Our School
Healthy Schools
Healthy Schools is a collaborative group that consists of teachers, students and community members coming together to improve and increase healthy living and promote healthy choices in the lives of students and their families. The Healthy Schools campaign develops a safe, clean and healthy environment for all. Further, this school committee pledges to increase physical activity, healthy food choices, and increases awareness in creating a safe, happy and welcoming school setting. By having all facets of the school incorporated and involved (staff, students, and the community itself), the Healthy Schools premise aims to and is determined to be successful in attaining their health-oriented goals.
Our on-going accomplishments:
- Extracurricular sports teams
- Skipping club
- Yoga practice
- School snack (once a week; free for all students)
- Breakfast club
- Pause to Play week
- Jump Rope for Heart
- Healthy foods bulletin board/educational information
Eco Schools
A healthy, safe and growing environment ensures a healthy, safe and growing school community that will flourish! The Eco Schools campaign aims to create, celebrate, educate and provide a school setting that thrives on concentrating on environmental issues and initiatives such as recycling, conserving energy, eliminating waste, and maintaining a clean and healthy school environment that the school community and their families can be proud of and feel healthy within. Together, we can make this world a cleaner and healthier place to live in – starting with our very own school environment.
Our on-going accomplishments:
- Silver certification in our first year
- Gold certification in the last two years
- Working towards re-certification again this year
- Participation at Eco-Camp last year and this year
- Waste reduction strategies in place such as green bins (for food waste, etc.), recycling, waste audits, Waste-Free Lunch Challenge, GOOS paper initiative
- Energy conservation strategies in place (e.g., "Lights out Lunchtime; Blackout Break-time")
- Vermi composting in the science lab
- Shade garden initiative
- Earth rangers initiative
Programs
As with each school in the York Region District School Board, H.G. Bernard P.S. supports student learning through the curriculum standards set out by the Ontario Ministry of Education and many other co-curricular activities.
Our school is involved in:
- Instructional Intelligence Training
- The Literacy Collaborative Teacher Project – Primary, Junior and Intermediate Divisions
- Action Research
- Tribes/Cooperative Learning
- Performance Plus
We are proud to offer:
- Rainbows
- Healthy Schools/Healthy Kids
- Volunteer Parent Reading Program
- Ontario Early Years Centre
- Kindergarten Orientation Program
- Special Education Programs
- Multiple Exceptionalities Class
- Student Support Centres – Primary/Junior/Intermediate
- Reading Recovery
- A Daily Breakfast Program
- ESL Programs
- Student Council
- Anger Management Programs
- The VIP(Values-Influences-Peers) Program
- An Arts Package
- Anti-Bullying Programs
- Peer Mediators
- A Wide Variety of Extracurricular Activities – Teams and Clubs
- Special Lunch and Snack Days
Safe and Supportive Schools/Character Education/Equity Education
Every student has the right to learn in a safe and supportive environment. The York Region District School Board has a Safe Schools Policy and a defined procedure to implement the policy. Both the policy and procedure support the view that student discipline involves a continuum of support including prevention, intervention and appropriate consequences.
In addition, H.G. Bernard P.S. supports the development of character education in the York Region District School Board. The following is an overview of the school's Character Education initiatives:
- Monthly Character Assemblies
- Character Recognition Awards
- Character Speakers
- Community Outreach Programs
- Peer Mediators
