Queen Victoria Home and School Council

04/19/2025

Friends! Neighbours! Supporters of our wonderful downtown community! Wanna enjoy a delicious meal while helping a great cause? Join us on April 29th for an all-you-can-eat pasta fundraiser, complete with raffles, prizes, a bake sale, and more! All proceeds go to making the Queen Victoria student experience the best that it can be. Hope to see you all there!

02/27/2025

Join us for a evening of yin yoga and calming massage, courtesy of Shanti Wellness Studio! All proceeds will go to the Queen Victoria Home and School Association. Help us keep giving our kids the best possible student experience!

Unwind for a cause! Join us for an invigorating evening filled with yin yoga and calming massages, all while aiding the Queen Victoria Home and School Association. Your involvement will not only help you achieve tranquility but will also play a part in fostering a brighter future for the children in our community.

Are you ready to stretch your limits and elevate their spirits? Sign up today and feel free to invite a friend! Together, let’s create a positive impact! 🧘‍♀️💖

Facilitated by Kathleen Bevan RMT, CYT
alongside a team of registered massage therapists

Attendees will be led through yin and restorative poses, with the assistance of experienced registered massage therapists offering massages and gentle adjustments to alleviate tension and promote relaxation. This session is ideal for anyone looking to manage stress and reconnect with their body.

Props and bolsters provided.

Please wear comfortable attire, and remember to bring water and a yoga mat.

Date: Friday, March 21st
Time: 7:15pm - 8:45pm

Register Here:
https://studiobookingonline.com/shantiwellnessstudio/workshop.html

01/08/2025

Our next Parent Council and Home and School meeting will be Wednesday February 5. All parents and guardians are welcome to attend.

11/29/2024

We're getting more speed humps!

Speed humps are being installed today in the 1400 block of Victoria Ave, just south of the school. This should improve traffic safety in the area.

Drive safely and please be calm and mindful of pedestrians.

11/29/2024

11/28/2024

Parking is always an issue around the school. There is very little that can be done to improve it, due to the small lot we sit on and the inherent limitations of a school built in an urban neighbourhood from the 1920s.

Here is the City of Windsor policy concerning parking around schools. It's 47 pages and gives a lot of background and explains the limitations and enforcement decisions.

https://www.citywindsor.ca/Documents/residents/traffic-and-parking/transportation-planning/School-Neighbourhood-Policy.pdf

11/08/2024

Updates from our Home and School meeting on Wednesday:

Some funding requests we received:
school bussing for outings
new school sports uniforms
new volleyball nets
Mathology resources
new paint for activity grids on the hardtop
funding for cabs to sports games
wire notebook binding machine
graduation expenses

Funding requests that were previously committed:
new playground equipment
acoustic treatments for auditorium
light and sound upgrades for auditorium

School board funding is very tight this year and our population is 10% higher than normal so we have a lot of new asks. Our Home and School is running bingos every month at All Star Gaming Centre and we would ask you to patronize them for all our Bingo entertainment needs.

If anyone can donate or help with fundraising, please contact us! We saw during the 100th anniversary celebrations that there is a large and passionate community of grads. Hopefully there are some in a fortunate position to be able to donate time or money to help make the school experience as good as the schools in "wealthier" areas.

What do you think of the list of funding requests? Which ones do you think we should prioritize? We can't fund everything, unfortunately.

Send a message to learn more

11/08/2024

UPDATE NOVEMBER 26:
The school administration has informed us the Winter Walkthrough has been returned to its normal December timeslot, and that they had misunderstood board policy in making the previous decision to move it. It is our understanding that the school board welcomes all religions, faiths, and creeds in their schools, celebrates diversity, promotes equity, and welcomes inclusion. There are no restrictions against events held in the month of December that respect those values, including our Winter Walkthrough.
Thanks to everyone who spoke up for common sense, kindness, and inclusion. Your voices were heard and you had an impact.
We're going to leave the comments off for now because many people, who aren't associated with the school in any way and in some cases don't even live in Ontario, were being rude and mean. Sorry about that.

ORIGINAL POST:
Updates from our Home and School meeting on Wednesday:

The school administrators have decided to move the Winter Walkthrough from the usual December date into January/February, because they are concerned that any event in the month of December could be interpreted as a Christmas event and they have been told that the board believes Christmas or Christmas-adjacent events are disrespectful to people who do not celebrate Christmas.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 10TH:
The school administration has informed the Home and School that the moving of the Winter Walkthrough out of December to avoid the Christmas season has been referred to the School Board for clarification on their policy. We don't have any further information on that but hopefully there will be a decision that respects everyone. But apparently the decision to move it is not final yet.

Thanks everyone who posted here: hopefully your concerns were heard and are having an impact! Also thank you to the Parent Council who politely asked questions and expressed thoughtful opinions on the school's decision. And thank you to the school administrators who are listening to the community and responding appropriately.

A reminder to all parents and guardians, the Parent Council meetings are open to everyone and if you have questions or concerns they can be addressed in that meeting if we know about them in advance. Please get involved!

UPDATE NOVEMBER 12TH:
We received a complaint about some of the comments to this post, so we are restricting comments until we can review them. Sorry about that.

Send a message to learn more

11/08/2024

Updates from our Home and School meeting on Wednesday:

The blue and yellow play structure on the South-West corner of the school is going to be removed.

Unfortunately safety standards were changed not long after it was installed, and our early years have not been able to use it, and it was closed whenever it was wet or freezing, so basically it was shut to half the school for half the year.

The Home and School has been upkeeping it from our fundraising efforts, because the school has had no funding for playground equipment. This is becoming increasingly expensive as it ages and parts become harder to source. Currently there are some structural problems and we will be faced with another hefty bill for repair. The school has locked the gate because the structure is technically unsafe to play on.

It is very stressful for our early years educators to have to constantly chase JK and SK students away from the play structure. Of course, the kids don't understand and it's frustrating for them, like having candy on the counter but being told they can't eat it. By removing the structure, there will be a clear place to play, safe and fenced.

We know the structure was beloved by the community and all of our kids have enjoyed playing on it. It was a meeting place for the neighbourhood families and many enduring friendships were created during games of grounder and freeze tag. But, it also attracted vandals who slowly destroyed most of the wooden improvements we installed in 2018, so that has been sad to see. There have also been a lot of lazy dog walkers who let their pets defecate in the mulch (since it was fenced), which creates a bio hazard for the early years students playing there during the day.

We're looking for input from the community on what improvements we should put in there next, and we are also soliciting donations. It's our neighbourhood and our school and this is one area which we can all use and should all work towards improving.

Send a message to learn more

10/04/2024

The EQAO (Education Quality and Accountability Office) results for Ontario schools in Math and Literacy have been released.

https://www.eqao.com/results/

Unfortunately, Queen Victoria performed significantly worse than the average for schools in the Great Essex District School Board, much worse than the provincial average, and far worse than the average for the Windsor-Essex Catholic School Board.

Of course there are many factors which contribute to these results, some of which are in the school's control and some of which are not. The EQAO results in themselves do not completely describe the quality of the school or the learning experienced by our children. Even simple things, like writing the test during hot weather in a non-air conditioned school like Queen Vic, can affect the results. Learning is wholistic and standardized testing does not capture the complexity of the entire educational experience.

Still, there is no contesting that the results are well below average, no matter which way you look at them or how you compare them.

The Ontario Ministry of Education empowers parents to participate in their child's education through the Parent Council, and Ontario Regulation 612/00 of the Education Act specifically lists EQAO results as a topic which the Parent Council must be consulted for feedback.

The next Parent Council meeting is Wednesday November 6 at 5:00 and all Parents are welcome and encouraged to attend and ask questions regarding these results.

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