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Since the beginning of the school existence in 1965, the teaching staff has been the greatest asset to the school’s success, longevity and prosperity. During the early years, French immersion in publicly funded schools did not exist. The French teachers at the school were and still are Francophone. They came from Quebec and other Francophone areas, i.e. France, Lebanon, and Belgium and were professionally trained and certified outside of Ontario. Like most Francophones in Canada, they are bilingual. The English teachers were and still are Anglophone. They were professionally trained and certified outside of Canada, i.e. England, Australia and the United States. The English teachers were primarily unilingual, but were encouraged to acquire some working knowledge of French. They all had university degrees, as well as teaching certification from other countries. With time, they turned their letters of standing into Ontario certification from the Ministry of Education and received permanent credentials. Our school enjoyed a very low turnover of staff every year. This resulted in a stable learning environment and is one of the main factors for the school’s success. But now many of the teachers are retiring and their replacements all must be qualified and certified by the Ontario Teachers College in order to gain employment at the school. Their replacements are young, enthusiastic, computer literate, and comfortable teaching subjects such as science and technology and they all must be knowledgeable in the new Ontario curriculum. They all must have a bachelor’s degree, and teacher’s college degree (the preschool teachers are also required to have an ECE designation). All the teachers at the school are also required to further their education towards either Masters degrees, special Education degrees, and towards designations to allow them to teach French or English as a second language. Every adult in the employ of the school is also required to provide a current clear criminal record check from the police. This is also required from secretaries, janitorial staff, and volunteers, etc. No one will be in contact with children from our school without this police background check.
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