The parent-led group People for Education has released their analysis of school closures and declining enrollment in Ontario schools. The full report, a 14 page PDF, finds that nearly 200 schools are slated for closing and another 163 are under review. A recent Globe and Mail article looks at the effect low birth rates have [...]
Cheryl Jackson on Full Day Kindergarten
13/11/2009 By Leave a Comment
I’ve written before about the prospect of full day kindergarten in Ontario, and now we know that the province plans to offer the new program to 35,000 children by next fall, with all children able to head to school all day in five years. Cheryl Jackson, over at TVO Parents, juxtaposed Ontario’s decision to increase [...]
To Vaccinate or Not: The Great H1N1 Debate
12/11/2009 By 3 Comments
I was thinking about the next topic to cover in this space and realized that I haven’t yet brought up the H1N1 vaccine and whether or not parents should choose to have their children immunized. It’s a decision I’ve personally struggled with and one, based on my conversations with other parents and teachers, that a [...]
Aviva Community Fund and Stairway To Reading
10/11/2009 By 1 Comment
The Society for Quality Education (SQE), self-described as “a charitable organization dedicated to the significant improvement of student learning in Canada,” offers a free remedial reading resource, to be used by parents and teachers with their children and students. The program, Stairway to Reading (or sign up to help SQE assess program effectiveness), is a [...]
Trick or Treat: $5,000 for African Village Well
30/10/2009 By Leave a Comment
Most kids embark on Halloween intent on getting as much loot – candy – as possible, with high hopes and lofty dreams for sugar highs and the largest piles of candy. For Logan and Mary Jones, trick or treating began in early October, knocking on doors as part of Trick or Treat for UNICEF, the [...]
Public Boys-Only School Coming to Toronto?
22/10/2009 By 1 Comment
Schools for boys is not a new concept, but the recommendation for an all-boys public school is going to face rough waters on its path to implementation. Toronto’s public school board’s director of education, Chris Spence, is proposing “hundreds of boys-only classes and an all-boys elementary school,” a move that may prove to be very [...]
