Our School Motto is, "Whatever It Takes!", Our Kids Are Worth It. Bendale Junior Public School is a caring community of staff, students, and parents. We are committed to promoting academic excellence in a culturally diverse setting. We adhere to the philosophy that all students can learn, by providing our students with bridges to success, supports and interventions. We encourage our children to become socially responsible citizens and, as such, two of our students have recently won the City of Toronto's ECO Awards. We are equally proud of our achievements in EQAO and credit our exemplary staff and their dedication to our success by truly believing in "Whatever It Takes" for our students to experience success.
Who We Are.....
At Bendale Junior we consider ourselves an effective school. We have a clear and focused mission, operate in a safe and orderly environment, have developed positive home school relations, function in a climate of high expectations for our learners, monitor our students' progress frequently and provide our students with many opportunities to learn. All staff are engaged in instructional leadership. We believe in teamwork, partnership, collaboration and cooperation.
Our Community
Bendale Junior Public School, a caring community school, opened in 1957. It is historically linked to the earliest settlements in the area. It is a two-storey building that contains fifteen classrooms. The facility also includes a computer lab and staff resource room. At present, we are anticipating growth in our population due to the announcement of Bendale Junior as an All Day Kindergarten site. More than 60% of our students speak English as a second language. Languages spoken at home include Cantonese, Mandarin, Tamil, Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, Vietnamese, Japanese and Russian. Our current population is 330 as compared to 185 seven years ago.
Our School Focus
Our School's Focus is to embed our school's motto of "Whatever It Takes" into all aspects of our school's operation. We are committed to promoting academic excellence by continuously building and improving our Numeracy and Literacy achievement through evidenced based instructional strategies and constructing and communicating knowledge from a variety of sources.
More Information About Bendale Junior Public School
Safe and Caring Community
At Bendale Junior we believe that it is essential to provide a safe, secure, respectful environment for all students. Our learning environment is characterized as one that is conducive to learning and our focus is on developing the presence of desirable behaviours through character education, social justice initiatives, cooperative learning, student leadership and TRIBES.
Social & Ecological Responsibility
Bendale Junior is committed to creating a better future for all of our culturally diverse students and we seek to inspire, ignite, influence and support collective, social and ecological responsibility. We do fund raising for Childhood Cancer, MS Society, Terry Fox, and Global Natural Disasters. We promote Litterless Lunches, Schools On the Move and Nature Clubs.
Assessment and School Improvement
At Bendale Junior we believe that the primary purpose of assessment is to improve learning. Through the use of obtained assessment information, teachers plan instruction and tasks to address the learning needs of all of our students. We engage in differentiated instruction and provide intervention and supports targeted to at-risk students achieving below their potential.
Additional Features
● Early Learning Program
● Reading Recovery
● Roots of Empathy
● ECO School
● Sick Kids' Empower Reading Program
● Early Reading Intervention Program
● Toronto School on the Move
● Welcome to Kindergarten
Student Life - Where You Belong
Student life at Bendale is always buzzing! We offer a wide range of co-curricular activities throughout the year - both academic and athletic. We are a Fit for Life school and promote healthy active lifestyles for both students and staff. Other activities include, but are not limited to, basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, hockey, cross-country, track and field, winter carnival, spirit days, play days, craft club, nature club and eco club. We have student leadership initiatives such as morning announcers, office, library and kindergarten helpers, playground pals, house league captains, etc. Our school choir performs for corporate events. We also believe in providing expanded and experiential learning opportunities for our students such as school trips to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Marlies, Royal Winter Fair, Royal Ontario Museum, Zoo, Science Centre and Hillside Outdoor Education Centre. This year we brought digital animation to the classrooms with Director's Cut, an animation and film production multimedia literacy experience. Our students used cutting edge technology to create their own mini-movies and claymation videos.
What Sets Us Apart
Bendale Junior Public School, a dynamic and inclusive school, is unique in its character not just because we are a high achieving, effective school but because we truly live up to our motto: "Whatever It Takes". We truly know our students' strengths and weaknesses and provide a variety of supports and interventions designed to ensure that every student is working to his/her potential. The rich, cultural diversity of our staff and students is acknowledged and celebrated. We embrace the anti-racist approach to education. We develop programs that support the physical, intellectual, emotional and social needs of the students in our care. We also emphasize the importance of social and global responsibilities in order to accentuate Character Education programs, ecological responsibility to the planet, fund raising events following global disasters and we address needs in our own community.
Parent and Community Engagement
Bendale has officially become a Community School and is now in the seventh year of its partnership with the Bendale Park Community Association and the Parks and Recreation Department. Bendale participates actively in the co-op student program from Centennial and Seneca Colleges, York University's Faculty of Education Program, OISE Masters of Teaching program as well as food drives at Christmas and Thanksgiving, etc. Our school council has active parent members. Parent volunteers assist in the classrooms and are trained in reading strategies to assist our children. Parents also provide additional supervision on field trips and at special events. Parents are highly involved in organizing events, hot dog/pizza luncheons, book fairs and festive events. Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Toronto have also partnered with us to provide mentoring opportunities for our students.
