended St. Clement’s School from Grades 7 to 12. She went on to attend McMaster University, studying Health Sciences. She was first drawn to St. Clement’s because her mother is an alumna, but came to love the school for itself. The community was so close-knit, that when she graduated in 2018, she says it felt like she had 63 sisters.
When we went on a tour of St. Clement’s, that’s when I realized that I really like the school as the school, and not just because my mom went to it. I really liked that it was a bit of a smaller community. I didn’t want to feel like I was just like one person in a massive school, so I really liked that it was smaller. I wanted to be able to form close connections with people. Our grades were a bit smaller and I was able to form really close connections with a lot of my classmates.
I really liked the academics at St. Clement’s. Personally I really liked being able to take AP classes and go a little bit further, and I also liked the fact that, with AP classes, I could pick which ones I wanted to focus on a bit more. So I was able to take a range of AP classes—including, for example, statistics, but also a human justice course.
I was able to kind of spread out academically and not have to focus on one topic. I liked that St. Clement’s offered the ability for me to branch out.
The community is something that really stuck with me, the fact that I was able to form close connections with my classmates, that we actually are all pretty close. We just had a Zoom call this weekend, so that speaks to the fact that I made lasting connections with my classmates, which was really nice.
The ability to form relationships with my teachers, and be able to ask them questions, and be able to be really curious in class, that was something that I really appreciate now that I’m in bigger classes. I realize now how unique that that opportunity was, to have like five-person classes where I really got to form a relationship with my classmates and the teachers and be able to ask questions without worrying what other students might think.
Being in university now, just the ability to learn, not even necessarily specific concepts or ideas, but my organizational skills and the way that I am able to do bibliographies and things like that. I think the academics really prepared me. I think St. Clement’s taught me a lot of important educational skills separate from even the knowledge itself. That really prepared me to be able to go into university and have that be a smooth transition.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve really valued that time being in that all-girls environment. At the time, I didn’t really notice that there weren't any boys in the class. Now that I’m back in coed classes at university, there’s something really nice about just being in that all-girls environment. I look back on my days at St. Clement’s and I kind of miss just being around all my classmates and being able to hang out in the halls and everything.
Thinking back, we were all very different, but we were all passionate about things and we helped each other to work towards our goals and support each other’s passions. We’re all very diverse and I would say passionate as St. Clement’s students.
You didn’t have to join a club you weren’t interested in. There’s always something that you could find that you were passionate about to get involved with. There were clubs open for everyone, along with all the different sports teams and extracurriculars. It wasn’t as if we all had to take the same path. Having so many different clubs and even ways the school can connect you to extra-curricular opportunities, it was just having all of those options open. It helped everyone to be able to find what they were individually interested in.
I think something that surprised me when I first started at the school was just the amount of activities that went on—in the computer labs with robotics and the gyms always having sports and all the music and everything. The building itself always seems pretty small, it doesn’t seem like there could be the amount of things that go on in it that there is. But I remember every lunchtime there were always lots of clubs happening all around the school. I was just surprised at the amount of opportunities I had to get involved in at the school.
Just by spending so much time together and having a small grade, I knew everyone in my grade. I knew their siblings and what classes they were in and what extracurriculars they did. At that point, I felt like we were all sisters, which is a little cliché, but it really felt like that, when I was graduating, I had 63 sisters, which was great. A lot of us graduating students have been together for 12 or six years at that point, and I think at that point we were more just like one big group of friends. You would have classes with a lot of different people, and so it would be nice. You would be able to talk to anyone in the hallway at that point.
Alex Tinmouth — current parent
Alex is an alumna of St. Clement’s School. She is currently the parent of two daughters who are high school students there. Building on her background in law, she is now doing a Master’s in Education, and brings that perspective as well. In St. Clement’s, she sees a school that gave her girls all the right tools to succeed in the wider world. It’s also, she says, a community that continues to amaze—through its inclusiveness and intimacy, as well as the achievements of its students.
Our girls really felt the most at home and comfortable with St. Clement’s. For me as a parent, I knew I didn't need to worry about the academics. For me it was also about the values of the school and the importance of community, the focus on the girls and education.
It is really about educating the girls, and that’s where the whole heart of the school is.
It’s not really about the size of the school. It’s about the tools that school gives you. I think the school prepares the girls well. I remember speaking to a parent who told me, ‘At St. Clement’s, they’re known very well, and when they leave St. Clement’s, they’re ready to make themselves known.’ What she was saying spoke to my concerns about coming from such a small space and having the tools to be able to function and where they weren’t known as well, coming from a small pool to a big pool at university.
At the time, my daughters had gone to our local public school from junior kindergarten to Grade 6, and they were still at a stage where they thought it would be great to just be with the girls. So it was really no issue for them going from co-ed to all-girls, it really wasn’t part of the equation for them.
I have just one word to describe St. Clement’s, which is inspirational. I’m always amazed by what these girls go off and do after they leave, and while they’re there. It is truly phenomenal.
I think that’s part of the charm of the school that there is no typical St. Clement’s girl, and that it’s the diversity within a small school that is amazing. I remember being asked by a parent, they weren’t sure that their daughter would fit in, and I always felt like St. Clement’s celebrated the differences. And so I would say there is no typical student, other than maybe having a passion and a curiosity for learning.
The offering at the school is as broad as any of the bigger schools. So to the extent you have very different children, I think they may just gravitate towards different options within the school. My two girls who are at St. Clement’s are very different. They gravitate towards the same extracurriculars, but they’re very different learners, and both have found their place.
I think the school, in terms of the teaching and the ability to teach to all those different learners, is top notch.
The school’s focus is the girl’s experience in the school and their education. And that, above all else, is the most important thing, and it’s what everyone is working toward together to ensure it is the best we can make it.
St. Clement’s is part of the community that it lives in and its connections to, and outreach to, that community are very, very important to it. It’s not an island.
The spirit of the school—it has a very big heart, as big as any other school. It always amazes me how the girls juggle so many things. They do their academics. They are present in the school and involved and then also doing all these wonderful, amazing things outside of school. I remember when we were starting up, doing a tour with a student and asking her, ‘Well, do you have time to do sports outside of school or clubs or drama?’ And she assured me, ‘Oh, yes, I do’, and she rattled off like 15 things that she managed to do on top of everything else.
Carmen Chong — current parent
Carmen is the parent of two daughters at St. Clement’s. Her youngest is in her elementary school years, and her eldest has entered the middle school. For her, it’s the school’s safe, nurturing environment that is of the most importance. She appreciates the school spirit she sees at St. Clement’s, and the compassion that it taught her daughters.
What I’ve appreciated most is that my daughters have become compassionate, independent individuals now that they’ve been at St. Clement’s School. And I think that’s the main thing. They’ve also learned to take risks and think outside of their boxes.
With the nurturing environment in the school—students feel safe, included and accepted. I think that the small size of the school actually helps the girls get to know the staff and the other classmates well.
I would describe the school as a positive, nurturing environment where students feel safe and included, accepted and valued. A school that promotes positive behaviours and interactions, and also the importance of respecting and treating others fairly.
I think families would be surprised about how spirited the school is. They do really go all the way out among the students during Assemblies. I mean, you can see it’s really spirited. They have a Spirit Week, when it really shows as well
