Roundtable Q&A Discussion About St. Clement's School (2021)

The lifelong relationships are very much a key to my experience there. I'm still friends with the girls that I grew up with, and having a good 20 years since graduating, I am still friends with these people. And there's something to say about the shared experience you have and really going through the ups and downs of life.

Because we are such a small school you can form cross-grade relationships and a sense of community that everyone feels. You have a lot of time together physically in the small space. It is a great time for everyone and being able to depend on each other and always knowing that somebody has your back is a really great feeling.

St. Clement’s girls are very ambitious. We have a lot of great scholars out there, top 40 under 40, very successful people in life.

The girls are just genuine. What you see is what you get. They are happy to see you. They're kind. They're warm. And finally, I think we're resourceful. St. Clement's girls know how to get things done. We come from a small school, but we're resourceful.

St. Clement’s has a newly instituted program called LINCWell Learning, Individualization, Nurturing, Creativity, and Wellbeing, which really helps teach the girls balance and taking care of themselves. St. Clement’s is academically rigorous, and we do strive for success. But at the same time, this program is so key to teaching us how to avoid burnout.

At St. Clement’s, you have all sorts of opportunities and experiences, and there is no typical St. Clement’s girl outside of the core values. Where your interest lies, St. Clement’s is ready to help you flourish. And I think that's wonderful.

I had a wonderful experience during my time at St. Clement’s and I wanted the same thing for my daughter but there have been so many improvements since I graduated that it's an even better experience than I imagined for her.

My daughter is growing up in a family with a lot of sons, and I wanted to give her that sisterhood that I could not provide her. This was, I think, the closest thing and knowing the type of girls that come out of St. Clement’s, that was a huge component that I was looking for. I have been very happy with the school and I look forward to many more years there.

I think the teaching staff are very in tune with the type of child or each individual child, and they are not afraid to reach out to the parents and help them thrive. Sometimes it means finding little things to help, for example, say you have a left-handed child and you need to bring in an OT to help with certain elements. Even little things help her become more confident and give her opportunities to grow and learn. The teaching has been amazing. I feel like I have a lot of loving feelings toward all the teachers that we've had so far. I've just been so happy with the school.

My daughter enjoys not having boys around. She came from public school, and it is very different going to a single-sex school. And so far, she loves it. Girls and boys just learn differently. As she goes to other camps, she finds that it is a bit more disruptive for her and her participation or learning when the boys are there. And so she appreciates that aspect of St. Clement’s.

Parents are not just looking for their girls to succeed, but also how do they want them to live their lives? A lot of families want the same things for their girls. And I think a big component is success with integrity. Integrity is a huge key to the core values.

One of the things I appreciated the most was how invested the teachers were in getting to know the individual students beyond the classroom and really developing a strong relationship. Now, five years out from the school, I actually still have relationships with two of these teachers. I was just reading a book with my English teacher from Grade 10, and we just finished and were discussing it. So it's really nice to see how these relationships have sustained.

The small size of the school, which I think sometimes can be perceived as a negative, but I think is a really positive, just makes for such a more united experience as you're going through St. Clement’s.

Everyone at the school, all the students, are really involved in something at the school that they love. People are really passionate about the things that they're learning, and they really add a lot of energy to the school through that.

Throughout my time at St. Clement’s, if I had a new idea or initiative I wanted to start, I always had the support from teachers. People always wanted us to go above and beyond and add our own colour to the school.

Despite St. Clement’s being a small school, it can really cater to totally different individuals that have different interests. I'll use my sister and me as an example. I went down the STEM path. I was on the soccer team, I was into music, and she did a completely different thing. She didn't want to go into those STEM courses. She was interested in the arts. She got really involved in the musical. We were both able to flourish in our own ways and leave our own marks. I think St. Clement’s did a really good job offering us different opportunities based on our own interests.

My daughters are capable and they enjoy the sciences. I took note that St. Clement’s had a robotics program and I thought that was super cool. I thought, ‘What a great thing!’ Just giving the girls an opportunity to have fun and play around with that stuff and create some interest and passion around that. I thought that was wonderful.

That LINCWell piece is important. To inspire, to do great things is great, but we have to make sure that we're staying well when we do that, and we're keeping all these important things in our lives together. I think teaching them at a young age is going to be essential to set them up for that type of success.

We were looking at different schools. We definitely wanted a school with better academic rigour. The girls were performing well, and we just felt that it was really important that they'd be in a school that would support them and continue to give them what they needed in that regard.

When I went to university, a couple of people I knew had gone to St. Clement’s School. Knowing what school that they had gone to was huge in terms of deciding on St. Clement’s. I would describe them as super smart. They were highly successful. But they were just really genuine, down-to-earth people who I just felt comfortable around. We were very close, very good friends, and that had a very positive impact.

I feel that the teachers really are warm and supportive and they take the time for the kids. St. Clement’s is everything I expected. You drop your kids off, they go to school, you come back and you really hear about the school through their lens.

I actually like the fact that St. Clement’s has a better balance between sports and academics. I don't see it as a negative, but we are a competitive sports family. We bring that to the school. We try to push and promote that as a benefit.

This school really is just a place where my daughter can thrive. In the last semester, she did some different project work. One of them was around architecture and integrating different things into that. I think she was on a path where she was going to go toward medicine, but that project made her pause. I love that because this is the time to discover those interests and those passions.

St. Clement’s has this really positive, supportive, and nurturing environment. My daughters talked about how the teachers really try to individualise it. They look at people as individuals.

The academic rigour and all that stuff is there, but how do you get there? How do you best support people through that? It really starts with a caring, really nurturing environment. And saying that, nobody gets left behind, right? St. Clement’s really looks out for each individual and what their needs are.

Curiosity, courage, and passion are the school's values. I'm thinking about my life and the stuff that I do, a lot of it's about learning, leading, and inspiring. When I go back and I reflect upon those values that are at the school, I think they align.

It's a wonderful school and the school really does live up to its values and its reputation. It makes me super excited for the next four years and what the school is going to offer for the girls and where it's going to take them.