All-Round Development
Leadership Opportunities
Why Leadership?
Learning to lead is a core part of the TFS student experience. Here, leadership encompasses and puts into action our motto, values, mission and vision.
As individuals, students take on leadership roles to develop personal attributes such as responsibility and accountability. This also challenges them to be bold, speak publicly, and stretch their own abilities and knowledge.
As citizens, students learn leadership skills that emphazise their interpersonal and intercultural competency, the development of planning, delegating and execution skills related to strategic and critical thinking.
As individuals, students take on leadership roles to develop personal attributes such as responsibility and accountability. This also challenges them to be bold, speak publicly, and stretch their own abilities and knowledge.
As citizens, students learn leadership skills that emphazise their interpersonal and intercultural competency, the development of planning, delegating and execution skills related to strategic and critical thinking.
All Across TFS
Leadership opportunities are embedded in every branch, at every grade and across all aspects of school life at TFS.
Students at the Junior School are always eager to take action to make a difference. For instance, while the Grades 2s were studying a unit of inquiry on “how we organize ourselves,” they organized and ran a market for the Grade 1 students from La p’tite école, who were invited to shop for used toys and books. The resulting proceeds were donated to SickKids.
Two students from each Grade 4 and 5 class at the Junior School are elected as class representatives. They attend council meetings, with the intent of making the Junior School a better place. One of their recent actions was to take on the role of corridor monitors to ensure everyone exited and re-entered the school safely during recess.
Grade 5 in particular is a very rich year for leadership opportunities at the Junior School. As the senior students at the branch, they act as Playground Activity Leaders (PALs), organizing recess activities for the other students.
With greater awareness of their wider community, they also take notice of local issues, such as supporting the building of a sidewalk adjacent to a neighbourhood park, to increase pedestrian safety and encourage greater park use.
Finally, Grade 5 is the year when the PYP Exhibit takes place. The culminating activity of the Primary Years Program tasks student-groups to form a unique unit of inquiry on a topical issue and present their findings. As part of their projects, each group must take action to help address the problem inherent in the issue they have presented, such as collecting old blankets for an animal shelter.
Our West Campus similarly has a plethora of ways to engage students as leaders.
Grade 2 students become elves to manage the branch's toy drive for the CHUM Christmas Wish Foundation.
As part of the Forest of Reading program, students report back to their peers on books they have read, and then lead a literature circle with those students who choose to read their recommended book.
Les vers de terre, a group of Grade 4 students, collect and share data on our recycling efforts. They also share their findings during assemblies in creative ways, including through videos.
Just like their peers at the Toronto campus, the Grade 5 students at the West Campus also lead initiatives inside and outside of the school to promote positive change on the issues they researched for their PYP Exhibit.
Grades 6 and 7 at the West Campus see a wider role for these students as leaders in their school community. The Grade 6 Reading Buddies read with a Grade 1 buddy each week, while the Grade 7 Homework Helpers offer homework guidance to younger students after school.
And every Valentine's Pyjama Day at the West Campus, a Grade 7 student leads their food drive for the Mississauga Food Bank.
In fact, at La p’tite école, leadership begins in Grade 1. Every Grade 1 student is assigned to a committee that helps run assemblies, presents at branch events, writes a newspaper, fundraises to help others or broadcasts the news throughout the branch.
Students at the Junior School are always eager to take action to make a difference. For instance, while the Grades 2s were studying a unit of inquiry on “how we organize ourselves,” they organized and ran a market for the Grade 1 students from La p’tite école, who were invited to shop for used toys and books. The resulting proceeds were donated to SickKids.
Two students from each Grade 4 and 5 class at the Junior School are elected as class representatives. They attend council meetings, with the intent of making the Junior School a better place. One of their recent actions was to take on the role of corridor monitors to ensure everyone exited and re-entered the school safely during recess.
Grade 5 in particular is a very rich year for leadership opportunities at the Junior School. As the senior students at the branch, they act as Playground Activity Leaders (PALs), organizing recess activities for the other students.
With greater awareness of their wider community, they also take notice of local issues, such as supporting the building of a sidewalk adjacent to a neighbourhood park, to increase pedestrian safety and encourage greater park use.
Finally, Grade 5 is the year when the PYP Exhibit takes place. The culminating activity of the Primary Years Program tasks student-groups to form a unique unit of inquiry on a topical issue and present their findings. As part of their projects, each group must take action to help address the problem inherent in the issue they have presented, such as collecting old blankets for an animal shelter.
Our West Campus similarly has a plethora of ways to engage students as leaders.
Grade 2 students become elves to manage the branch's toy drive for the CHUM Christmas Wish Foundation.
As part of the Forest of Reading program, students report back to their peers on books they have read, and then lead a literature circle with those students who choose to read their recommended book.
Les vers de terre, a group of Grade 4 students, collect and share data on our recycling efforts. They also share their findings during assemblies in creative ways, including through videos.
Just like their peers at the Toronto campus, the Grade 5 students at the West Campus also lead initiatives inside and outside of the school to promote positive change on the issues they researched for their PYP Exhibit.
Grades 6 and 7 at the West Campus see a wider role for these students as leaders in their school community. The Grade 6 Reading Buddies read with a Grade 1 buddy each week, while the Grade 7 Homework Helpers offer homework guidance to younger students after school.
And every Valentine's Pyjama Day at the West Campus, a Grade 7 student leads their food drive for the Mississauga Food Bank.
Leaders on a Larger Scale
Once students enter the Senior School, opportunities to become a leader blossom in variety and quantity, as befits their age.
Athletics, arts, clubs, school governance and houses each allow students to get involved, develop their leadership skills and step up as the top student leaders of the school.
Will it be the athletics council, arts council, junior or senior council or prefect council? Or perhaps a student might be interested in being a house head, a club head, or the Premiers Citoyens — the Coheads — of the entire school instead.
Whether as captain of a team or an assistant coach, students can inspire teammates and younger peers, modelling the values of the school — integrity, discernment, respect and engagement — and the growth mindset, which sees challenge as opportunity for learning and improvement.
Arts council members organize the artistic life of the Senior School throughout the school year, culminating in the incredible MAD (Music, Art, Drama) Night each spring.
Clubs are an important part of Senior School life. Clubs reflect student interests, aspirations and intentions to make the world a better place. Under the supervision of staff, students lead clubs and are encouraged to propose their own.
Houses at TFS are school-wide and start in Pre-Kindergarten. Students are assigned to a house when they enter TFS, and are part of that house throughout their education. Houses cross all grades and branches, bringing students together to form friendships and engage in spirited competition for those coveted house points. Some particularly inspired and energetic house members even become junior and senior house heads, urging their house-mates to greater heights!
Senior School students are also invested in making their branch of TFS a true reflection of committed citizenship.
That's why student elections for prefect positions, junior and senior council positions, and the role of Premier Citoyen and Première citoyenne are taken so seriously.
Athletics, arts, clubs, school governance and houses each allow students to get involved, develop their leadership skills and step up as the top student leaders of the school.
Will it be the athletics council, arts council, junior or senior council or prefect council? Or perhaps a student might be interested in being a house head, a club head, or the Premiers Citoyens — the Coheads — of the entire school instead.
Whether as captain of a team or an assistant coach, students can inspire teammates and younger peers, modelling the values of the school — integrity, discernment, respect and engagement — and the growth mindset, which sees challenge as opportunity for learning and improvement.
Arts council members organize the artistic life of the Senior School throughout the school year, culminating in the incredible MAD (Music, Art, Drama) Night each spring.
Clubs are an important part of Senior School life. Clubs reflect student interests, aspirations and intentions to make the world a better place. Under the supervision of staff, students lead clubs and are encouraged to propose their own.
Houses at TFS are school-wide and start in Pre-Kindergarten. Students are assigned to a house when they enter TFS, and are part of that house throughout their education. Houses cross all grades and branches, bringing students together to form friendships and engage in spirited competition for those coveted house points. Some particularly inspired and energetic house members even become junior and senior house heads, urging their house-mates to greater heights!
Senior School students are also invested in making their branch of TFS a true reflection of committed citizenship.
That's why student elections for prefect positions, junior and senior council positions, and the role of Premier Citoyen and Première citoyenne are taken so seriously.
Students vying for these roles are challenged, even before elected, to demonstrate their commitment to the school, its community, and the wider world as individuals who reflect, citizens who act.
