Wednesday, October 19, 2016 OPENING OF AGM CHAIR’S REPORT (2015-2016) I am Tim Thorsteinson, the Chair of the Board of Directors, and it is my honour to present the Board’s Annual Report for the 2015-2016 academic year during which we celebrated our 50th anniversary. Enrolment at The York School remains strong from JK-Grade 12. Over the 2015-2016 recruitment cycle, The York School experienced a surge in inquiries with an overall increase of 50%. This has translated to a 32% increase in new student enrolments growing from 125 to 165 new students (as of September 30, 2016), leading to the highest number of new students in a recruitment cycle. In Year 2 of our Strategic Enrolment Plan, The York School has continued to increase its reach across the city as a result of a targeted marketing campaign. As of September 30, 2016, our overall school enrolment is a historic high of 636. With a long-term goal to reach an overall enrolment of 650 students, we continue to strategize and execute our enrolment strategy. Despite a crowded marketplace, our Admissions team has managed to reach full capacity in our four key entry grades (JK, Grade 1, Grade 7 and Grade 9). 2015/16 has been a very eventful year for the Premises Committee. In November 2015, we received approval from the City of Toronto to begin our $14.4M renovation. Our renovation is divided into two main phases; the first being the building of the Flex Space under the gym and the renovation of select classrooms on Levels 3 and 4. This was completed on time and on budget for school start in September 2016 and makes it possible for the school to continue operating throughout 2016-2017 in a condensed footprint. The second phase of renovation began in June 2016 and is expected to be fully complete by September 2017. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I thank the entire York School community for their ongoing support of the school’s mission through fundraising and community relations. Particularly notable was the successful launch of the Fast Forward Capital Campaign to support the landmark renovation of the Middle and Senior School. The Board of Directors fully embraced this campaign, reaching 100% participation. Through the introduction of the 1320 Challenge, parents and staff demonstrated their commitment to the project. Overall, a total of $3M was raised towards the $5M capital campaign goal in 2015-2016. Additionally, parents supported the Annual Fund, raising $166,000 with every dollar raised going to enhancing the student experience at The York School. Thanks to The York School Parents’ Association (YPA), the York International Parents (YIP) and the York Alumni Association (YAA) for their commitment to engaging The York School’s community. The Annual Night on the Town was, by all measures, a resounding success. Thanks to a dedicated and hard-working Committee, I am pleased to report that the well-attended 2016 Night on the Town raised $75,000 (net) for the Fast Forward Capital Campaign. The graduating class of 2015-2016 was a record high with 73 students matriculating. Our graduating students achieved the best-ever average of 34 points on our IB Diploma results, with one student scoring an impressive 43 out of 45 points. The graduating average of 34 points is well above the world average of 30.07. For the first time, our Grade 11 students and parents attended a beginning-of-the-year, all-day retreat to help them prepare for the Diploma Programme. They ended the year strongly, with 2/5ths of the students on the Head’s List (overall average of 90% or better). These students submitted 530 applications to various programs at universities around the world. 24% of the class applied to US colleges while 8% applied to UK/ EU universities. In all cases, students received one or more offers of admission to top ranked post-secondary institutions in both Canada and elsewhere. In Canada alone, our students were admitted to all six of Canada’s most competitive programmes, such as McMaster’s Health Sciences program that has a 4.3% acceptance rate. More than $1,000,000 in Entrance and Scholarship Awards have
been offered to our students. 35% of grads are heading into STEM programs while 14% are entering business/ commerce programs. 46% of this year’s graduates entered liberal arts/humanities programs at university. Queen’s, McGill, UBC, Western and University of Toronto continued to be the most popular destinations for our students. International destinations of our graduates included 15 distinct universities. Our focus for the 2015-2016 academic year was to develop more focused and robust student wellness programming. Aligning with our Strategic Plan, there was a strengthened commitment to meeting the needs of the whole student in all three divisions. With the appointment of an all-school Director of Student Wellness, Elissa Kline-Beber, we had an opportunity to articulate a comprehensive vision of student wellness which includes helping students develop effective strategies to manage the well-documented rising rates of childhood and adolescent stress and to foster increased resilience and balance in our students’ lives. In all three divisions, there was emphasis on SEL (social-emotional learning) programming. The mindfulness programme at the Junior School is well entrenched. The new Junior School Counsellor delivered SEL lessons as part of the PYP curriculum to all grade levels on a weekly basis. The Middle School Counsellors also delivered bi-weekly programming which was a key aspect of the Middle School Advisor programme, and is integral to the new Middle School Homeroom programme (launched in the 2016-2017 academic year). This was the second year of the Senior School Advisor programme which is predicated on the belief that Senior School students will benefit from an enduring relationship with a consistent adult mentor. This preventative programming is in addition to the school-wide programming (i.e. mental health week) and counselling support all three counsellors provide. In an effort to engage the critical voice of parents in our vision of student wellness, we worked to align our parent engagement programmes, such as our evening with Dr. Leonard Sax author of “The Collapse of Parenting” and our mindful parenting presentations with Gail Saifert. Our vision of student wellness was consolidated by our participation in the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s “Making Caring Common” Program. This programme allowed us to further craft our strategic vision of student wellness for the next three years and to develop our staff professional development theme of “Relationships Matter” for the 2016-2017 academic year. Senior School highlights include a new “Urban Design” unit that had our Grade 9 students exploring Regent Park and Alexandra Park and presenting their designs for the latter neighbourhood to a panel of experts. We also developed an interdisciplinary unit focused on climate change for Grade 10 Science and World Issues. We enhanced the curriculum in both Grade 9 and 10 with successful Challenge Week trips to Squamish, B.C., Alberta, Killarney Park, Quebec, Newfoundland, New Orleans, Silicon Valley, Montreal and Toronto. Teachers were able to complete the transfer of our curriculum documents to the much more resourceful platform, Rubicon Atlas, and benefited from having their assessment of Personal Projects moderated by the IBO. We continued our focus on the assessment of Learning Skills. The Junior School completed a review of Primary Years Programme to align the Grade 1 through 5 Units of Inquiry with the Ministry of Education for Ontario Curriculum expectations. A specific focus was on science stands to better prepare students as they transition to the Middle School. Students also were encouraged to take on more ownership of their learning by participating in 3-way conference pilot in Grades 3 to 5. Positive feedback from surveys supported this model of conferencing for the official Parent Teacher Interviews to follow in the next school year. An increased interest in metrics saw the first implementation of the provincial assessment, EQAO, in Grade 3 to ascertain the effectiveness of teaching and learning in the areas of mathematics, reading and writing at the primary level. Results will be released in September 2016 and will help determine the school improvement plan. Our academic focus in the Middle School continues to be teaching the skills (focus, engagement, time and material management, organization) to be effective learners. Professional development around the teaching, assessing and recording of learning skills was undertaken by all faculty to advance best school practices in teaching how to learn.
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Student centered and experiential learning continued to be a central area in the planning and delivery of curriculum. For example, in Grade 6 students study Mathematics and Science to develop a well-rounded understanding as they study flight; in Grade 8, students engage in a STEM project that combines design principles and science as they design a functional hydraulic device. Each grade enjoyed between four to eight excursions over the school year, including visits to the Hamilton Warplane museum, ROM, Necropolis cemetery, Ontario Legislative Assembly, MacKenzie House, Variety Village and the Mansfield ski centre, to name a few. Culminating the school year was a subject-specific Challenge Week trip in each grade that solidified the concepts or skills acquired throughout the year. Academic achievements in the June report reveal 18% of students earned the Head’s List designation (90% or higher), 31% of students earned Principal’s List (85-89%) and 31% of students earned Honor Roll (80-84%). In the Junior School, 97% of the student body participated in at least one athletic programme during the school year. In the Middle School, 69% of the students enjoyed one athletic programme and in the Senior School 60% of the student body participated in a Gladiator Athletics programme. In 2015-2016, The York School offered 50 competitive teams from U10 to Senior level. Although a great deal of our participation took place in the competitive arena, a solid recreational programme for students for both campuses was implemented. The Athlete Institute, the Wellness Project, and the Running Clinics have all been solid successes for our athletic programme. The Strategic Plan developed for athletics in 2014 is helping guide our decisions. Though not the purpose of our programme, Gladiator Athletics still brought home a record six CISAA championships in 2015-2016. The Learning Innovation and Technology commitment to our community continued at all levels. In the Junior School, we continued our JK/SK Teacher iPad project in which our teachers capturing learning artifacts and moments throughout the year. Using a cloud-based software called Kaymbu, teachers create digital learning portfolios for each student and share them with the parents. The Junior School one-to-one Chromebook programme moved into Grade 3 with rave reviews and allowed for deeper and more time efficient technology integration across the Units of Inquiry. The Grade 5 Exhibition was completely paperless and enabled by Hapara Teacher Dashboard. This technology allows for real-time monitoring of student learning, collaboration and participation in the Google Apps for Education ecosystem. Another iPad class set was also deployed to the Grade 1 and 2 teams, allowing for new explorations in those spaces. New wireless access points were also deployed along with overall bandwidth upgrade resulting in better and faster connectivity for our students. In the Middle and Senior Schools an iPad Incubator Project was devised with our PHE teachers. Our second year of Hapara Teacher Dashboard along with a shift to school wide “Google Drive Sync” are an exciting evolution of the York School teaching and learning toolkit. Staff now have unprecedented insight into student workflow and can give feedback in faster and more authentic ways. Students benefit with the “real time” backup capabilities found with Sync, making their work more secure. Our school is financially sound, has increased enrolment, has 100% placement rates at exceptional universities, surpasses the world average in IB Diploma results, manages to provide exceptional academics while maintaining a strong focus on the health and wellness of our students. The 50th anniversary was celebrated with a nod to the past and a view to the future with the completion of phase one of our renovations. It was in all respects a successful year. I thank the Board members for their service and support this year and congratulate Conor Jones, Head of School, the Executive Team and the entire staff for their hard work and dedication this year. Tim Thorsteinson, Chair of the Board
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