A California native who had made his way to New York City, Brandon Hawes was already finding his way toward teaching when he left for Victoria in 1998, following his wife's Canadian roots. He completed his training at the University of Victoria, started teaching locally, and joined St. Michaels University School in 2007. After nine years teaching Grade 3, he moved to Grade 5 in 2016 and has been one of two Grade 5 teachers helping students in their final year of Junior School find out what they are capable of. Hawes is also the person who quietly makes sure everything comes together.
For years, that meant building and painting the sets for the annual Grade 5 musical by hand: rigging flats, managing the logistics of getting them into a professional theatre and knowing exactly how to make them fly. Since digital projections transformed what the productions can achieve, his role has shifted to props and production support, but his investment has not. This spring, as 44 Grade 5 students prepare to take the stage at the McPherson Playhouse in The Wizard of Oz, Hawes is building and painting the trees that throw apples, constructing the basket for the hot air balloon, running the projections on show nights and serving as assistant stage manager. Performances run June 4 and 5.
Junior School French teacher and musical director Stephanie Geehan has worked alongside Hawes for years and describes him as her right-hand man.
"He is very organized and has great attention to detail," she said, "which is helpful in so many areas of putting on a musical."
For Hawes, the production is less about any individual role than about what it takes to get a group of 10-year-olds to the other side of something genuinely demanding. Volunteer parents put in hours fitting and sewing costumes. Teachers do hair and makeup before every show. Everyone shows up.
"Watching the community come together to accomplish such an amazing event is very satisfying," he said. The moment he looks forward to most comes after the final curtain, when the cast breaks into celebration.
"Watching the unbridled joy is fantastic," he said, "but it also reminds me how many people helped them get to this point."
Finding satisfaction in other people's success follows him into the classroom too, where his focus, energy and attention to every student and every detail, makes students feel seen and valued. His approach to teaching is grounded in the belief that most of the limits students place on themselves are not fixed. Math is where he sees it most clearly. Some children arrive having already decided they are not math people, a label that tends to follow them. Hawes makes deliberate mistakes in front of his students, works through them openly, and builds from wherever each student's understanding actually starts.
"It's not completing the worksheet," he said. "It's — where is your understanding? This is what I'm seeing. Let's build on that."
He brings the same approach to his own writing, admitting openly to his students that it is hard for him too. A playwright by early training, he has since turned his hand to fiction, and is currently working on his second novel for young readers. The writing process in his classroom is built on stamina and risk-taking rather than polished final products, with room to try things, make mistakes and revise.
Grade 5 sits at a particular hinge point: the last year of Junior School before students move into the larger, more complex world of Middle School. Hawes takes that transition seriously, preparing students not just academically but for the shift in identity that comes with it. By the time they leave, most are more excited than anxious. And if the spring musical is any indication, they know what it feels like to do something hard and be ready for what comes next.
