News Archive
Sorting Hat Ceremony: 'We Let the Hat Speak Their Fate'
The House a student is assigned to for their time at the School is a fundamental part of their Shawnigan Journey. For students completing their Grade 8 year in either Stanton or Levien, the Sorting Hat Ceremony is a highly anticipated event in which they will learn where they will spend the next four years of their time at Shawnigan.
Boarding Houses are special homes away from home for our students, and the students they live with and the House staff become family for them during their time at the School.
The Sorting Hat is a way that the School has embraced the many ways in which the campus is compared to Hogwarts from the Harry Potter universe. Students take turns sitting under the hat and are told their House assignments. Separate ceremonies are held for the boys leaving Levien and the girls moving on from Stanton, presided over by Director of Admissions Mrs. Gaynor Samuel and Head of School Mr. Larry Lamont.
“The Head of School and I bring them up one by one and let the hat speak their fate,” Mrs. Samuel relates.
Once they learn where they will be going, the students receive a package including a T-shirt in the colour of their new House, and current Grade 11 students welcome them to the fold. Typically held outdoors, the ceremony was moved to Mitchell Hall this year, but the students headed outside in the afternoon to join their new Housemates at inter-House rugby.
Behind the scenes of the lively Sorting Hat Ceremony, Mrs. Samuel and her team go through an extensive process to determine the best situation for each student. Among the many factors they will consider is if a student has a sibling in a House, or had a parent or other relative go through a House. Similar considerations are made for incoming students who didn’t attend Shawnigan for Grade 8. Mrs. Samuel and her team will sit down in July and take a week each to place the incoming boys and girls into their Houses.
“It’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” she says. “We’re always moving pieces until we get it right. There are a lot of complexities. It is our goal to keep everyone happy.”
Mrs. Samuel often tells students that every House is the best House — for them, and that, “Your presence is going to make that House even better.”
These Grade 8s are the last group that will spend their entire Grade 8 year in separate Houses, as Samuel House, which will bring together the Grade 8 girls and boys under one roof, is scheduled to open in January 2024.
Stanton House Director Mrs. Rainbow Bartlett penned the following poem as a farewell to the Grade 8s moving on from her House:
This magical day has come at last
Yet this wonderful year has gone so fast
And I imagine our home with empty halls
When you leave the nest as adventure calls
The Sorting Hat will choose what's best
Guiding you to where you'll be loved and blessed,
Whether Renfrew, Strathcona, Groves’, or Kaye’s,
Bring a piece of Stanton to shape their ways
As Maria, Maria, Regi, Romi & Nour fly south toward home
Take our love and best wishes wherever you roam
With your language and music, your fashion and food
You brought a little part of Mexico to our house in the wood
And for all you girls who we are lucky to keep
Step boldly forth; lionesses, not sheep
Be the friend you would love to find
Be true to yourselves, courageous and kind
Please keep this wish, and always know
That you have made us as people and a family grow
So as you spread your wings and soar above
May your dreams come true in a world of love
We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful Pacific Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
