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The "School District" question

AnnetteMeetsJane said:
(I came in at the tail-end of the Winchester reorganisation and I don't remember the ins and outs of why it happened, but I believe that it was done with a view to accommodating FDK and FI. It was very acrimonious and lessons were learned. I
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I remember it well. Pulling my kids out of Winchester was one of my smartest moves as a parent. One of my kids has now graduated from FI in the Beaches and is at Riverdale Collegiate in the FI program, with the other kid to follow. Riverdale is a fantastic school, with no mid-entry, meaning that the kids you start with in Grade 9 are the same kids you graduate with, no exceptions. The benefit is you get a family-like community, and Riverdale has in an academically focused demographic, with the added benefit of an excellent music and extracurriculars.

And I never had to sell my home in my favourite neighbourhood, move or fib.
 
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Admiral Beez said:
I remember it well. Pulling my kids out of Winchester was one of my smartest moves as a parent. One of my kids has now graduated from FI in the Beaches and is at Riverdale Collegiate in the FI program, with the other kid to follow. Riverdale is a fantastic school, with no mid-entry, meaning that the kids you start with in Grade 9 are the same kids you graduate with, no exceptions. The benefit is you get a family-like community, and Riverdale has in an academically focused demographic, with the added benefit of an excellent music and extracurriculars.

And I never had to sell my home in my favourite neighbourhood, move or fib.
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I didn't know that Riverdale had FI. My child goes to FI in the Riverdale system but after Earl Grey middle school, we have to go to Malvern in the Beach for high school.

ETA: I just realized that Riverdale is a pathway for grade 4 and 7 FI entry but not for SK FI entry. There are now too many kids in the SK entry in east Toronto to be accommodated at Malvern - I think they're going to have to do something about this within the next 5 years, imo. I keep hearing EY Collegiate but nothing seems to be happening.
 
Bernoulli said:
I didn't know that Riverdale had FI. My child goes to FI in the Riverdale system but after Earl Grey middle school, we have to go to Malvern in the Beach for high school.

ETA: I just realized that Riverdale is a pathway for grade 4 and 7 FI entry but not for SK FI entry. There are now too many kids in the SK entry in east Toronto to be accommodated at Malvern - I think they're going to have to do something about this within the next 5 years, imo. I keep hearing EY Collegiate but nothing seems to be happening.
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My wife and I went to Malvern CI in the late 1980s, so did my mother in the 60s. It's a good school too.
 
This writer is working on his PhD in educational policy and seems to be anti- a few things such as FI and standardized testing.

I have my child enrolled in French Immersion but I have no expectations that she graduate from high school in FI. I just want her to have an early introduction to second language and an additional challenge in school. Personally, I took core French in school through grade 12 and cannot speak a sentence even though I received good grades (in the mid-80s) and with FI, my elementary-aged child can actually speak French. I don't think it a failure of the system that not everyone graduates from FI and I don't think you can measure success this way.

Regarding subject matter gaps - this statement confuses me as doesn't the FI curriculum cover the same subject matter as the English curriculum? I guess they're talking about the quality of the teachers? Our experience with the FI teachers has been quite good but maybe it's not in some areas of the province.

I do agree there is streaming even though in the TDSB every students has the option of attending FI. However, there are grade 4 and grade 7 entry points for kids who don't enter in SK.

We do have to bus (past two other FI schools) to get to our designated FI school but the TDSB didn't guarantee we could go to a school in our neighbourhood. The length of the bus route was an issue for some parents in our neighbourhood as the kids that get on near the beginning are on the bus for a long time (it was close to an hour at one point).
 
Our local English elementary school is rated in the top quarter of TDSB schools, with test scores below standard in the last 5 years ranging from 18.0 - 22.9%.
Our local French immersion school is rated in the bottom half of TDSB schools, with test scores below standard in the last 5 years ranging from 29.6 - 43.4%.

Plus, the French immersion school happens to be on the other side of a major thoroughfare. Thus, we have elected to keep our kids in the English school.

EDIT:

Heh. I just realized that this thread is old enough to include posts from me before I had kids. :D

BTW, since moving here, I have noticed that local real estate agents do mention in this area the homes are within the school district for the above English school. It's a real selling point it would appear. Top 25% isn't exactly a stellar rating, but good enough to impact the way homes are advertised.

I was also surprised how strict the school was for identification for the application process. I don't know how consistent this is across the province, but at this school you needed the ID plus multiple original copies of utility bills etc. to confirm the address. Apparently there have been several attempts by parents out of the district trying to register their kids in this school, by providing fake documents. Again, this is a not a top 10 school or anything like that. It's a top quarter school, out of 2900 schools.
 
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Eug said:
I was also surprised how strict the school was for identification for the application process. I don't know how consistent this is across the province, but at this school you needed the ID plus multiple original copies of utility bills etc. to confirm the address. Apparently there have been several attempts by parents out of the district trying to register their kids in this school, by providing fake documents. Again, this is a not a top 10 school or anything like that. It's a top quarter school, out of 2900 schools.
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The TDSB has really cracked down on optional attendance and yes, I believe this is to prevent the better students from attending what are perceived to be "better" schools and leaving the students with challenges at neighbourhood schools. They also rotate principals around a lot (I've heard they don't like a principal to stay more than 5 years) and because of principal rotation, teachers tend to move fairly often as well. People still manage to fake their addresses though.

So East York Collegiate is supposed to get FI in the near future. The pathways from Clairlea and DA Morrison middle school are now to EYCI. Interesting that students attending RH McGregor elementary and Cosburn middle school, both of which are in the EYCI immediate neighbourhood, still have the Leaside High School pathway.
 
Eug said:
I was also surprised how strict the school was for identification for the application process. I don't know how consistent this is across the province, but at this school you needed the ID plus multiple original copies of utility bills etc. to confirm the address. Apparently there have been several attempts by parents out of the district trying to register their kids in this school, by providing fake documents. Again, this is a not a top 10 school or anything like that. It's a top quarter school, out of 2900 schools.
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Bernoulli said:
The TDSB has really cracked down on optional attendance and yes, I believe this is to prevent the better students from attending what are perceived to be "better" schools and leaving the students with challenges at neighbourhood schools.
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My wife works in a high school office and often tells me of the lengths parents go to fraudulently gain admittance to her school. Some will claim their kid resides with grandparents or other extended family in the catchment area. Divorced or separated parents try this too, claiming that the kid lives in the area, when in fact they live with the other parent outside of the area. Others will "forget" to advise the school that they've moved out of the area. And then there's the extreme cases where some will rent a room or apartment nearby and switch their lease, bills and utilities to this address, never with any intention of living there, only to cancel the lease once admitted.

Note on all of these tricks, they almost never work, you will get caught, and harm your kid in the process. The sad part is when my wife and her colleagues catch this deception later on during their regular catchment area checks, and they have to pull a kid out of the middle of grade nine or higher grades and do a mandatory transfer to their correct school. Even VPs and teachers have tried to get the rules bent for their kids, but they get the same treatment. I remember my wife facing down a department head with fraudulent documentation, who actually resided out of the catchment area and angrily demanded their kid attend the school. None shall pass.

Now, please refrain from quoting the above and asking how the school knows who has custody, or where you live, or when you moved, etc., etc. I don't know the process and wouldn't share it anyway, no purpose in helping perpetrate a fraud or deception.
 
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In a somewhat related vein, do the kids of the teachers at a particular school get priority to attend that school if they actually live outside of the catchment? I know of a teacher who teaches at a certain school and their child also attends that school. I also know with certainty that they don't live in that catchment.
 
Schools that aren't at capacity will usually admit students that aren't in the catchment plus schools with daycares will usually admit daycare students. In fact, if you don't want to attend the school in your catchment, registering at the daycare at the school you want to attend can usually get you into the school. The daycare at the school in my catchment recently stopped admitting out-of-catchment pre-schoolers. When the school was below capacity, they didn't have any problems but recently, with the school at capacity, kids in the catchment couldn't get daycare and they felt obligated to accept daycare kids into the school that lived out of catchment.

I believe both principals involved have to sign that they agree to optional attendance. Teachers are probably more likely to try it given the logistics.
 
James said:
In a somewhat related vein, do the kids of the teachers at a particular school get priority to attend that school if they actually live outside of the catchment? I know of a teacher who teaches at a certain school and their child also attends that school. I also know with certainty that they don't live in that catchment.
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My wife says no. Teachers have no pull on enrollment decisions, and any attempt will quickly get the teacher reported by the office staff to the VP. Now, of there’s spaces for optional attendance, then a teacher may have an in with the process, but not not it’s a closed school.
 
Speaking of under capacity schools, it’s notable how much enrollment has dropped at Central Tech. Back in the late 90s they had over 2,000 kids, attracted to programs like aircraft mechanics, combined with its high number of last resort transfers of thugs and wannabe gangsta kids. How it’s down to less than 1,000 kids.
 
Bernoulli said:
Schools that aren't at capacity will usually admit students that aren't in the catchment plus schools with daycares will usually admit daycare students. In fact, if you don't want to attend the school in your catchment, registering at the daycare at the school you want to attend can usually get you into the school. The daycare at the school in my catchment recently stopped admitting out-of-catchment pre-schoolers. When the school was below capacity, they didn't have any problems but recently, with the school at capacity, kids in the catchment couldn't get daycare and they felt obligated to accept daycare kids into the school that lived out of catchment.

I believe both principals involved have to sign that they agree to optional attendance. Teachers are probably more likely to try it given the logistics.
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Admiral Beez said:
My wife says no. Teachers have no pull on enrollment decisions, and any attempt will quickly get the teacher reported by the office staff to the VP. Now, of there’s spaces for optional attendance, then a teacher may have an in with the process, but not not it’s a closed school.
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Thanks for the responses. I was just curious if there was some sort of guaranteed admission in place for the children of teachers who choose to teach at that particular school. I don't believe the school is at capacity, so it seems fair that additional students outside of the catchment would possibly be admitted as well.
 
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