Dear Prep Families,

The past week has been a full one with many rich learning opportunities for members of our Prep community. Our student Eco Warriors have been busy across the school, facilitating solar eclipse learning for their peers this past Monday and planning a fulsome program of activities for Earth Week (April 22-26) and introducing them in an assembly on Thursday. The theme of Earth Week is “Recycle and Live Sustainably.” We are inspired by the Eco Warrior’s passion for promoting environmental awareness and taking action for a greener future. Other highlights of this week include our Year 1 students' exploration of Norval and a Wednesday morning professional learning session for our faculty on the concept of Universal Design for Learning and strategies for engaging all our learners with external expert Katie Novak.

Students and faculty are busy preparing for student-led learning conferences. Many of you have already signed up for the conferences that will take place April 19. If you have not yet signed up, information about the conferences and instructions on how to sign up can be found among this week's entries. These conferences provide students with an authentic opportunity to reflect on and share their learning and help deepen the partnership between home and school. We look forward to seeing you.

Your partners in learning,

Julia Kinnear, David Girard and Gareth Evans

The Prep Leadership Team

Student learning surveys

It's our belief and supported by educational research that quantitative and qualitative feedback given by students to faculty on a regular basis will support and improve learning and teaching. In the interest of high quality learning and teaching at the College, we have traditionally and intermittently conducted student learning surveys where students have a chance to provide feedback on their experience in individual classrooms. Leadership teams and survey committees at the College have been working since 2021 to investigate current research and thinking on effective student learning surveys and how they can inform professional growth for teachers. Over the past two years we have been piloting student learning surveys with Panorama Education. 

The student learning survey consists of research-informed and validated questions in the areas of classroom climate, engagement, pedagogical effectiveness, rigorous expectations, and the teacher-student relationship. No demographic information is included in the survey. Last year, a group of approximately 40 Prep and Upper School teachers and their students engaged in the trial of the survey. Information and feedback from that process and trial has informed this year’s process, in which teachers and students across the Prep and Upper will participate.

Once surveys are complete, the data is anonymously presented to the individual faculty member through a secure portal. The reports will allow faculty members to reflect on the results with school leaders and colleagues to support their professional growth and may inform departmental goals.

Students will receive general information about the surveys from Form Advisers and be given an opportunity to complete them in their class at some point over a four week period from mid-April to mid-May. 

Please encourage students to share with you their experience with the survey and the information discussed. As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on this topic or others. 

Warm regards,

Julia Kinnear

Academic Dean and Head of the Prep School

Prep Earth Week 2024

The Eco Warriors are pleased to present Prep Earth Week from April 22 to 26. The theme of Earth Week is Recycle and Live Sustainably. Our team is passionate about promoting environmental awareness and taking action for a greener future. Here are a few important announcements and upcoming events for our CN Tower Climb and Earth Week:

Climb for Nature 2024 — CN Tower Climb fundraiser
Five Year 7 students and two teachers have committed to climbing the CN Tower on April 21 to fundraise for the WWF Climb for Nature initiative. To recover wildlife and slow the pace of climate change, we need to reverse nature loss. The funds we raise with your help will go toward WWF-Canada's efforts to restore nature, reverse wildlife loss and fight climate change. Your donations will amazingly support our beautiful nature and planet. Click here to donate.

Plant sale fundraising activity
We will be organizing a plant sale fundraising activity for the CN Tower Climb during morning recess for both primary and middle schoolers as a pre-Earth Week event. Another way to support our climbers is to purchase plants ($8-10 per plant) on April 12 during morning recess at the Bitove Lounge. 

E-waste drive
We are honoured to collaborate with Toronto Zoo for an e-waste drive. Let's actively participate in a recycling and reusing initiative from April 15 to 26. During this period, you can bring any e-waste to school for proper disposal and recycling. You can find the acceptable e-waste list here. 

Green way to school

Everyone is encouraged to use green methods of transportation such as walking, cycling, taking public transportation or carpooling. Students and staff who commute to the school in a carbon-friendly way from April 22 to 26 can capture your green moments and earn house points by filling in the Google form! 

More daily events are coming in Earth Week! For more detailed information and a full schedule, see the Eco Bulletin Board in the science hallway or refer to the summary table. We look forward to seeing everyone out participating in Earth Week events. Thank you all for your wonderful support. Together, we can make a real difference!

The Eco-Warriors 

and 

Ms. Crystal Yee

Science Teaching Intern, Prep

PYP Exhibition update

Year 5 students are deep into their Exhibition research. Students have written and inquired into questions connected to the key concepts of FORM, FUNCTION, CAUSATION, CHANGE, and CONNECTION and some have already tackled PERSPECTIVE and RESPONSIBILITY. 

Questions and answers are growing in complexity. Students are beginning to discover “stakeholders” who also care about the issue they are studying. This will help them as they consider the RESPONSIBILITY action-oriented questions. Questions such as: 

Who is helping? Who else can help? What organizations help? What is being done to help my issue? What can be done to solve my issue? How can we take action to help?

Students have been reflecting weekly on their learning in their SeeSaw learning logs and they are looking forward to sharing their learning and the process to date at student-led conferences next week (April 19).

In the weeks ahead, students will begin to consolidate and synthesize their learning into key findings. This will help in the creation of their group’s websites. Creating a group-developed central idea is also on the horizon.

We hope you are enjoying rich Exhibition-related conversations at home.

Remember to mark May 10 from 1–3 p.m. on your calendar as we will share learning on this day. We will host an in-person event in Weston Hall and Year 5 classrooms.

As always, should you have any questions about the PYP Exhibition, please contact your child’s form adviser or Dianne Jojic, the PYP coordinator.

Dianne Jojic

PYP Coordinator

Year 4 and 5 | Spring Garden Clubs begin soon!

The Prep Learning Garden is filled with microbe-rich soil and pollinator-friendly perennial plants that are already waking up and poking new shoots and leaves out into the warm spring air! Each growing season many varieties of annual vegetables are planted, tended to, and harvested by Prep students during curriculum-linked garden sessions throughout the school day as well as after-school garden clubs. 

All Primary students will be learning and working in the garden approximately once per cycle starting in late April. In addition to curriculum-linked garden lessons led by Dianne Jojic and other teachers during the school day, we are thrilled to be able to offer after-school garden clubs this spring! The clubs will be led by faculty members and are free of charge. 

Prep Garden clubs align with the inquiry-driven approach of the PYP program and integrate science and arts-based activities in addition to hands-on work such as weeding, digging, planting and watering. Students will spend time exploring where food comes from and discovering what it means to tend to the soil and land in an ecologically sustainable way. Garden club teachers help students to deepen critical character traits such as empathy, responsibility and risk-taking through modeling respectful and humane observation and handling of the non-human creatures that live in the garden. Parents and guardians of registered students will be invited to take part in a special harvest celebration during the final day of each club.

Year 5 Garden Club

Location:   Prep Learning Garden

Time:          Mondays, dismissal to 4:30 p.m.

Dates:            April 29, May 6, May 13, May 27, June 3 and June 10 

Year 4 Garden Club

Location:   Prep Learning Garden

Time:          Tuesdays, dismissal to 4:30 p.m.

Dates:            April 30, May 14, May 21, May 28, June 4 and June 11

Year 5 sign-up and permission form 

Year 4 sign-up and permission form

**Sign-up deadline is Friday, April 19**

We look forward to working with your children in the garden this spring!

Monika Kastelic and Dianne Jojic

Primary student-led conferences

In Primary, formal feedback of learning happens throughout the year in a variety of forms. In the form of report cards, parent-teacher conferences, three-way conferences, and student-led conferences, the partnership between home and school and the development of reflective learners is fostered.

The upcoming student-led conferences create an authentic purpose for organizational and communication skills and the structure builds students’ sense of responsibility and accountability in their learning. It also hones their understanding of what it means to meet learning goals.

We are excited to host in-person student-led conferences once again this year. Student-led conferences will be held all day on April 19, 2024. Students do not have a regular school day but do attend with their parents/guardians for their student-led conference which you can sign up for using pickAtime.

Parents and students can expect to be engaged in their student-led conference at school for approximately one hour. During this time students will facilitate a meeting with their parent(s)/guardian from start to finish using a “menu” of items featuring learning from the most recent term. 

Please note that pickAtime is available as of 9 a.m. on April 8 and will close at 4 p.m. on April 15. The time you select represents the start time for your 60-minute conference. Please be mindful of this if you are booking for siblings across divisions. For your convenience, here is a link to the pickAtime instructions.

David Girard
Assistant Head, Primary Division

Year 6 and Year 7 student-led conferences

Feedback is one of the most important tools to help students develop and grow. In addition, building strong connections among families, teachers, and students is integral to continued academic development. UCC’s Middle Division 15-minute student-led conferences with form advisers provide an opportunity for both holistic feedback and connection to take place. Details are as follows:

• Interviews for Year 6 and Year 7 students and their families will take place on Friday, April 19 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; interviews will take place in 15-minute intervals using Google Meet or in person. There are no classes for students on Friday, April 19.

• pickAtime will opened at 9 a.m. on Monday, April 8 and will close at 4 p.m. on Monday, April 15.

• pickAtime sign up details for conferences are here.

• To encourage ownership over their learning and development of self-advocacy skills, students should be present for their conferences and participate in the dialogue. Students will use their FLEXtime to prepare for their conference. Students should introduce their parents at the beginning of the conference.

• If attending virtually, please access the Google Meet link only at the time of your scheduled appointment. If attending in person, please wait outside your child’s form room until your scheduled appointment.

• If attending virtually, please use your own email address to connect. If necessary, you may use your child's UCC email address. Their email address appears on their contact card in Bluenet — for students in SK to Year 4, their password is ucc<studentaccountnumber> (e.g. ucc123456); students in Year 5 to 7 should know their password. 

• If attending virtually, you may initially be in a Google Meet ‘waiting room’ until the interview time begins and the faculty member admits you to the virtual meeting. Please keep conversations to the scheduled 15 minutes so that our faculty have time to meet with all of our Prep School families.

• There are no classes on Friday, April 19 during the student-led conferences, as students and teachers are fully involved in these meaningful conversations.

Thank you for your continued support.

Gareth Evans
Assistant Head, Middle Division

French exchange | Application and information 

We are thrilled to announce two captivating French Exchange programs with Ermitage International School in Maison Laffitte, Paris. For more details click here.

Year 7 | Second Hepatitis B/Menactra/HPV clinic

Dear Year 7 Parents,

This is a reminder on Monday, May 13, 2024, Toronto Public Health (TPH) will be holding the second Year 7 Hepatitis B/Menactra/HPV clinic at UCC in the Prep Dining hall from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

The following vaccines will be given:

• Second dose of hepatitis B and human papillomavirus vaccines to Year 7 students

• Hepatitis B, meningococcal and human papillomavirus vaccines to Year 7 and 8 students who missed the first clinic.

Please remind your son about this clinic. Also please make sure your child eats breakfast the morning of the clinic and to wear short sleeves. If your child is unwell due to fever, and cannot receive their vaccinations, please notify the Prep Health Centre as soon as possible. Any missed vaccinations that happen on the clinic date, can be made up at a later date as Toronto Public Health provides “catch up clinics” throughout the city. 

A final reminder that the Meningitis (Men-C-ACYW-135 vaccine) vaccination or a valid exemption is required for students 12 years of age and older for school attendance. If your child has not received Menactra, or it has been over five years, Toronto Public Health does recommend a booster. Hepatitis B and HPV are optional.

Additional information and consent forms can be found here:

• School immunization consent form

• Hepatitis B, Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and Meningococcal vaccine fact sheets

• Student and parent check sheet

• SIP facts and checklist

• Frequently Asked Questions

• Translation insert

Thank you all for your cooperation!

Gina Suva

Prep Health Centre ext. 4911

FINAL REMINDER | Register for the Blue Ties Breakfast

The last chance to register for the Prep Parents’ Organization Blue Ties Breakfast is on Thursday, April 18. Enjoy a pancake breakfast, participate in a fun tie-swap, be part of UCC history by signing the giant tie on our wall and have a commemorative picture taken at the photo booth!

Students are invited to bring one special guest to accompany them to this event. There is still room in the first seating of the breakfast, from 7–7:45 a.m. Please note that the later seating is now at capacity. 

Please click here to register.

DONATE | UCC staff appreciation lunch

A time-honoured tradition at UCC, the staff appreciation lunch is our school community’s way of thanking all the different staff who help make our boys’ experience at the College so remarkable. This includes teachers, administration, arena staff, housekeeping, food services and support staff. Approximately 350 staff will attend the lunch on May 29 at the William P. Wilder ’40 Arena & Sports Complex. The staff appreciation lunch is fully funded by parent donations, so please contribute by clicking here. Help make this a wonderful event for all our UCC staff! Thank you so much for your support!

DONATE | PPO used books sale 

Parents, please help with our Earth Week kick-off by donating a book to the PPO used book sale.

Did you love a book? Did it amuse?

But now it’s something you no longer use?

Sitting lonely upon your bookshelf, 

Wishing it could be read by somebody else?

Reduce your consumption—give that book away, 

So others can re-use it to brighten their day. 

Donation boxes for used books will be outside your students' classroom. Books will be collected from Friday, April 12 to Friday, April 19. The sale will be on Monday, April 22. Please donate and purchase to support sustainable living.

Thank you for your contribution.