50p
Allard House Lifer's Address
The following was delivered at the Lifers’ Dinner in late May, 2020.
I remember when I first came to Brentwood, I stepped into Allard and immediately knew the theme was mermaids. This was exciting because mermaids are my favourite mythical creature and I love the sea. When the prefects were explaining what life would be like here, a new girl had asked if we had a house song. She expected it to be something like Under the Sea from the little mermaid. Instead, the girls burst out in song and they sang all of Lean on Me. That’s when I knew I’d fit into Allard perfectly.
Our advisor group has changed tremendously in the past four years.
In Grade 9, Advisors was honestly more of a hangout session. There were only 10 of us (including day students) and Dr Smith was super busy with Napata since she was still a little baby so we would all play with Napata whilst doing what we needed to. I remember Dr Smith was so kind and extremely fun to have as an advisor. Napata was barely one at the time. She’s almost four now and she runs around the house and interacts with the girls all the time.
In Grade 10 and 11 we had the dads of Allard house. Mr Carr and Mr Smith were a fun duo to have in Advisors and in the house every Tuesday for dad nights. We would often start advisors off by looking at some odd demos graph that Mr. Smith was making. It would then progress into group talks with both Mr Carr and Mr Smith. This year, dad night with Mr Smith and Mr Amiel is just as fun. We have an Allard tradition of writing Gratituesdays and guessing for tool Tuesday. When we all sign in, everyone just stays around the common room and writes a letter to someone they’re grateful to and they also try and guess the tool that the dads put out for us all to see.
This year we have Ms Fougner and Mr Smith and it’s been a hoot. We finally get to have Advisors in our common room so we can relax and hide from the grade 9s
It’s been so great spending the last four years with Georgia, Jessica, Reece and Cailine. They’re all so kind and they’ve always been fun to spend time with. Prefect meeting are especially fun for us because we get to see how our group went from 10 girls to 15 and the vast majority has changed.
I remember in grade 9, Cailine and I met in the house and she needed to get her pink slip signed. To those of you who may not know what those are, it’s a slip we need to get signed by our arts teachers in order to make certain changes before our arts choices are irreversible for the year. We ran around campus for a whole hour looking for all the teachers we needed to find. She’s continued to grow and she’s such a sweet person. All the girls in the house love to spend time with her when she’s around and she’s smiling without exception.
Reece is such an amazing person. She’s willing to help whenever she can. She’s so strong and athletic and lots of people look up to her. She made Allard proud when it was announced that she would be the first female Athletic Prefect at Brentwood.
Jessica and Georgia have both been close to me since ninth grade. I remember Jessica was kind enough to take me and our friend Lore out to Victoria to see Fantastic Beasts in ninth grade. While we aren’t able to meet up like that anymore, we continue to have one coffee date a week so we can catch up.
Georgia is one of the funniest people I know. She’s one of the best leaders I know. She does this by authentically being herself and devoting herself to what she needs to do. She’s been absolutely remarkable in her duties this year (as have the other three girls).
I know that I’ve learned a lot about how to be a good prefect from having the opportunity of being here as a Lifer.
That being said, we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for all the duty staff in Allard. Ms Reynolds and Ms Tarrant are the people we go to for pre-inspections. Everyone is so open to talk to. Mr Smith, Ms Fougner and Mrs Amiel have been such great mentors in our journey to becoming better leaders this year. Ms Ackert is always so fun to talk to, but firm when needed. Before Mrs Carr left she was such a great role model and I’m so happy I got to do my prefect training with her. I’m so excited to see where we all go next year as we start our journeys outside the Brentwood bubble.
Aatya Uppal, Allard ‘20
I remember when I first came to Brentwood, I stepped into Allard and immediately knew the theme was mermaids. This was exciting because mermaids are my favourite mythical creature and I love the sea. When the prefects were explaining what life would be like here, a new girl had asked if we had a house song. She expected it to be something like Under the Sea from the little mermaid. Instead, the girls burst out in song and they sang all of Lean on Me. That’s when I knew I’d fit into Allard perfectly.
Our advisor group has changed tremendously in the past four years.
In Grade 9, Advisors was honestly more of a hangout session. There were only 10 of us (including day students) and Dr Smith was super busy with Napata since she was still a little baby so we would all play with Napata whilst doing what we needed to. I remember Dr Smith was so kind and extremely fun to have as an advisor. Napata was barely one at the time. She’s almost four now and she runs around the house and interacts with the girls all the time.
In Grade 10 and 11 we had the dads of Allard house. Mr Carr and Mr Smith were a fun duo to have in Advisors and in the house every Tuesday for dad nights. We would often start advisors off by looking at some odd demos graph that Mr. Smith was making. It would then progress into group talks with both Mr Carr and Mr Smith. This year, dad night with Mr Smith and Mr Amiel is just as fun. We have an Allard tradition of writing Gratituesdays and guessing for tool Tuesday. When we all sign in, everyone just stays around the common room and writes a letter to someone they’re grateful to and they also try and guess the tool that the dads put out for us all to see.
This year we have Ms Fougner and Mr Smith and it’s been a hoot. We finally get to have Advisors in our common room so we can relax and hide from the grade 9s
It’s been so great spending the last four years with Georgia, Jessica, Reece and Cailine. They’re all so kind and they’ve always been fun to spend time with. Prefect meeting are especially fun for us because we get to see how our group went from 10 girls to 15 and the vast majority has changed.
I remember in grade 9, Cailine and I met in the house and she needed to get her pink slip signed. To those of you who may not know what those are, it’s a slip we need to get signed by our arts teachers in order to make certain changes before our arts choices are irreversible for the year. We ran around campus for a whole hour looking for all the teachers we needed to find. She’s continued to grow and she’s such a sweet person. All the girls in the house love to spend time with her when she’s around and she’s smiling without exception.
Reece is such an amazing person. She’s willing to help whenever she can. She’s so strong and athletic and lots of people look up to her. She made Allard proud when it was announced that she would be the first female Athletic Prefect at Brentwood.
Jessica and Georgia have both been close to me since ninth grade. I remember Jessica was kind enough to take me and our friend Lore out to Victoria to see Fantastic Beasts in ninth grade. While we aren’t able to meet up like that anymore, we continue to have one coffee date a week so we can catch up.
Georgia is one of the funniest people I know. She’s one of the best leaders I know. She does this by authentically being herself and devoting herself to what she needs to do. She’s been absolutely remarkable in her duties this year (as have the other three girls).
I know that I’ve learned a lot about how to be a good prefect from having the opportunity of being here as a Lifer.
That being said, we wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for all the duty staff in Allard. Ms Reynolds and Ms Tarrant are the people we go to for pre-inspections. Everyone is so open to talk to. Mr Smith, Ms Fougner and Mrs Amiel have been such great mentors in our journey to becoming better leaders this year. Ms Ackert is always so fun to talk to, but firm when needed. Before Mrs Carr left she was such a great role model and I’m so happy I got to do my prefect training with her. I’m so excited to see where we all go next year as we start our journeys outside the Brentwood bubble.
Aatya Uppal, Allard ‘20