The South Bayview Bulldog

Toronto Police Service report:  A resident of South Drive reports that between 1630 hours on February 16, 2013 and 0900 hours on February 17, 2013, entry was gained into the premises by forcing a door. Removed was a quantity of gold.

Toronto Police Service report: A 12 year old male reports that on February 18, 2013 at approximately 1055 hours, he was in the area of Glenvale Boulevard and Laird Drive when he was approached from behind by a male suspect. The suspect demanded the victim’s cellular phone. The victim complied and the suspect fled the scene in an unknown direction. No injuries were sustained by the victim. Police are requesting the assistance of the public in identifying the following described person in connection with this offence. Description of Suspect: Male, white, 20 years, 5’8” to 5’9”, 134 to 141 pounds, medium build, brown hair.

Here are some rankings produced by the Fraser Institute in its so-called Report Card of Ontario schools for 2012. The main and perhaps only criteria is the provincial  Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) exam administered in Grades 3 and 6. The two columns show, left, the schools alphabetically followed by their ranking. Right, the same schools sorted by rankings with the lowest ranking at the top. Each ranking shows two numbers separated by a slash. On the left, the 2012 ranking. Next to it, the average ranking over the past five years. Thus, in the case of Bessborough Public School, the current ranking is 9.1 while the five year average is 8.3.  As noted in the previous post, two local school are recorded to have finished with perfect scores (10) for 2012. They are Deer Park Public and Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Some local schools like Hodgson Public School and Grenoble Public School are not shown in the survey for reasons so far unexplained.  Previous post 

The website of the Fraser Institute revealing the 2012 rankings for Ontario’s elementary schools has slowed right down to zero today as many people try to check on how their kid’s school is doing. Overall, this year’s report says that schools in the GTA show only moderate improvement.. The Fraser Institute Report uses nine academic factors based on the province’s standardized EQAO test scores to rate 2,714 public, Catholic, and francophone elementary schools in Ontario.  Some Toronto schools were tops in the province, however the average for GTA schools only jumped to 6.6 out of 10, up from 6.5 from last year. “This is why the Fraser Institute school report card is the go-to source for measuring academic improvement: it highlights school success stories from Murillo in the west to Cornwall in the east and from Timmins in the north to Windsor in the south,” said Peter Cowley, Fraser Institute director of school performance studies. Among the 20 fastest improving schools are Stella Maris and Heron Park, both in Toronto, along with Munns, located in Oakville. The institute says the school improvement is happening in all regions of the province, which shows that all schools are capable of improvement regardless of the personal or family challenges their students may face. On the down side, the institute found nearly 30 per cent of GTA schools scored below the provincial standard. The lowest ranking school in the GTA was Parkdale, while 15 schools tied for first place, with 11 of them in the GTA. Those included Hillmount, Kennedy and Seneca Hill, all in Toronto, and St. Justin the Martyr in Unionville. Other top-ranking schools in Toronto included Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Arbor Glen, Deer Park, Havergal College, Islamic Foundation and Sathya Sai. The Fraser institute says their report helps parents and educators prioritize learning challenges in their schools.