Leadership interview with Jean-Bastien Urfels, TFS - Canada's International School
- Name
Jean-Bastien Urfels - Title
Head of School
Jean-Bastien Urfels, Head of School at TFS – Canada's International School, shared his perspective on the school's pioneering spirit, multicultural community, strong family partnerships, student leadership, and culture of lifelong learning. He reflected on how TFS fosters curiosity, embraces diversity as a source of strength, and empowers students to challenge themselves, engage meaningfully with others, and grow into globally minded individuals within a close-knit and supportive community.
Video Contents
- 0:52 - Please describe your professional journey leading up to your current role at Toronto French School.
- 2:06 - What have been some of the major influences on you and how you approach your work?
- 3:42 - What resonates most strongly with you about the history and mission of Toronto French School?
- Show Full Video Contents
Highlights from the interview
It's a permanent learning opportunity that Toronto and TFS bring. Having the opportunity to constantly, if you open your eyes and ears, learn from other people's journeys, I would say it's not only a past inspiration, it's a permanent inspiration, a daily inspiration for me… It takes a little bit of curiosity, of course, but I would say that this is precisely the mindset that we are trying to build with our students.
I would say that TFS defines itself as a pioneer school in many aspects. It has the audacity to create an offering for a French education within a non-Francophone environment.
We're really proud not only to witness this diversity but to continually draw from it to inspire our next steps. This is something that is truly unique because we are not only in a diverse environment, but we are in an environment that continually cultivates diversity and takes pride in that diversity.
We always refer to TFS as a family. Sometimes that sounds surprising because we've reached a respectable size for a school. We have more than 1,500 students, so one could say it's a large school.
We have a very important mission to educate those children through these values, and we do that with the parents. We cannot do it without them. It's a strong partnership, and we do it as a family.
We're constantly putting ourselves outside of our comfort zone. We're challenging ourselves, and when I say ourselves, I mean parents, students, and staff alike, on a permanent basis.
We value student engagement. We have assemblies, for example, and most of our assemblies are student-led. Even when it comes to very serious topics, we want students to share their experiences and lead those assemblies. We are here to facilitate that level of engagement because they learn a lot from it.
I think that's one of my best memories at TFS: the 60th anniversary year. It was a whole year because we celebrated throughout the entire school year. It was a celebration of who we are, the pride of being part of this community, and that strong sense of belonging.
At the end of the day, when students are graduating, it's the culmination of the efforts that began when they first entered the school, sometimes at two or three years old.
- Conflict is an opportunity for learning, and that's what we always have to keep in mind when we deal with conflict.
Conflict is an opportunity for learning, and that's what we always have to keep in mind when we deal with conflict.
