{"id":10296,"date":"2015-04-09T00:21:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T04:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10296"},"modified":"2015-04-15T17:17:42","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T21:17:42","slug":"wellington-is-preferred-name-for-school-merger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wellington-is-preferred-name-for-school-merger\/","title":{"rendered":"“Wellington” is preferred name for school merger"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

200 years ago this year, the Duke of Wellington led the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. This week, however, he would have been able to notch another victory into his belt as the namesake of the soon-to-be-merged Aurora Senior Public School and George Street Public School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWellington Public School\u201d is the preferred name for the new entity when the two schools come together under one roof at the existing Aurora Senior Public School at 125 Wellington Street West this fall.<\/p>\n

George Street Public School, which opened in 1957 as the first public school built to serve the growing Aurora community west of Yonge Street, now serves students in Kindergarten through Grade 3 and is set to close this June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWellington Public School\u201d was one of four names floated within the school community, taking local history and geography into consideration, according to Ken Arnott, principal of the two existing schools.<\/p>\n

One name up for consideration was \u201cRed Willow Creek Public School\u201d, which pays tribute to the stream that flows near Aurora Senior Public School and under the York Region District School Board headquarters nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a bit of a mouthful,\u201d said Mr. Arnott.<\/p>\n

Next Option: Machell\u2019s Corners Public School, selected in tribute to the earliest days of what is now Aurora, formed on the four corners of Yonge and Wellington. The century-old disagreement over the correct pronunciation of \u201cMachell\u201d, however, was a strike against it. <\/p>\n

Faring a little bit better was \u201cAurora Village Public School\u201d, named after the technical name of the neighbourhood surrounding the school.
\n\u201cWe liked that name because the village idea ties in with the whole sense of community,\u201d said Mr. Arnott. \u201cWhen we\u2019re bringing together both the George Street community and the Aurora Senior community, we thought \u2018village\u2019 had a nice application.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might take a village to raise a child, but never underestimate the power of the Duke of Wellington. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe other one we came up with, the logical, practical, one was Wellington Public School,\u201d he said. \u201cStaff who have been here a long time and the parents who have had kids go through for a number of years, there has always been confusion by the number of schools that have the \u2018Aurora\u2019 name on it like Aurora High, Aurora Heights, Aurora Grove and Aurora Senior. People often refer to us as \u2018the Aurora School on Wellington.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While that might have been the \u201clogical, practical solution\u201d, a conversation with one of their history teachers who pointed out this year\u2019s bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, tipped the odds in Wellington\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought that was an interesting angle to build on as well, so he had suggestions as a history teacher that gave us a lot of ideas on what we could possibly be used as a mascot and it is all very exciting,\u201d said Mr. Arnott.<\/p>\n

Rest assured that as far as possible mascots go, they\u2019re shying away from the Wellington boot, looking instead towards the cavalry aspect of the Battle \u2013 and they\u2019re ready to get a little wild with the ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we establish the name, we can have a bit more fun with what the colours are and the mascot,\u201d he says. \u201cAurora Senior has never had an official mascot. When you\u2019re at a school like ours that does host a lot of the athletic events, when you\u2019re building community and spirit for the kids, that is definitely something we\u2019re going to involve them with, and a contest around a mascot, what colours we could do, and then we get into the whole idea of t-shirts and sports school wear. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat will help bring the two schools together under one roof and build the community spirit of our school with a common name and a common theme.\u201d<\/p>\n

To mark its closing, George Street Public School is planning a \u201ccelebration of life\u201d in its honour on Saturday, May 23, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., welcoming current and former students, staff, and the community at large. If you have any photos, memories, or any other artefacts you would like to share to mark your time at George Street P.S., the party planners would like to hear from you. To share your suggestions, email george.street.ps@yrdsb.ca. To follow details of the closure and commemoration, visit georgestreetps.blogspot.com. <\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Selection would not only show geography of the school, but mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2G4","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-14 19:11:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}