Bairdmore School prepping for 25th birthday

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/12/2011 (5108 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bairdmore School is set to celebrate its 25th birthday in January with a series of events for the school’s community.

And while it may not be among the oldest schools in the city, the Richmond West kindergarten to Grade 6 school’s staff and students, past and present, have already left their mark.

Music teacher Sandra Benum is grateful to have been part of the Bairdmore’s evolution since day one.

“It was so exciting to be part of the first buying process, spending thousands of dollars on a piano and furniture and setting up the class,” Benum said.

The River Park South resident said the school’s first principal, Patrick Morican, had a passion for opera and would love to sing, so the pair clicked right away.

“When the school first opened, there was a physical area full of mud, so he lead a chorus of ‘Mud, mud, glorious mud’ that is still one of our highlights,” Benum said, adding Morican has been invited back to lead the students in song as part of the birthday celebrations.

Benum also noted “we were actually a school before the school was built.”   

From September 1986 — until the building was opened on Feb. 4, 1987 — the students were divided between Dalhousie and Arthur A. Leach schools.

“The principal went every day between one school and another. It was very curious,” Benum said.

One shining star to rise from the ranks is former student Akosua Matthews, who is now 26.

Matthews, who is currently studying law in Toronto, has an MPhil in Comparative Social Policy — otherwise known as a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship from Oxford University in England.

“There are only 11 scholars each year from Canada and only three of those are from the Prairie provinces,” said Matthews, noting other stints at Dalhousie and Acadia schools, Fort Richmond Collegiate and a fast-tracked undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba.

Matthews said while she wasn’t “tagged as an overachiever” until Grade 6, she still remembers a school trip to the Old Dutch Foods manufacturing plant.

“We got to sample the chips when they were freshly baked, which was something different. It was part of the curriculum on the potato famine,” Matthews said.   

“If the teachers can do that kind of thing when I was so young — and I still remember it — that must a good thing.”

Matthews, who now plays the trumpet, remembers Benum as a “very dramatic teacher, who played Glinda the Good Witch in a play.”

“I think I developed an early love of music because her,” she said.

The school’s current principal, Rob Gendron, said the school will celebrate on Feb. 2 with an afternoon assembly, which will include the screening of video shot when the school opened.

“In the evening, there will be an event when we hope to see former staff, students and administrators,” said Gendron, who lives in St. James. “It’s been a great journey so far.”

To learn more about the school, visit www.pembinatrails.ca/bairdmore.

simon.fuller@canstarnews.com