Selwyn House School

Selwyn House School
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Selwyn House School
"Veritas", literally translating to 'Truth'
Location
Westmount, Quebec, Canada
Information
Principal	William Mitchell
School type	Boys
Grades	Kindergarten - Grade 11
Language	English and French
Mascot	Gryphon
Team name	Gryphons
Colours	Black and Gold
Founded	1908
Enrollment	570 (06-07)
Homepage	http://www.selwyn.ca

Selwyn House School (SHS) is a private independent boys' school located in Westmount, Quebec. Boys can attend from Kindergarten through to Grade 11. The school was founded in 1908 by Englishman Captain Algernon Lucas. It is named after Selwyn College, Cambridge University, which Lucas attended.

The annual fees for attending Selwyn range from $13,390 up to $17,280.

The School has recently gone under renovations, including a new building (Speirs), a program ensuring that every student in Grades 7 through 11 has a Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad laptop for use in school and at home (ACCESS), as well renovations to the dining hall and an underground gymnasium.

Pupils are divided into four houses. Lucas House (yellow), Macaulay House (red), Speirs House (blue) and the Wanstall House (green).

The Selwyn House Gryphons have always fielded strong athletic teams and their traditional rivals in sports and other matters is Lower Canada College.

1 History
2 Headmaster
3 Controversies
4 Popular culture
5 Recent athletic championships
6 Notable alumni
7 External links
8 Footnotes

History

In 1908, the English-speaking elite of Montreal were in need of a suitable preparatory school, and a certain Mr. Algernon Lucas was seeking a career. A graduate of Selwyn College and Cambridge University, he was given the job of educating seven boys. He had immediate success, and within two years, Lucas School had to move from Mr. Lucas’ Crescent Street apartment to a larger house on Mackay Street. In 1912, Mr. Lucas turned to the business world and Mr. Colin Macaulay took his place.

The School had developed a character of its own. Its aim was to provide a solid grounding in basic subjects and to equip boys for the boarding schools from which they might proceed to university. The School was modeled after English preparatory schools, and the staff was recruited from the United Kingdom. The caliber of students from Selwyn House was highly respected at their subsequent schools and scholarships were won regularly.

In January 1985, Mr. William Mitchell became the headmaster. The School needs and demands for added facilities reached a point where one building was not sufficient. When St. Andrew’s United Church across the street from the School closed, Selwyn House purchased it, currently known as the Macaulay building. In 2002, the School built the Speirs Building which housed a new double-sized gym, a spacious high-tech library, numerous classrooms, offices and an Agora for student assemblies and various other functions. This was followed by a massive renovation of the Lucas Building, including converting the Lucas gymnasium into a large, modern dining hall and fully equipped auditorium, dubbed Coristine Hall.

Headmaster

William Mitchell is due to be replaced by Mr. Hal Hannaford as Headmaster with effect from January 1, 2009.

Controversies

2005

In September 2005 an alumnus of the school launched a lawsuit claiming that he had been molested by a former teacher, Leigh Seville, during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Allegations regarding misconduct were made in 1991, and the school administration confronted Seville. Soon after, he committed suicide along with his father and no further action on the issue was taken by the school administration.

2006

A similar scandal became public on February 3rd 2006.¹

2008

On May 10, 2008 one of the school teachers, Richard Doucet, was arrested by John Chapman of the Dumfries Police in Virginia under the charges of soliciting under-age sex from a 13-year old boy and possessing child pornography.²

Popular culture

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (May 2008)

The movie, Prom Wars, is based on Selwyn House. In the movie, Selby House(Selwyn) battle Lancaster College (Lower Canada College)(Selwyn's arch-rivals) over the right to take ACS(ECS) girls to prom.

The school has been mentioned in Mordecai Richler's novel, Barney's Version.

The school is part of the basis for Richler's Jacob Two-Two adventure series. Richler's son Jacob was a student at Selwyn House.

Recent athletic championships

Bantam Football - 2002, 2006 (undefeated), 2007 (undefeated) G.M.A.A. champions.
Senior Football - 2003 FQSA "AA" champions.
Curling - 2006 G.M.A.A. champions.
Bantam Hockey - 2007 G.M.A.A. champions.
Wrestling - 2007 G.M.A.A. champions (dethroning Kahnawake Survival School who held the Championship for the previous 17 years).