School Course Calendar

1. Quark West Private School

The vision of Quark West Private School is to empower all learners, through the use of technology to experience scholastic success. We strive to promote students to achieve their highest academic potential at a pace and timing that best supports their personal learning style. Research has demonstrated the tremendous importance and value of completing secondary education, notonly for the individual but also for the community and other stakeholders. Quark West Private School is committed to working with students, and parents to enable all learners to accomplish their goals towards completing an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

2. Attendance

Regular attendance is key to student success. Students who do not attend/log on regularly and/or who do not actively participate in their courses seriously jeopardize their opportunities to learn and reach their potential.

Teachers will monitor attendance patterns for their respective students and will work with them, and their parents/guardians to support students in any way they can. If student attendance issues cannot be resolved, the administration will be informed and possible consequences may include: student and parental/guardian contact, attendance contracts, or even removal from the program.

Quark West Private School operates on a continuous entry and exit model where there is no defined start date or end date. Student have one year to complete their course. They are expected to log in regularly.

Even though Quark West Private School is not a brick-and-mortar school, attendance is monitored via login tracking system. It is imperative that students spend time logged into their courses if they want to be successful in them. Teachers through email will contact students that lack a reasonable number of logins or if there is a long period of time without a login. If students expect a long delay in course login, it is best practice to let your teacher know ahead of time. If student attendance issues cannot be resolved, the administration will be informed and possible consequences may include: student and parental/guardian contact, attendance contracts, or even removal from the program.

Students who do not complete their course within 12 months will be removed from the course and will not be reinstated unless there are extenuating circumstances that can be verified by appropriate documentation.

3. Courses

At Quark West Private School, we are offering a variety of courses. These courses will be applied to sufficiently satisfy required and elective components towards the OSSD.

The information for each course can be found in your course outline.

4. Appropriate Computer Use Policy

Learning Management System (LMS) at the Quark West Private School is designed for educational purposes only. All use of any LMS tool within course for any purpose other than the intended educational purpose is prohibited. The inappropriate uses include, but are not limited to, criminal, obscene, commercial, or illegal purposes.

The administration has the right to review all student work to determine the appropriateness of computer use. If the LMS is used inappropriately, the Administration will impose consequences, which may include suspensions and/or removal from the program. Students need to be very vigilant in order to prevent them getting into a situation where they may be suspected for inappropriate use.

Therefore, students are reminded to

• Always protect their passwords and not share them with anyone
• Always inform their teachers of suspicious messages or other incidents that they encounter
• Only access content that is intended for student use

5. Safe Schools Policy

Quark West Private School is committed to provide and maintain a safe and supportive educational environment in which learning can occur. Protection of a person’s dignity and selfesteem is crucial and not negotiable.

All members of the Quark West Private School community, which includes students, staff and parents, will treat each other with respect in all interactions. Any actions determined to jeopardize the moral tone of the learning community including disrespectful, distasteful, abusive, harassing comments made to any of our community members will not be tolerated and will be dealt with swiftly by the principal. Consequences may include, counselling, parental involvement, suspension, expulsions and/ or the involvement of the authorities. All steps of action shall comply with the laws governed by the Province of Ontario and the Ontario Education Act.

6. Assessment & Evaluation Overview

The Assessment and Evaluation Policy for Quark West Private School is consistent with Ministry policy and reflects the vision that Quark West Private School has which is that the primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning. Assessment is the process of gathering information that accurately reflects how well a student is achieving the curriculum expectations in a subject or course. Assessment for the purpose of improving student learning is seen as both “assessment for learning” and “assessment as learning”. As part of assessment for learning, teachers provide students with descriptive feedback and coaching for improvement. Teachers engage in assessment as learning by helping all students develop their capacity to be independent, autonomous learners who can set individual goals, monitor their own progress, determine next steps, and reflect on their thinking and learning. Ongoing per-assessments and formative assessments will be used to provide meaningful feedback about student progress and achievement in order to improve performance. Summative assessments (“assessments of learning”) will be used to arrive at the grade.

Course evaluation will be divided into two parts:

70% of the final grade is based on cumulative evidence of summative evaluations undertaken throughout the semester.

30% of the final grade is based on final evaluations, which will take place in the final third of the course. Final evaluations may or may not include an exam depending on individual course curriculum policy documents.

At the beginning of the course, students will receive course outlines that will include detailed assessment and evaluation information, and that also outline the percentage breakdown for both the 70% and the 30%. All courses will be evaluated according to the following breakdown:

Although each course will have the same breakdown, individual courses may have subject specific summative tasks that will be used to determine the student’s grade. Please refer to the course outline as it is presented in your courses for more details.

7. Withdrawal From a Course Policy

Withdrawals from Grade 9 courses are not recorded on the Ontario Student Transcript (OST). Only successfully completed courses are recorded on the OST. Withdrawals from Grade 10 courses are not recorded on the OST. Only successfully completed courses, as well as credits granted through the Prior Learning and Recognition (PLAR) are recorded on the OST.

If a student (including a student with an Individual Education Plan) withdraws from a Grade 11 or 12 course within five days following the issue of the first provincial report card (Mid-term), this withdrawal is not recorded on the OST.

If a student withdraws from a course after five days following the issue of the first provincial report card (Mid-term), the withdrawal is recorded on the OST by entering a “W” in the “Credit” column. The student’s percentage grade at the time of the withdrawal is recorded in the “Percentage Grade” column.

Note: Students will not receive a refund for their withdrawn courses or be permitted to select a replacement course.

8. Truancy

Truancy by definition is the absence of part of, or all of, one or more days from school during which the school attendance officer, principal or teacher has not been notified of the appropriate cause of such absence by the parent or guardian and also means intermittent carried on for the purpose of defeating the intent of compulsory education.

Students are required to attend school until they reach the age of eighteen or graduate. Reaching the age of majority does not imply any specific rights. If a student is eighteen (18) or older and chooses not to follow the rules, regulations, and/or policies of the school, that student can be asked to cease attendance in school. Regular attendance at school is critical for the student’s learning. To encourage regular attendance by students, our school will ensure that students and their parents are informed about the school’s policy on attendance. Where, in the principal’s judgement, a student’s frequent absences from school are jeopardizing his or her success, school staff should meet with the student and the parents to explain the potential consequences of the absences and discuss steps to be taken to improve attendance. Students of compulsory school age whose absence is reported to the school board attendance counsellor will have the reason for their absence investigated.

In the case of online learning students are expected frequently for the entire duration of their course. If a student fails to login to their course at least once in a single week then an absence will be recorded on their report card. If the student fails to login for two (2) weeks in a row then a message will be sent, either to the parents of a student under 18 years of age or to the student who has reached the age of majority, requiring an explanation and the immediate resumption of online attendance. If the student continues to be truant from their course then phone call(s) will be made to the telephone number provided on the registration forms. If the student fails to attend classes for 59 days than the students’ online account will be suspended. All work will remain intact and resumption of the online course will be determined by the principal in consultation with the student, teacher and parents (if applicable).

9. Program Considerations for English Language Learners Policy

Teachers must incorporate appropriate strategies for instruction and assessment to facilitate the success of the English language learners in their classrooms. These strategies include:

• modification of some or all of the subject expectations depending on the level of English proficiency
• use of a variety of instructional strategies (e.g., extensive use of visual cues, graphic organizers, scaffolding; previewing of textbooks; pre-teaching of key vocabulary; peer tutoring; strategic use of students' first languages)
• use of a variety of learning resources (e.g., visual material, simplified text, bilingual dictionaries, and materials that reflect cultural diversity)
• use of assessment accommodations (e.g., granting of extra time; use of oral interviews, demonstrations or visual representations, or tasks requiring completion of graphic organizers and cloze sentences instead of essay questions and other assessment tasks that depend heavily on proficiency in English).

10.Missed Assignments Policy

In the province of Ontario, students must remain in school, actively engaged in an education program suited to the student until that student reaches the age of 18 or achieves an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

All Quark West Private School credit courses, with the exception of half credits, are designed to be 110 hours of planned instruction. Each course unit is given an hour value, and all units combined add up to 110 hours. Students are expected to come close to the planned hours of instruction timing within reason. Activity completion time will vary depending on the student’s comfort level with that subject matter.

Students are responsible for providing evidence of their achievement of the overall expectations within-the time frame specified -by the teacher; and in a form- approved -by the teacher. There are consequences for not completing assignments for evaluation.

MISSED ASSIGNMENTS

The Ministry of Education’s policy states that “the primary purpose of assessment and evaluation is to improve student learning”. Submitting work late is a learning skills and work habits issue and may impact on the student’s grade. The Ministry requires teachers to separate evaluation of achievement of the curriculum expectations from the development of learning skills and work habits (Responsibility, Organization, Independent Work, Collaboration, Initiative, Self-Regulation).

Where in the teacher’s professional judgement it is appropriate to do so, a number of strategies may be used to help prevent and/or address late and missed assignments. These can be found on page 44 of Growing Success.

Missed Evaluations

Students who do not submit assignments may be given zero. A mark of zero will normally result in a gap in the record of achievement of curriculum expectations because the teacher lacks evidence of the student’s knowledge or skills. The student might have missed tests, not handed in assignments, or might have been absent for presentations. Students are responsible for providing the teacher with evidence of their learning.

Community Service Hours

Students are required to complete 40 hours of community service to earn an OSSD, however; students joining from outside of Ontario can be granted equivalent hours in the equivalency process. Students generally complete 10 hours per academic year; for example, a student joining in grade 11 from outside of Ontario would likely be required to complete only 20 hours instead of 40.

11.Instructional Approaches Policy

Teachers in the school are expected to:

• Clarify the purpose for learning
• Help students activate prior knowledge
• Differentiate instruction for individual students and small groups according to need
• Explicitly teach and model learning strategies
• Encourage students to talk through their thinking and learning processes
• Provide many opportunities for students to practice and apply their developing knowledge and skills
• Apply effective teaching approaches involve students in the use of higher-level thinking skill
• Encourage students to look beyond the literal meaning of texts
• Teachers use a variety of instructional and learning strategies best suited to the particular type of learning. Students have opportunities to learn in a variety of ways:
• Individually cooperatively independently with teacher direction through investigation involving hands-on experience through examples followed by practice by using concrete learning tools - manipulatives - in mathematics such as connecting cubes, measurement tools, algebra tiles, and number cubes by encouraging students to gain experience with varied and interesting applications of the new knowledge. Rich contexts for learning open the door for students to see the "big ideas" of mathematics that will enable and encourage them to reason mathematically throughout their lives.

12.Credit Recovery Policy

When you complete a course within a school year or semester, but do not successfully completed the curriculum expectations to a passing level, there are options available. Your Principal and teachers will work with you and your parents to determine how you can best meet the expectations and earn credit for the course. Arrangements should be made so that one or more of the following options is available:

1. Where possible, you should be allowed to repeat only the material relating to the overall curricular expectations not achieved. You may choose to achieve these expectations in summer school, through independent study, through an individualized remediation program, or through distance education. Your work will be evaluated to determine whether the expectations have been successfully completed.
2. If available, you can enrol in a remedial program designed for a group of students with similar needs.
3. You may decide to repeat the entire course

Through Credit Recovery, you will develop learning skills that will support you in the regular classroom setting. Credit Recovery courses focus on overall curriculum expectations, often within the supportive context of a Learning Strategies course. The goal is to ensure that you are able to meet curriculum expectations and prepare to move forward along your chosen program pathway.

13.Refunds, Credits and Transfers Policy

Course fees are non-refundable under any circumstance. Students who would like to drop an online course must submit the Drop Course Request form found within the online environment. Students who drop the course within 30 days of registration and have not completed any activities in the course may be eligible to transfer into another course at no charge. If students in the scenario listed above do not wish to take another online course, they may be eligible to use the credit toward another program. This must be requested via email to within 30 days of registration; any differences in price must be paid by the student

14.Academic Honesty - Plagiarism Policy

Students who present the work of others as their own are guilty of plagiarism and will receive a mark of zero for the work and will have the details of the plagiarism noted in their school records. Students who are guilty of cheating on tests or examinations will receive a mark of zero on the test or examination and have the details of the cheating noted in their school records.

PLAGIARISM POLICY

Growing Success Policy

Students must understand that the tests/exams they complete and the assignments they submit for evaluation must be their own work and that cheating and plagiarism will not be condoned.

The school will develop strategies for helping students understand the gravity of such behaviour and the importance of acknowledging the work of others. The school will also develop policies that address, at a minimum, the following:

• prevention of cheating and plagiarizing
• detection of incidents of cheating and plagiarizing
• consequences for students who cheat or plagiarize

Policies will reflect a continuum of behavioural and academic responses and consequences, based on at least the following four factors: (1) the grade level of the student, (2) the maturity of the student, (3) the number and frequency of incidents, and (4) the individual circumstances of the student

To the Student

When the teacher asks you to use your own words and ideas, it means that you should use your own words and your own ideas. You must demonstrate to the teacher that you can submit work that is your own. When a teacher asks to put your ideas into your own words, it does not mean that there is a correct answer for the assignment. It means that you have to come up with your own ideas to give to the teacher.

Plagiarism means submitting work to the teacher that is not your own. Cheating and plagiarism will not be condoned. When you take ideas and words that are someone else's and pass them off as yours, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism can involve some of these:

• Using work done by another student.
• Copying someone else's work or homework.
• Taking another student's work and changing some words.
• Cutting and pasting material from the Internet and submitting it as yours.
• Copying information from a book, magazine, website, movie, etc. and not naming the source.
• Leaving out quotation marks for direct quotes.

To the Teacher

Help students avoid plagiarising by:

• Defining the term and reminding them of it when setting out an assignment.
• Giving them examples of what constitutes plagiarism.
• Emphasizing the importance of using process skills to arrive at a product.
• Teaching them research skills so they can avoid plagiarising: note taking, paraphrasing, summarizing.
• Teaching them organizational skills: finding and organizing information to build understanding of a topic.
• Teaching them how to make an outline for a report or research essay.
• Having them keep a learning log to reflect on what they learned through the process: how research and organizational skills helped with the project, how could the product be improved, how can the research and organizational skills be improved.
• Assessing the process steps: notes, outline, summary, bibliography, drafts, etc.
• Informing students of the consequences of plagiarism.

Consequences

• When plagiarism has been detected, the teacher should discuss the matter with the student and inform the principal of the details.
• The student receives zero for the assignment because the student has not demonstrated achievement of the expectations for the assignment.
• There might be other opportunities for the student to demonstrate evidence of achievement of the expectations of the assignment (e.g. research, organizational, presentation skills) during the course. If other opportunities arise, the teacher may choose not to factor in zero for the plagiarized assignment in the calculation of the term mark.

Appeal

A student may appeal the teacher's decision to the principal after discussion with the teacher. Based on Fresh Air: Assessment, Evaluation, and Reporting in Secondary Schools Toronto District School Board, 2006

15.Teacher Contact Policy

Quark West Private School course teachers are available to students via the online platform. There is a built-in communication tool within the learning environment students must use; students and teachers should not communicate via external email addresses. Any emails sent to teachers externally may not be received and could result in miscommunication.

Students can easily identify their teacher in a few different ways:

• There is a teacher welcome video on the main course page; students can enter the course by clicking on the course title on their dashboard. There is also a page called Teacher’s Welcome under the Welcome to Your Course submodule within the course introduction unit with more information about the teacher.
• Once inside the course, students can click on Office Hours in the right-hand corner of the navigation toolbar. There will be office hours, along with teacher contact information.
• Students are welcome to send internal communications to their teacher at any time, however, the teacher will respond within 24 hours (Monday to Friday). During peak times and/or holidays, teachers may take slightly longer to respond. Students experiencing a lack of teacher response should contact admin to report the issue.

16.Graduation Requirements

To earn a high school diploma in Ontario, students must:

• earn 18 compulsory credits
• earn 12 optional credits
• pass the literacy requirement
• earn at least two online learning credits
• complete a minimum of 40 hours of community involvement activities

Compulsory credits are:

• 4 credits in English (1 credit per grade)*
• 3 credits in mathematics (1 credit in Grade 11 or 12)
• 2 credits in science
• 1 credit in Canadian history
• 1 credit in Canadian geography
• 1 credit in the arts
• 1 credit in health and physical education
• 1 credit in French as a second language
• 0.5 credit in career studies
• 0.5 credit in civics

Plus one credit from each of the following groups:

• New 1 additional credit (group 1): additional credit in English, or French as a second language,** or a Native language, or a classical or an international language, or social sciences and the humanities, or Canadian and world studies, or guidance and career education, or cooperative education***
• New 1 additional credit (group 2): additional credit in health and physical education, or the arts, or business studies, or French as a second language,** or cooperative education***
• New 1 additional credit (group 3): additional credit in science (Grade 11 or 12), or technological education, or French as a second language,** or computer studies, or cooperative education***

The successful completion of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test

Students must attempt to write the OSSLT at least once. If students are not successful on their first attempt they are now eligible to enroll into The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Course and if successful they will have accomplished the OSSLT requirements.