Grad 2025   The Iconic Attic Signing

by Linda Baker, VHS 1969

Vic High students look forward to signing the attic – some throughout their four years at the school – and to leaving their mark for generations to come. It’s the last thing they do, on the afternoon of the last day at school. Undergrads have all left the building, as they mount the stairs to the fourth floor stairs to the attic. They sign up ahead of time for their time slot, and are greeted by Vic High Alumni volunteers presenting them with a Vic High pin. This year, 83 of them joined the Alumni – now that they’re former students and eligible to belong.

Signing the attic has become the iconic grad activity, one that a few grads in earlier years only did quite surreptitiously. Then there’s those who never knew about the ‘Vic High attic’, all 22,000 square feet of it, and still haven’t been up there. In my day, if you were on the Decorating Committee, you worked on posters and things up in the attic, alongside old desks and rusty artifacts, surrounded by autographs and drawings left by students over the decades. There’s stories of students sneaking up there to smoke, some even telling tales of exiting the attic up onto the roof.

Thankfully Fergie Andison, VHS 1968, volunteered his time and his fancy cameras over four successive summers to take photos and videos of every part of our school, including the attic. He lives in Chemainus, but his dedication to Vic High was so strong he’d drive down and back every day he could get into the school. Most of those summers, we were all worried Vic High would be torn down in favour of a new building. So Fergie was determined to document every aspect of the school as fully as he could. Others have made videos during tours of the attic. Click here for an attic video and photos (they download a bit slowly so be patient)

Meanwhile, here’s some photos of alumni and some  2025 grads on Attic Signing day.