Annette Street Public School is located in the Bloor West/Junction/High Park community. The original east building was constructed in 1886 and the west wing was added in 1960. The school has an enrolment of approximately 502 students and offers Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8 programs. Annette shares the facilities (including the library, gym, computer lab and playground) with High Park Alternative School. It also shares space with Junction Daycare and is connected to the Annette Community Centre, which is operated by Toronto Parks and Recreation Department. At Annette Street Public School, we work to create a safe, caring and stimulating environment where students, staff and those in our community are valued as unique individuals.
The Annette Community
Annette Street PS is a highly collaborative community of learners. Teachers participate in Professional Learning Communities" that provide valuable opportunities for professional dialogue, curriculum planning and the moderated marking of student assessment tasks. Curriculum delivery is focused on engaging each child in ways that foster achievement, and includes many interactive and "hands-on" experiences, such as Scientists in the School, Author Visits, Visiting Artists, performances, excursions and sports activities. Parents volunteer both in and out of class, and fundraise to support our many extracurricular events and activities.
More Information About Annette Street Junior and Senior Public School
We are a Gold EcoSchool!
Annette Street P.S. has been able to achieve Gold EcoSchool status through the efforts of a dedicated group of staff, students and parents with a commitment to the conservation and sustainability of our environment. With funding from a number of sources, they have engaged in special initiatives, such as the "Ghost River" project, celebrating the now-hidden Wendigo Creek. Along our eastern fence, the colourful fish and glass mosaics created by students and installed by teachers and parents, remind us every day of the history flowing beneath our schoolyard!
Sports
Students at Annette are offered the opportunity to engage in a wide variety of team and tournament sporting events, including cross-country, track and field, soccer, volleyball, basketball, and swimming. House league activities coached by teachers and senior students are a feature for youngsters in primary grades.
The Garden Club
Teachers, students and parents from both Annette Street PS and High Park Alternative School are active in the Garden Club. Our planting beds have grown to include vegetables, fruits and herbs that are cultivated and harvested for use in the teaching/learning process. Our outdoor "teaching circle" provides the perfect venue for instruction!
Extra-curricular Opportunities
There are many extra-curricular clubs and activities to engage our students. Junior students love to perform as part of the "JJs", our skipping group that is coached by former Annette teacher, Margaret Grainger. Special Events In winter, our students enjoy daily themes of "Spirit Week". We come together in the spring for our Annual Spring Fair, hosted and organized by our wonderful parent volunteers. In June, our senior students always look forward to their annual trip to Montreal.
Student Life - Where You Belong
Annette Street Public School offers a wide range of opportunities for students at all levels to engage in events and activities that meet their developing academic, social, emotional and physical needs. Our choirs enjoy vocalizing at our school concerts and community events. Itinerant music teachers offer instruction to both Junior and Senior students in Band and Strings. Opportunities to engage in sports activities are many and varied. This year the members of our soccer, basketball and volleyball teams acquitted themselves well, both as athletes and team players. A plethora of extra-curricular clubs, student support teams such as Peer Mediators, and ad hoc groups organized in response to local or global concerns, and led by teachers and parents working together, provides our children with activities that are both engaging and challenging, allowing them to discover their interests and develop their strengths, both as learners and members of a concerned, involved and giving community.
What Sets Us Apart
In recent years, we have made a commitment to improve access to technology for all students. All classrooms have networked computers, and we recently upgraded our technology even more with our acquisition of $25,000.00 worth of new laptops, ipads, ipods and digital cameras, as well, most of our classrooms have a Smartboard. This cutting-edge technology facilitates whole-class instruction through enhanced student focus and interactive learning. The acquisition of assistive software programs such as Read and Write Gold (with voice-to-text and text-to-voice capability), Inspiration (graphic organizers) has provided students with special needs, enhanced ability to access the curriculum and to demonstrate what they have learned. This technology enhances inclusivity through differentiated instruction that engages students in a manner that best suits individual learning styles.
Parent and Community Engagement
At Annette, parents are encouraged to be partners with staff to facilitate the educational, emotional, physical and social development of their children. Parent volunteers often assist in classrooms, on field trips, at co-curricular activities and during sporting events. We have an active School Council that oversees many fundraising events to support the implementation of school-wide and classroom enrichment activities. Annette Street staff and students benefit from community relationships with the Annette Public Library, Toronto Parks and Recreation, Toronto Police Service, Public Health, Secondary co-op students, and Teacher/ECE/CYW candidates from OISE/UT, UOIT, York University, Ryerson University, George Brown College and other post-secondary institutions. Our partnership with Junction Day Care allows for a seamless transition to regular school for many of our young students.
