Thames Valley District School Board Archives
951 Leathorne St N5Z 3M7 London, ON, Canada

#FlashbackFriday to when Beal students built an airplane. No biggie. #dyk that in the 1971/1972 school year, H.B. Beal students decided to build a Skyhopper aircraft for their tech class? School officials purchased the plans from California and parts were ordered from Toronto. Over the course of a year and a half, students and staff learned how install electrics, work with fibreglass, rig aircraft control surfaces, install radios, etc.... Test pilot Ron Posno was an experienced pilot and board employee who flew the aircraft for 25 minutes. When he flew it a second time, the engine stopped and Posno was forced to land in a ditch. According to MemorBEALia, "This project must rank highly as one of the most complicated projects ever undertaken by any high school in this province or even Canada."

Transcripts for current and former TVDSB students can be requested through our website. https://www.tvdsb.ca/en/parents/record-requests.aspx

Wayback Wednesday! An exploration of the Oakridge area and its growth, courtesy of maps from the London Air Photo Collection. Images: Map 1942 'Summer". Roll: Line: 16, Photo: 46. Black and White. 20 x 25 cm. Dept. of Lands and Forests Map 1967 "12-Dec." Roll: Line: 4, Photo: 71. Black and White. 25 x 25 cm. Lockwood Survey Corp. https://www.lib.uwo.ca//ldn_airpho/1967/1967-Line4-071.tif

A day late, but happy International Women's Day! Let's recap how amazing one of our school namesakes, Jeanne Sauvé, was: Political journalist, served on the Board of Directors for three broadcasting corporations First woman elected to a French-Canadian think tank that hosted annual conferences dealing with national issues Elected to the House of Commons Appointed Minister of State for Science and Technology, becoming the first Quebec woman to hold a cabinet position... Minister of the Environment and Minister of Communication First female Speaker of the House First female Governor General, representative Head of State for Canada, and Commander-in-Chief See more

"The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places the school, the church and the skating rink but our life was on the skating rink." With the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships underway in the Czech Republic, and hockey fans tuned in for the traditional Boxing Day tournament kick-off, it seemed only fitting that our last post of the year ties back to hockey. Arguably one of Canada’s most beloved children’s stories, The Hockey Sweater chron...icled the tale of Maurice Richard fandom in Quebec in 1946, and what a slight it was to receive a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater from Monsieur Eaton. But did you know that Roch Carrier, the namesake of a TVDSB school in Woodstock and the author of this classic, has also played an instrumental role in librarianship? Born in 1937 in Sainte-Justine, Quebec, Carrier received his education at Collegé de St-Louis, before moving onto the Université de Montréal. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he penned numerous works of poetry and fiction, some of which he adapted for the stage. It wasn’t until 1984 when The Hockey Sweater was published, with illustrations by Sheldon Cohen, that his work became famous to Canadian children. In 1991, Carrier was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada and also served as the Director of Canada Council for the Arts. As the National Librarian of Canada, Carrier tackled issues that many libraries were facing, such as the cost of accessing digital media and a lack of space for print materials. His work eventually led to the creation of the Digital Library of Canada and the removal of fees for using the national bibliographic database, AMICUS. In 2004 the National Library and the National Archives of Canada merged to become Library and Archives Canada. Roch Carrier French Immersion School originally opened as Huron Park Public School in 1953, but was renamed in honour of the beloved author and champion of access to literary works for all.