Health Services

At St. Margaret's School, students have access to our Health and Wellness Clinic where nurses, Julie Bernhardt and Charlotte Brown, are on-site Monday to Friday providing care for students with illnesses or injuries. As Health Care managers, they facilitate school preventative health care programs such as immunization and health education, coordinates the various medical services for our boarding students, and ensures that specific needs of all students are met while they are at school. We encourage you to discuss any health concerns with our School Nurses such that we may adequately and safely care for our students while they are here at St. Margaret's.

Dr. Ann van der Linden, the School's Physician, visits the school twice weekly to attend to individual student appointments and provide an on-site medical clinic for the school. The Physician is available for consultation and emergencies through contacting the nurse at the Health and Wellness Clinic.

At St. Margaret's School, it is our goal to promote physical and emotional wellness by educating and counseling students about healthy lifestyle choices. The Health and Wellness Team consists of our nurse, counsellor and the school physician. Students and parents are welcome to share problems or issues which may be health or personal in nature and may be assured that discussions with the nurse or any members of the Health and Wellness Team will be kept in confidence and shared only with consent to do so.

Julie Bernhardt and Charlotte Brown, our School Nurses, may be reached at the Health and Wellness Clinic at 479-5755 or e-mail at schoolnurse@stmarg.ca

For Your Health: Information Downloads:

Personal Counselling

St. Margaret’s has a full-time counsellor, Ms. Ingrid Rueffel, who is available Monday through Friday during the school day, and is available for the Senior School population from Grade 7 - 12. She also works with Junior School students upon request.

Counselling at St. Margaret's School encompasses a broad range of issues common to adolescent girls, issues of relationship being often paramount. Our Counsellor addresses areas of self-esteem, academic stressors, homesickness, and a wide variety of personal matters. Issues of extreme psychological difficulty or specialized situations are usually referred out of school to psychologists or psychiatrists. This ensures that the student not only receives expert care as needed, including appropriate medications when required, but also absolute privacy away from the school community. Counsellors liaise, where appropriate, with tutorial and administrative staff, residence personnel, the school medical team, outside medical personnel, and parents.