Opening Address from our 2021/22 Co-Head Students

David: Hello, Lakefield. In case you haven’t met us, my name is David, and I live in Ryder house and I have been at Lakefield since Grade 9, coming to you all the way from Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Sarah: Good morning. I’m Sarah and I have been boarding at Lakefield in Grove House since Grade 10 and it is our honour this year to serve as your Co-Head Student Leaders. David and I want to welcome you to The Grove this year. We have had an incredible start to the year, and we want to say a big thank you to our Grad class.

David: We haven’t gathered as a full community since February of 2020 and we also want to thank our staff and faculty for all they have done to start our year so strongly.  Today, Sarah and I will go over Lakefield’s eight values because they truly are the building blocks of our school community. We want to share with you how we think we live by these values, from a student perspective. We share the belief that if we can all try our best to live by our values, this year will be amazing.

The first value is ‘Environmental Responsibility’. When I see the waterfront behind us, I think of how fortunate we are to have such a nice campus. It’s pretty special to go to a school right on the water with almost an acre of land for almost every student. It is very important to us, as a community, to take care of our campus and the environment. We’d like to thank the LEAF club for their initiatives, especially with the reusable containers for the dining hall. We’d also like to thank all of you for taking those containers back to the dining hall and properly sorting your garbage. There is always work to be done to demonstrate our commitment to the environment. For example, we hope we can make a real effort to limit the use of single-use plastics this year, and we can always be better at cleaning up after ourselves. The way I see it, if we take care of The Grove, The Grove will take care of us.

Sarah: The second value is ‘Inclusive, Caring Community’. It is amazing to be joined together at the waterfront today! If you take a look over here, you can see the Progress Pride flag hanging up at our waterfront. You’ve probably also seen it around on people’s lanyards and laptops. But some of you may be thinking, “Wait, what does this even represent?” The Progress Pride flag encompasses the pride flag in support of the LGBTQ+ community, and the chevron pattern represents communities of marginalized people of colour, the trans community, those living with HIV/AIDS and those who have been lost. Something I have seen so much throughout my life has been racism, especially with the rising hate crimes toward the Chinese community. Something seemingly so small – a flag – holds such a big impact on me. This flag visually represents our commitment to fostering an inclusive and caring community that hopefully can make this place feel a little more like home for all of you. Please, we ask you, keep our school, our home, safe for everyone this year. It is all of our responsibilities, and we take pride in being a kind school. 

David: Learning. For many of us, myself included, this is our home, but we are a school first and it’s a place of learning. The past two school years have been very unpredictable and sporadic but we persevered. This has been thanks to our amazing teachers. You will often hear Ms. Kee say that we have the best teachers in the country and I couldn’t agree more. They have adapted through these unprecedented times with a smile and have already given us a great start to the year. Appreciate your teachers because they are a big part of our community and they are what makes LCS so special. 

Development of the whole person. Lakefield is a school not confined to just academics; we wholeheartedly believe in the importance of developing oneself in all aspects. We are all so lucky and privileged to be attending a school like this one, so as the school year picks up, we encourage you to challenge yourself inside and outside the classroom. Try a new sport or art or activity; start a conversation with someone new and maybe you will even make a new friend; and continue to push yourself out of your comfort zone because one day you’ll look back at all the times you did and be incredibly proud of yourself. 

Sarah: Individuality. I’m sure we all hear the stereotypical quotes to “just be yourself”. Agreeably, it is quite cheesy and definitely overused but I really want you to think, for a second, back to the moments you’ve been happiest and some of your favourite memories. These memories were not the times where you put up a front or figuratively wore a mask to be someone you’re not, but instead, they reflect the times when you were able to feel like you could truly be yourself. Individuality is one of our core values at Lakefield and we are constantly trying to make our community a place where everyone can feel these moments on the regular. So, we hope that each and every one of you not only experience these moments but helps contribute to the shared environment where everyone feels safe and encouraged to be their authentic selves.  

David: Service and Trust. As tight-knit as our LCS family is, serving the greater community is imperative. Here in Ontario, community service is required in high school, but here in Lakefield we make sure to go above and beyond. Some of my highlights here have been giving bikes to those in need, helping at the Kawartha Foodbank and participating in the Santa Claus Parade. A goal of ours is for us to continue serving our communities after graduation, so I invite you to think about how you can impact others in meaningful ways. Special thanks to Ms. Connelly and Ms. Brown for providing opportunities to all of us to contribute and serve others.

We also want to say a few words about trust. As students, we are given a lot of trust, for example, with our student-driven standards process. We don’t know of another school that gives so much responsibility to students. Hopefully, no one will, but if you make a bad decision this year, Grade 12 students will be part of the process to ensure fair consequences. I  also hope you will trust us, your Co-Head Students, with ideas about how to make this school the best it can be.

Sarah: Joy. As I’m sure you all know, a new added value to Lakefield is the importance of joy in our community. Again, we are lucky to be part of a community that prioritizes joy, and given all we have been through in this pandemic, we are excited to make joy part of our daily lives.

David and Sarah: So far, it’s been a jam-packed week since opening! We brainstormed a list of things that brought a smile to our faces. 

There is so much joy around our campus and it is truly amazing to see. And we hope we keep up the momentum.

I remember hearing a quote once that said happiness is a state of mind. In these unprecedented times, it’s so easy to look at the negatives and downsides this pandemic has brought about but I encourage you to spend a moment to recognize how lucky we are to be here today. Joy and happiness are not determined by anything but our own outlook on things. 

Although the start of this year has been one unlike any other, the energy on campus has been nothing but positive and that is thanks to all of you. Every single one of you, teachers, students, staff, are the reason we’ve been able to have such an amazing and unique startup so that we can officially declare the school year open!