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York Catholic schools often win awards for the high-quality education provided by our dedicated staff. This year, the Fraser Institute’s Awards for Excellence has highlighted the great work being done at two York Catholic schools – St. Justin, Martyr Catholic Elementary School in Unionville and St. Padre Pio Catholic Elementary School in Woodbridge.
Both schools were recently selected as Schools of Distinction in two key areas - Excellence in Language Arts and Excellence in Mathematics. The Fraser Awards – previously known as the Weston Awards for Excellence in Education, were established in 2005 in Ontario as a way to acknowledge school teams whose skill, hard work, perseverance and enthusiasm have contributed significantly to their students’ academic performance.
When selecting the schools to be honoured, the Fraser Institute thoroughly analyzes the Ministry of Education’s student results data of every school included in the Institute’s annual Report Card on Ontario’s Schools.
Overall, 2,733 schools were analyzed, with the goal of celebrating the stories of individual schools from all levels of academic achievement. Ultimately, 90 schools were selected for awards, thus representing the top one per cent of Ontario’s elementary schools.
Both St. Justin, Martyr CES and St. Padre Pio CES were recognized for Excellence in Language Arts and Excellence in Mathematics. The Excellence in Language Arts award honours school teams whose students have achieved ongoing success in developing their reading and writing skills. The Excellence in Mathematics award recognizes the school teams whose students have achieved ongoing success in developing their skills and knowledge in mathematics.
St. Justin, Martyr CES principal Susan Knetsch is proud that her school has been recognized and shares the success with her entire school community.
“Our whole school community – students, staff and parents – takes pride in being recognized for the students’ accomplishments in math and language,” said Ms. Knetsch. “Parents are always asking how they can support the school in our learning initiatives.”
St. Padre Pio CES principal Ada Marchesini is also thrilled by the school’s positive recognition.
“This is a measurable validation of all the students’ work, effort, application and investment in their learning,” said Ms. Marchesini. “This recognition is also an opportunity for teaching staff, administration and parents to understand the value in delivery of excellent education and validates their commitment and support to their students.”
Students at both schools are excited to hear about their award and the news has been shared through many venues. At St. Padre Pio CES, students celebrated the good news by sharing breakfast together.
“We celebrated this year, like we do every year, with our annual EQAO breakfast where staff provide the students with a full breakfast, which gives students the chance to celebrate and share a meal together as a community,” said Ms. Marchesini.
St. Justin Martyr CES students reflected on all their hard work by viewing a creative slideshow.
“The students know of the award and the recognition,” said Ms. Knetsch. “We announced the good news with a slideshow at our opening school assembly, as well as highlighted it in our school newsletter.”
Schools selected as Schools of Distinction are invited to the awards celebration taking place in Toronto at the end of November. During the event, they will be called up to receive commemorative certificates.
York Catholic congratulates these two schools for their excellence in education.