Toronto French School

Toronto French School
Address
306 Lawrence Avenue East Toronto , Ontario
Coordinates	43°43′43″N 79°23′01″W
Information
School type	Independent school
Patron saint(s)	Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada
Founded	1962
Headmaster	Hon. Dr. John Godfrey
Grades	PK-12
Enrollment	1280
Language	Primarily French
Website	http://www.tfs.ca/
Last updated: October 26, 2007 other campuses= Mississauga campus

The Toronto French School (TFS), founded in 1962 , is an independent, bilingual, co-educational, non-denominational school in Toronto. Elizabeth II, as Queen of Canada, is the royal patron of the school.

Academic program

Students are taught mainly in French from pre-kindergarten through Grade 10. From Grade 11 on, the students have a choice of doing their courses in English or French. The school is accredited by the Ministry of Education of France through Grade 10 and by the Ministry of Education of Ontario throughout its entire range. Students are offered an expanded choice of courses in English in high school, though many courses are offered in French during the high school years as well. Students may study Latin, Spanish, German or Ancient Greek as well. All students study French throughout all of their years at the school. TFS requires its students to enroll for the International Baccalaureate Diploma (an externally moderated curriculum offered by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO)) and also offers, and recommends the Brevet des collèges. Examinations are taken in May of students' graduating year. The school covers the normal Ontario Grades 6, 7 and 8 curricullum in two years (Grades 6 and 7), thereby allowing students to start high school (Grade 9) at the age of Grade 8 students. Like other students in Ontario, TFS students graduate at the age of 18, as the high school extends over four years, the last two of which are the IB years.

History

The Toronto French School was founded by Harry Giles in 1962, with the objective of educating its students to become fully bilingual young Canadians, and not just good English Canadians. This would later prove to be a significant factor in distinguishing TFS from other private schools of the Upper Canada establishment, such as UCC and Havergal. The school began as an experiment in home schooling, and its first classes took place in rented Church basements. The experiment was successful. As Leah McLaren writes:

Giles believed that if children were exposed to a wide range of intellectual stimuli at an early age, it would make them smarter in the long run. Kindergarten ran from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Classical music was played during nap times. Children began learning complex math and science as early as Grade 1. Giles’s pet theory, which has since gained scien tific support, was that by teaching young children in a second language, you broaden their neural pathways and increase intellectual capacity for life. A third language was introduced in Grade 3 (usually Russian or German). The results, according to Giles, were astonishing. TFS students in Grade 2 tested on average 25 points above normal IQ, he says. “I did not take the cream of the crop,” he says. “I made our students into the cream of the crop.” In 1973, Giles was presented with the Order of Canada for his work in bilingual schooling.

By 1984, the Board of Directors included Jean Chrétien and a patron’s council was created with such illustrious names as Bata, Black, Labatt and Eaton. The school also received the official patronage of the Queen.

The current headmaster of TFS is the Honourable John Godfrey, a former Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister. Recent TFS parents include the film director Atom Egoyan and his actor wife Arsinée Khanjian, the journalist Jan Wong, the Ontario Court of Appeal judge John Laskin and the former city councillor Tom Jakobek.

Graduates attend Canada's finest universities, and several TFS students every year pursue study at America's Ivy League universities, Oxford, Cambridge or the London School of Economics in Britain. Very rarely, students pursue study in France, and past TFS graduates have studied at the Sorbonne and the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris.

Location

Although TFS facilities were scattered in different areas, by the mid-eighties the school had acquired the old Sifton Estate, a group of three patrician brick buildings on 10 hectares. The Estate was once occupied by Sir Clifford Sifton, a cabinet minister who served in Sir Wilfred Laurier's government, and Lady Elizabeth Sifton, and was used as a vacation home ideal for fox hunting. The Sifton mansion, now called Giles Hall, is the main building of TFS's senior school. The TFS campus, situated at the corner of Bayview and Lawrence, overlooks the Granite Club, and is nestled between the stately houses of Lawrence Park and the Bridle Path. The school turned to Moriyama and Teshima architects, acclaimed for the National Museum of Saudi Arabia and the Canadian War Museum, to design the recent expansion of the senior school.

Notable alumni

• Samantha Nutt, doctor and founder of NGO War Child Canada
• Martha Hall Findlay, Member of Parliament.
• Molly Shoichet, a prominent medical engineer at the University of Toronto
• Mona Loutfy, an infectious diseases specialist who helped administer the first course of antiviral drugs during Toronto’s SARS outbreak
• Alykhan Velshi, Director of Communications for the Hon. John Baird, Minister of the Environment in the Harper government.
• Jamie Kastner, documentary filmmaker

External links

• Toronto French School website
• "The Scandal of TFS" article by Leah McLaren in Toronto Life Magazine.

References

• McLaren, Leah. "The Scandal at TFS." ''Toronto Life'' 44.1 (Jan. 2010): 42-50. Print.