Our School
History
Sixteenth Avenue Public School opened in 1961 and was originally named because of its location on Sixteenth Avenue, in Richmond Hill, Ontario. At the time, the attendance area served all of its kindergarten to grade eight students from Yonge Street to Leslie Street, north to the southern border of Richmond Hill and south to below #7 Highway.
In September, 1965, the school became a holding school for the Royal Orchard and Baythorn Public School attendance areas while these two new schools were being constructed.
When Royal Orchard and Baythorn Public Schools opened, Sixteenth Avenue P. S. was changed to a kindergarten to Grade six school and our grade seven and eight students were sent to Woodland Senior P. S. At that time, the enrollment dropped to just over 200 students. This small school experienced a short burst in enrollment from 1986 – 1990, when the school received 12 portables and housed over 400 students. Once Bayview Hill Elementary School opened, enrollment fell drastically, however, this drop in enrollment was short-lived due to the development that was taking place in the school’s attendance area. The population of the school swelled to over 400 students as a result of the construction of several new housing subdivisions in the area, after 1990.
Instead of renovating and enlarging the current building, the decision was made to replace the existing school building with a new structure. The school was completely demolished and a new two-story structure replaced the original six-room school and 13 portables.
The new building opened to students in the fall of 1995. Grades seven and eight were added over the next two years, followed by the introduction of junior kindergarten in 1998.
In 1999 central air-conditioning was added to the school to support the introduction of the Summer Institute, a program designed to support learning for students over the summer. Each summer hundreds of students attend the Summer Institute and take advantage of a spectacular variety of fun electives ranging from sports, arts, cooking and digital video technology, a portion of each day is also dedicated to literacy instruction.
Our school motto is "I CARE". The acronym describes our school’s plan…
C - Community Building
A - Achieving Literacy
R - Recognizing Powerful Instruction
E - Effective and safe school
Our school symbol is "Sixteenth Avenue Stars" with gold and purple colors.
Facilities
Sixteenth Avenue P.S. was officially opened in 1995. It has a beautiful entrance accented by stained glass windows. It is a full service, air-conditioned building with a child-care center, Sixteenth Avenue Child Care, owned and operated by York Professional Day Care Inc. located on site.
Programs
Sixteenth Avenue 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 a Performance Plus School with strong leadership teams; community development; early language development; multiple interventions to support healthy kids; effective teaching practices; service flexibility; high expectations; intensive support and partnerships
- promotes a safe and supportive learning environment. This is done through the Board’s Safe Schools Policy and Procedures and the Character Education Initiatives.
- provides a full range of placement Special Education Programs including:
- In-class Resource/Monitor Support
- Student Support Center
- Behavior Management/Transitional Learning Center (TLC)
- Regional Deaf Sign Class
- Community Autistic Class
- provides a before and after school program supervised by Sixteenth Avenue Child Care.
We are also very proud to offer the following programs to our students:
- Language, ESL (for English learners), Math, Science, Environmental Studies (History, Geography),Music, French (gr.4-8), Physical Education, Visual Arts ,Drama
- Roots of Empathy (K-1)
- Reading Recovery (gr.1); reading booster(gr.2-3)
- Snuggle Up and Read (Kindergartens and parents)
- Travelling Readers (Junior Readers)
- Anti-Bullying Programs (Peace, VIP)
- Junior Achievement Program
- Ongoing and informal social skills counseling (Second Steps, Snap, Issues Group)
- Extra-Curricular Activities (Sports, Clubs, Music, Drama, Art)
- Guest speakers, performances, workshops
- Curriculum-related field trips
- Summer Institute (SI summer camp)
