Prom tickets have been sold! We are very excited that more than 200 students have decided to spend the evening with us at Liberty Grand on May 26! Thank you to Ms. Halas and Mr. Oosterhoff who spent their lunches last week organizing ticket purchases and table assignments!
There week is Mental Health Week at Forest Hill and across the TDSB. Our COPE Council will be running various activities to raise awareness and support mental health. Daily activities and workshops are organized before school and at lunch for our students. Thank you to our COPE Council and Ms. Ng for all they are doing to support our students and mental health.
Please note the changes to our daily schedule this coming week:
- Wednesday, May 4 – Modified Schedule with Blocks A and C running for 2.5 hours each
- Wednesday, May 4 – OSSLT Booklet 1 for our Grade 10 students in Block A
- Thursday, May 5 – Modified Schedule with Blocks B and D running for 2.5 hours each
As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, it would be great to be able to give every student this special memento of the school yearbook. If you would like to contribute to the yearbook, please do so through School Cash Online by linking to: Forester Yearbook Donation. There were many technical challenges at our school last weekend and at the beginning of the week . If you missed last week’s newsletter, it is attached here again for your perusal. And know that the newsletter is posted each week to our website.
Eid Mubarak to all our students, families and staff who will celebrate tomorrow!
Sincerely,
Yvette Duffy, Principal Joseph Ghassibe, Vice Principal Anita Love, Vice Principal
In this issue:
- The Next Two Weeks at a Glance
- Report Card Distribution – Electronically Sent on Friday, April 29
- Respecting School Property – We Need Your Support!
- EQAO – Updates & Important Dates
- Student Council 2022/2023 – Congratulations to our Incoming Council!
- Prefects – Congrats to our Successful Candidates
- Athletic Council Elections – Important Dates
- Sports Update – Go, Falcons, Go!
- Graduating Students – Awards & Valedictorian Process
- Messages from Guidance
- Messages from School Council – Chair Tracy Kowal
- Trustee Laskin’s Weekly Updates
The Next Two Weeks at a Glance
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Keep apprised of what is happening by linking to our school year calendar which is live on our school website landing page.
Report Card Distribution – Electronically Sent on Friday, April 29
Report Cards were electronically distributed to parent and guardian emails on Friday, April 29. If you have any questions or concerns about the distribution, please reach out to VP Anita Love.
Respecting School Property – We Need Your Support!
We want Forest Hill Collegiate to be your home away from home. We hope to create a caring, welcoming and respectful community. Over the last few months, we have been working hard to clean up and repair our bathroom spaces. We feel we are doing this in vain as our washrooms are constantly being vandalized through tagging, intentionally cause flooding, along with the destruction of the stalls, toilets and sinks. Such repairs are costly and unfortunately leads to the closure of bathroom facilities. Recently, we repaired all the issues on the Ground and 100 series washrooms only to find that within a day or two of these spaces being fixed, they are being vandalized. We wish to remind students of the school’s expectations and student responsibilities. Please consider treating the school bathrooms as you would treat your own at home - that is with respect. Thank you to all our students who do this every day!
EQAO – Updates & Important Dates
Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test – OSSLT – Begins Wednesday, May 4
The Ministry of Education requires all grade 10 students to write the OSSLT and it is a mandatory graduation requirement. Remember that this test assesses grade 9 literacy skill development.
Our Grade 10 students, along with a few additional students, will write the OSSLT Booklet 1 on Wednesday, May 4 with their homeroom class in the morning instructional block. Students who do not have a grade 10 homeroom class, should have received an email from Ms. Love indicating which classroom they will be writing in on Wednesday. If your student does not know which room they have been assigned to, please reach out to VP Anita Love at anita.love@tdsb.on.ca.
Note that there are two parts to this test with the second booklet being written on Thursday, May 12 in the morning.
PISA – Program for International Student Assessment – Monday, May 16
The Government of Ontario and the Ministry of Education randomly selects schools across Ontario to participate in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) every three years. PISA measures the reading, mathematics and science skills of 15-year olds across 80 countries. This is a mandatory test and will be administered on Monday, May 16. The entire day will be allocated for the test and 53 of our grade 10s are expected to participate. Note that all other students that are not participating will continue with a regular daily schedule and classes. The parents and guardians of the 53 selected students have been notified by email from VP Anita Love.
Grade 9 Mathematics – Friday, June 24
The Government of Ontario and Ministry of Education also recently announced that all grade 9 students taking mathematics during Semester 2 will be expected to write the EQAO Grade 9 Mathematics test. Forest Hill grade 9 semester 2 math students will write the test on Friday, June 24. More information will be provided in the near future.
Student Council 2022/2023 – Congratulations to our Incoming Council!
Our 2022/2023 Student Council elections results were announced on Friday. Congratulations to the members of our team:
Co-Presidents: Carolyn M. and Ari G.
Senior Vice Presidents: Nick G.
Junior Vice President: Mehul S.
Secretary/Treasurer: Ocean W.
Events Co-Ordinator: Aliya B.
Social Justice Representative: Maha O.
Grade 10 Representative: Rami H.
Grade 12 Representative: Emmett M.
Thank you to all our students who choose to put themselves out there to run for a position. There will be many more leadership opportunities in the fall. Also a very special thank you to our Student Council members that worked hard this school year to host school events, promote happenings, and inspire school spirit!
Thank you to Ms. Pawlowski and Mr. Ghassibe for all they do to continue to support our Student Council.
Prefects – Congrats to our Successful Candidates
Thank you to all the students who participated in the application process for Prefects 2022-2023. There were many great candidates, and the selection process was challenging! As you know, the process is based on student video submission, application, and input from our teaching staff.
The list of successful candidates will be posted in the main office on Monday. Congratulations to those who were selected through this process! Unfortunately, there were many more applicants than we have positions. While Prefects are one of the larger leadership organizations in the school, we encourage students who were not selected this year to continue to seek ways of demonstrating your leadership skills and your dedication to our school community in a variety of ways in the upcoming year. Thank you to all who applied for their efforts, dedication, and passion! Thank you as well to Ms. Homatidas and Ms. McKinnon for the hours of work that goes into supporting the selection process!
Athletic Council Elections – Important Dates
Athletic Council Elections are coming up! Applications will be available on Tuesday, May 10 and will close on Friday, May 27. Athletic Council is a leadership group that is responsible for organizing various school wide events and activities. Members of the Athletic Council are the force behind school spirit! The lead on many events, run lunch time intramurals, keep score for home sports games, organize the Terry Fox Run and historically has thrown pep rallies each semester. More information will be coming from Ms. Homatidis soon! Stay tuned!
Sports Update – Go, Falcons, Go!
Badminton: Congratulations to our players who smashed it last week in the Regional Finals! Thank you to Ms. Brown who is our staff sponsor!
Baseball: Our Baseball team swings into a new season and hosted tryouts last week! Good luck to our team. Thank you to Mr. Billinghurst for coaching!
Track & Field: – Fifteen eager students showed up last week to get our Track & Field team up and running. Thank you to Ms. Pereira for organizing our students to compete this week and next!
Ultimate Frisbee: Our Ultimate team will throw down the disc this week to start the season off! Thank you to all our students who tried out and will represent the Falcons this season! And, thank you to Ms. Sooriyaganthan our team coach!
Graduating Students – Commencement Awards & Valedictorian
Commencement Awards
It’s that time of year when graduation awards applications become available to graduating students. We have four awards that are available to graduating students to apply for:
Lieutenant Governor Volunteer Award
A graduating student selected by their school’s award committee for exemplary community contribution or outstanding achievement through volunteer activity.
School Key Award
The School Key is the highest honour Forest Hill Collegiate bestows on those graduating students who have made an outstanding contribution to the school through their leadership and participation in extracurricular activities.
School Council Awards
Two graduating students are selected to receive this award. Recipients must have an excellent academic record, participated in a broad range of school activities, while also demonstrating outstanding leadership qualities and act as a role model.
School Council Award – Citizenship Awards
This award is presented annually by the School Council to two graduating students who were excellent role models demonstrating leadership skills combined with great school spirit.
All applications can be picked up on the front counter in the Main Office starting Monday, May 2 and must be submitted by Tuesday, May 31. Graduating students are encouraged to carefully read the instructions as they differ depending on the award.
Valedictorian Process – Opens Monday, May 9 and closes Monday, May 16
The Valedictorian represents the grade 12 graduating class and delivers the valedictory at commencement. Graduating students are nominated for this role and voted on by their peers.
On Monday, May 9 grade 12 students will receive an email with a Google form to complete for the Valedictorian Nomination. Students will require a staff endorsement to complete the form. Students are asked to obtain permission from the staff member before completing the form. The deadline for submission is Monday, May 16. Voting will take place on Thursday, May 19 during Grade 12 period 1 classes.
Messages from Guidance
TDSB Summer Credit Programs - eLearning, in-person and virtual options – NEW DATES
e-Learning will be offering two eLearning opportunities to obtain full credit courses during the months of July and August. All information has been posted on the TDSB e-Learning page and registration begins now on Monday, May 2 at 10:00 a.m.
Continuing Education will be offering full credit courses in-person and remotely, as well as credit recovery remotely, during the month of July. Information has been released on the July Summer School page and registration begins now Thursday, May 5 at 10:00 a.m. To learn more: check out the comparison chart of the two programs posted on the FHCI Guidance Site.
Sorry for any inconveniences around summer credit and in-person programs as there were technical issues centrally that resulted in shifting the registration opening dates; however, it appears that these issues have been resolved. Please note the new dates above.
How To Finance Your Post-Secondary Education Workshop – Tuesday, May 17 - Library
A representation from George Brown College will be speaking to our students about ways to finance their post-secondary education, applicable to both university and college. Students will learn about the OSAP applications, bursaries & scholarship opportunities, and budgeting. All students are encouraged to attend. The workshop will be held on Tuesday, May 17 at lunch in the Forest Hill library.
Alliance of Jamaican Alumni Associations Offers Annual Bursaries
The Alliance of Jamaican Alumni Associations provides graduating students of Jamaican descent with access to bursaries each year. Link to AJAA Graduates Program information sheet or this flyer to learn more about what is available this year. The application and more information can also be found at: https://www.ajaacanada.com/graduates. Application deadline: May 14, 2022.
2021-2022 Know Your Worth Scholarship Opportunity
The Know Your Worth Sub-Committee, a section of the African Heritage Month Planning Committee, is committed to encouraging and supporting graduating students of African heritage to further their post-secondary education. The 2021-2022 Know Your Worth Scholarship will offer three financial awards to graduating students valued at $2,000 each:
Kujichagulia Academic Award - Due Friday, May 13, 2022, @ 11:59pm
- All students must have an 80% average to apply
All interested applicants, please link to 2021-2022 KYW Scholarship Information.
Thank you to Ms. Ng, Mr. Oosteroff, Ms. Robles Evans for all they are doing to keep us informed about opportunities for our students and families.
Messages from School Council – Chair Tracy Kowal
Fundraising Event #2: Kernel’s Popcorn – Tuesday, May 10 in the Foyer
We are excited to announce School Council's Kernel's popcorn fundraiser. Snack bags will be available to purchase in 3 delicious flavours: Buttersalt, Low Fat Caramel and White Cheddar. Student are encouraged to join us and purchase a bag on Tuesday, May 10 in the foyer at the beginning of lunch. Quantities are limited. Cost is $2.50 per bag. Bring your loonies, toonies, quarters or debit card! Check out this poster.
Speaker Series: Tuesday, May 24 – 8:00 p.m. – Hold the Date
Dr. Robyne Hanley-Dafoe, an expert on resiliency and workplace wellness will be joining our School Council to practical strategies that help foster resiliency within ourselves and others.
Link to this flyer: FHCI Speaker Series 2022 for more details. For more information on any of the above events, contact Forest Hill's School Council Chair Tracy Kowal at tracy.kowal@yahoo.ca.
Trustee Laskin’s Weekly Updates
Learn more about upcoming events and keep informed by linking to Trustee Laskin's Weekly Newsletter.