Our Core Values Laying the Foundation for Success

In Merrifield Hall, our school values are alive and well through the Gryphon Code! We spend time during class and assemblies reflecting on what our values might look like in action, helping students make connections between these lessons and their lived experiences. Prioritizing time for these discussions lays a strong foundation for our students as they move into the Middle School and beyond. Ms. Turnpenny and Ms. Hazeldine sat down with a few Junior School students to learn more about our values from a student perspective.

Ms. Turnpenny enjoyed reflecting with Kambria from Kindergarten about kindness and curiosity. Kambria commented that being respectful was a way to show kindness. She shared that, at home, this could look like saying ‘Thank You’ to your family, and at school, Kambria suggested we smile at each other, say ‘Hi,’ and remember all the nice stuff! She noticed that, in class, a student was very kind recently when they helped the teacher hand out papers.

When it comes to curiosity, Ms. Turnpenny and Kambria discussed how being curious can help us with our learning.

Kambria shared that she really wants to learn more about cooking, sunsets and virtual reality video games. Ms. Turnpenny is also interested in learning more about cooking!

Ms. Hazeldine and Louwrens connected on the important values of integrity and resilience. They had a great discussion about the concept of integrity, and Louwrens described it as a student being loyal, honest, thoughtful and kind. He has shown integrity by helping teachers and modeling strong behaviour. Regarding resilience, Louwrens felt that it was important in life because it helps people learn and grow. He explained that students who have difficulty in a particular subject area would have the ability to improve due to their hard work. Louwrens explained that having resiliency would allow someone to become a stronger human.

Ms. Hazeldine had a wonderful conversation with Aadhaya from grade 5 about responsibility and optimism. Aadhaya shared that responsibility involved following school rules and helping younger buddies to read and work on projects. She explained that she shows responsibility through taking part in leadership opportunities such as pre-school buddies, helping with kindergarten lunches and helping to lead the Terry Fox run. They also discussed the topic of optimism, and Aadhaya shared that she was a very upbeat and positive person. She said she works to support other students and likes to make them happy and cheer them up.

Our Junior School community is indeed a very special place.

Our hallways are filled with students who are kind, curious and respectful. We are incredibly proud of the humans who come together every single day to demonstrate and represent the values of being a young gryphon. We look forward to a continued bright future of guiding our students on their Gryphon Code path, building the compass on their journey to becoming educated community members.