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Happy Birthday Linden! - September 15,
2009
On September 8, 2009, students,
faculty and staff celebrated The Linden School's 16th birthday.
Like any birthday party, our annual birthday
event is a time of celebration: as a community, we celebrate
not only the beginning of another school year, but also the
dream of our founders. Sixteen years ago, Diane Goudie and
Eleanor Moore imagined a school where girls had a voice and
learned in the ways that worked best for them, and our birthday
party marks another year of our commitment to realizing their
dream.
It just isn't a party without...
Candles: There may not have been
a cake, but each member of our community lit a candle in honour
of Linden's birthday. As is tradition at Linden, our youngest
student lit our official birthday candle with the assistance
of her teacher.
Surprises: As our community continues
to grow and flourish, the girls learned we would be adding
four new family groupings to our eight existing groups. These
multi-grade families encourage students to get to know girls
both older and younger than them; they also provide younger
students with mentors, and older students with leadership
opportunities.
Games: At every birthday party, our
students play the "family game". Each girl gets
a name tag containing her school family name and part of a
quote. The girls in each family must organize themselves based
on their name tags, eventually forming a completed quote relating
to our school theme (this year's theme is "exploration").
By playing this game, the girls in each family instantly feel
a sense of community and are reminded in the value of working
together. Also, because each family reads their completed
quote aloud, each girl in the school has spoken in front of
her peers by the end of this game, giving her a voice in her
new (or familiar) community.
And, of course....fun!: Our birthday
party is a time for our students to meet their teachers, make
new friends, share summer stories and feel welcome (or welcome
back) in our community - and to get ready for the great year
ahead!
Town Crier shines spotlight on Linden traditions
- September 1, 2009
Two of Linden's longest-standing traditions
- and the strong voices and community they create - feature
in the Fall 2009 edition of the Town Crier Education Guide.
Readers hear from Linden founder Eleanor
Moore and former student Lidia Salvador as part of an article
on the evolution of school traditions; Eleanor and Lidia discuss
the school's beginning-of-year birthday party and end-of-year
graduation ceremony, and the common elements that bind these
two events together.
The following is an excerpt from the article:
"Former student Lidia Salvador,
who graduated in 2007 and now works summers at [Linden],
can speak to the power of such traditions. Because she moved
a lot, she attended six different schools, yet Linden is
so ingrained in her heart that she plans on working there
full time in the future.
"I love the place,"
says Salvador.
On her very first day of school during
the birthday event, Salvador says she recalls thinking,
"Wow, this is such a community".
"It's a great introduction,"
she says of the beginning-of-year festivities. "It's
that emphasis on community we're always talking about."
To read the full article, click
here. (It appears on page 6.)
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