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The University of Toronto Schools ( 1910 -) is an independent Secondary School in downtown Toronto, Canada .


ADMISSIONS

Most students enter in Grade 7 through a two-stage competitive examination. The first stage consists of a multiple choice exam; those who are in the top percentiles (approximately 200) are invited back for a written exam and an interview. Ultimately 120 candidates are chosen from more than 800 applicants each year. For admission in subsequent grade levels, applicants are admitted through a less formal, albeit still rigorous, process. Candidates must be Canadian citizens or landed immigrants and may apply to enter either Grade 7 or the upper school (Grade 9 and up).


ACADEMICS

UTS is attended by students from grades 7 through 12, with approximately 104 students per grade in classes graduating before 2009, and 120 in classes graduating thereafter.

UTS is well known for its enriched courses and specialized curricula, which are designed to challenge and educate at a higher level than at most public and many independent schools. Because potential UTS candidates are required to pass a rigorous entrance examination to attend the school, its curriculum is accelerated on the assumption that its students assimilate information faster. For this reason several higher-grade subjects are taught at lower grade levels. For example, Grade 10 students can take an enriched version of Ontario’s Grade 11 courses in introductory physics, biology, and/or chemistry. As well, effort is made to enrich classes with extra material and more in-depth discussions.

UTS offers Advanced Placement courses, but does not have an International Baccalaureat program. In addition to the Ontario Secondary School Diploma , graduates earn a UTS Diploma, which signifies the completion of certain specialized courses, among them Latin and Romance of Antiquity, and attesting to an attainment level beyond the provincial standards.

UTS's rate of student achievement is commensurate with its selective admissions policy, both in academics and in extracurricular activities. Virtually all UTS students go on to university following graduation: in 2004, the University Of Toronto , McGill , Queen's , Waterloo , McMaster , and UBC were the most popular destinations, accounting for more than two-thirds of graduates; of the rest, a majority attended U.S. universities. The school's alumni include 20 Rhodes Scholar s and two Nobel Prize winners.


Grade System

UTS's grade level nomenclature differs from that used commonly in Ontario high schools. This nomenclature has varied somewhat over the years, and is due in part to a curriculum whose courses do not fit neatly into the provincial grading system, and in part to what had until the elimination of Grade 13 in Ontario constituted a six-year course to seven grade levels. The grade level nomenclature, with rough equivalencies, consists of:
  • Foundation One (F1): Grade 7. Formerly known as Foundation Year (FY) or 7/8

  • Foundation Two (F2): Grade 8. Formerly known as Form I or Grade 9

  • Middle Three (M3): Grade 9. Formerly known as Form II or Grade 10

  • Middle Four (M4): Grade 10. Formerly known as Form III or Grade 11

  • Senior Five (S5): Grade 11. Formerly known as Form IV or Grade 12

  • Senior Six (S6): Grade 12. Formerly known as Form V or Grade 13



EXTRACURRICULARS

Each student is placed in one of four Houses (Althouse, Cody, Crawford, and Lewis, all named after former Headmasters, with the exception of Cody, which was named after a former University of Toronto president); several "competitive" House events are held throughout the year. The house system is only one facet of an unusually rich extracurricular life at UTS, however, and activities range from the school newspaper and yearbook – ''Cuspidor'' and ''Twig'' – to champion sports teams and clubs, from chess to photography to multiplayer gaming club. UTS students organise the annual Southern Ontario Model United Nations Assembly , the largest model United Nations conference in Canada for high school students, run by high school students. The school has in recent years been a two-time winner of the Reach For The Top National Trivia Championship and has won the Ontario Student Classics Conference for ten years running.


House System

An important feature of UTS's extracurricular life is its house system. Each beginning student is initiated, usually during the F1/S6 trip to Camp Couchiching , to one of four houses, each of which is represented by both a symbol and a colour. Althouse's symbol is a gator and its colour is red. Cody's symbol is a cougar paw and its colour is blue. Crawford's symbol is a sword and its colour is yellow; its mascot is a Golden Knight. Lewis's symbol is a viking helmet and its colour is green; its mascot is a Viking.

Although most teachers are also a part of the house system, the system is run predominately by students from the senior grades, from whom each house elects a Prefect, Deputy Prefect and Literary and Athletic Reps annually. The house system serves particularly to boost student spirit and school morale, and a number of events are held each year to this end which, though competitive, are designed to be fun. Points are awarded to each house based on participation and performance at each event, and Literary and Athletic Pennants -- the Academic Pennant no longer exists -- are awarded to the winning houses each year by summing up points in relevant events. These events include:

  • Camp Couchiching weekend at the end of September, which began in 1970 as an annual New Student-Senior Student event by then-principal Don Gutteridge, and was set permanently at Couchiching from 1974 under the guidance of then-Guidance-Counsellor Clare Pace. Each House's executive designs its own initiation activities, although some traditions -- such as coloured Jell-O, facepaint, a necklace designed by the House executive, and a sort of House membership card -- are mainstays. A game of multiball soccer usually follows the initiation; other events include initiation of students who entered the school later, a skit competition, a dance, a campfire sing-a-long, a morning run, and rousing House cheers during meals. This event last occurred in the school year of 2004-2005 (due to a wedding in the year of 2005-2006, it was moved to another location).


  • House Cross-Country Run, one of the school's oldest traditions -- eighty-one boys competed in the first race, held in High Park on 10 November 1916 -- and now the opening House event each year. Students are dismissed early to participate; the lower school runs first and upper school about ten minutes afterward, with many teachers joining as well. Students who choose to not run often participate as marshals, directing runners or providing first aid. This event last took place in the 2004-2005.


  • Four-Way House Soccer, where each House sets up pylons to mark a goal area in a corner or area of the field; four or more balls are usually in play although, technically, only one goalie is permitted per team. The winning team is that with the least goals allowed.


  • House Swim Meet, usually in late March in the University Of Toronto 's Benson Building (a sports complex); each House is allocated a line in alphabetical order beginning from the gallery, and each of both Junior and Senior races is a four-person relay. Races include the 4x25, Decrescendo (100-50-25-25), medley relay, inner-tube race, 4x25 T-shirt race (the shirt is passed on for each swimmer to wear), X-race (flutter boards, pool noodles, etc.), puck dive, teacher race or relay, and House executive race.


  • Other House Intramural sporting events, in which House points are awarded both for victory and for participation. Such events include volleyball and basketball.


  • House Family Feud, an after-school event mirrored on The Television Show and based on a poll distributed earlier throughout the student body, and '''House Jeopardy''', held in the late fall/early winter and similarly television-inspired event. Both of these events last took place in 2005-2006.


  • House Lip Sync, an after-school event in the early/mid-fall which last took place in 2005-2006, and '''Backwards Spelling Bee''', not held for several years, but requiring backwards spelling to the rhythm of audience clapping.


  • House Murder Mystery, a school-wide game of Clue using the school premises as the game board. Teams of two, three or four are given the lists of suspects, murder weapons and locations and then sent off to a starting location, where a waiting House executive member provides a clue to cross off and a cryptic location to head to (e.g. "the windowless room", ie. room 326/327) in exchange for the correct answer to a trivia question. This event last look place in the school year of 1998-1999.



HISTORY

UTS was founded jointly by the province of Ontario and the University Of Toronto in 1910 as a laboratory school of the Faculty of Education. As originally conceived, UTS was to be a collection of several schools, at least one of which was to be for females.


1910-1920

The school won the first ever Memorial Cup in 1919 , as the best junior Ice Hockey team in the country.


1970-1980

In 1973 , realizing that the rest of the school's original vision would never materialize, a decision was made to admit girls into the school. This represented a key turning point in the school's history.


1990-2000

In April 1993 , the New Democratic government of Ontario announced the withdrawal of public funding from the school, leading to a dramatic rise in tuition costs, and prompting the mobilization of all its constituencies to make up the loss. A large Bursary fund now helps one in five UTS families, but as the tuition continues to rise, there are concerns that fewer eligible students will have access to the school in the future.


2000-present

UTS has remained a part of the University Of Toronto 's Faculty of Education and its successor, the Ontario Institute For Studies In Education at the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), until the beginning of 2004. A controversial agreement signed with the University at that time established the school as an independent ancillary body within the University commonwealth.


FACTS

  • Interim Principal: Ron Mintz. Michaele Robertson has been appointed by the UTS Board of Directors as Principle, effective July 1, 2006.

  • Vice-Principals: Dorothy Davis, Philip Marsh, and Rick Parsons

  • Enrollment: approximately 626 (equal number of boys and girls)

  • Staff: 50+, of whom three hold doctorates.



NOTABLE ALUMNI



EXTERNAL LINKS



FURTHER READING

Advani, Asheesh. ''With Pardonable Pride: The University of Toronto Schools.'' Unionville: Addwin Publishing, 1991. (ISBN 0-969185-0-1)

Chapnick, Adam, ed. ''Through Our Eyes: An Alumni History of UTS, 1960-2000.'' Toronto: University of Toronto Schools Alumni Association, 2005 ( pdf ).

Lane, Byron. ''University of Toronto Schools: An Academic History of the Era of Province-Wide Standardized Matriculation Testing in Ontario.'' Toronto: Byron Lane , 2005.