Interview with The York School PARENT, Mitch Green
Mitch, parent of two students at the York School, shares his perspective on the school. He praises the school's nurturing community and holistic approach to education. He highlights the excellent teaching quality, the diverse extracurricular activities, sometimes initiated by students, and the inclusive and diverse atmosphere. Mitch appreciates the school's efforts to involve parents in a comprehensive educational experience, promoting both academic excellence and individual growth in students.
Highlights from the interview
Our children responded positively to their experience at the York School very early on. From the first day they arrived, they were welcomed by other students who had been there for years before, as well as other new entering students in Grade 7. It gave them confidence to express themselves in the classroom and outside.
Each year has brought something new, in terms of their achievements and progress, and that's been great to see. Our children have been at the York School for almost five years. One year, they might be working on large projects that pushed them to achieve something that they'd never done before, like an in-depth analysis or a lengthy paper. Other years, the achievement was in the sports arena. They both participate in the basketball team and have had success there. Other times it was things like student council. They have had opportunities to use the tools they've learned inside the school to really become better citizens.
The teaching quality at the York School is excellent, but the school also goes out of the way to really encourage deeper connectivity. That could mean visiting with kids outside of office hours, checking on them, having a trusted adult in the school from the faculty. Our experience with the teachers and administration has been positive.
The teachers are really encouraged to understand what these children are about, what makes them tick, and to facilitate their learning experience accordingly. The administration places teaching at the top. I know it's a goal of the administration to ensure that York attracts, retains, and develops the best teachers in the city, and it's evident in their decision-making as they achieve that.
What I appreciate most about the York School is their objective to ensure that the parents are involved in the holistic approach to educating the child. Academic excellence is a huge part of it, but they're also constantly encouraging parents to ensure that their child is engaged, reporting back on a semester basis with each teacher, truly understanding your child,what gets them motivated. When there's challenges, we aren’t just looking at the symptom but trying to get to the deeper issue that needs to be resolved. They want that child to be as holistic as possible in their educational experience.
I'd say the biggest surprise at the York School was learning that the diversity of extracurricular offerings is often initiated by the students or by a student-teacher collaboratively. For example, there was some interest by a student and some of the teachers to start a mountain biking club and there it went. It started and my daughter participated and had a terrific time. And it was important for us that the school have a balance of both academic excellence and a wide extracurricular program.
The York School really focuses on making the community inclusive, not just from a gender perspective, but from many other aspects of diversity, equity, and inclusivity. There's a lot of initiatives at the student level, at the faculty level, at the administration level, to ensure that these objectives are achieved.
One of the things I like best about the York School is there is no typical family. We have a wide variety of ethnicities, people from Toronto, the GTA, other parts of Canada. Having perspectives from other parts of the world and their children really enriches the community.
We have twins, a boy and a girl, and we limited our choices to co-educational or gender-inclusive schools in the Central Toronto community. We were choosing independent schools after our kids were to complete their Grade 6 in the public school system.
Three reasons I recommend York School is it provides the most holistic and well-rounded, gender-inclusive education in the city of Toronto.
My advice to new families searching for an independent school is to really dig into how resources are allocated, whether it's to teaching or extracurricular facilities. Most schools will have some priorities there and will be open about it. The second layer is understanding how those resource priorities fit with your children's interests.
