School Organization

Our school is organized with a Kindergarten program and Grades 1 to 8. We have a Junior Intermediate Music teacher who provides French instruction to our Grade 6 to 8 students and a part time Learning Support teacher and Librarian.

School Day Schedule

We are on a Balanced Day schedule:

9:00 AM - 10:40 AM - First Block
10:40 AM - 11:20 AM - Lunch
11:20 AM - 1:20 PM - Second Block
1:20 PM - 2:10 PM - Lunch
2:10 PM - 3:30 PM - Third Block

3:30 PM Dismissal

Our School Goal for 2022-2023

Students will show understanding of where they are in their learning and where they need to go using self-assessment strategies and feedback from teachers and peers in order to communicate their understanding in mathematics and to add relevant detail to writing tasks.

Measures of Student Achievement

As a Thames Valley District Schoo Board school, we at John Dearness believe that assessment and evaluation of student achievement are part of the learning process. Information gathered through assessment and evaluation helps teachers to determine students' strengths and areas for improvement in their achievement of curricular expectations. It also serves to guide teachers in adapting curriculum and instructional approaches to students' needs and in assessing the overall effectiveness of program and classroom practices. A variety of methods are used to gauge student progress some of which include: observations, large group, small group and 1:1 conversations with students, student work, inquiry projects and tests. For more information regarding our EQAO results, please click here.

Co-Curricular Activities

Performing Arts:  Choirs for each division, Ukelele and Band

School teams : Volleyball, Basketball, Track and Field and Cross Country

Clubs: Dance, Chess Club, Coding Club, Library Club, News Team, Garden and Groundskeepers  

Student Council with representatives from all classes from Grade 4 up 

Safe Schools Team

Noteworthy Items

Student voice and leadership are important here at John Dearness.  Our monthly sharing assembies are planned and led by students.  We continue to enjoy some terrific spirit building activities during our annual Camp JD, held each June with the support of our community and staff and in conjunction with a  community barbecue,  We hold an annual Cutural Arts Festival in the spring that brings many arts representing al of the Arts into our school to work with students.  In June of each year our Gr. 7 students come together for the Gr. 7 Retreat to explore personal leadership issues, build on the notion of collaborative leadership and to define a vision and plan for positive leadership for their Gr. 8 year.    We are very proud of our students and their ongoing commitment to working hard, contributing to school spirit and bettering our school community! The students at John Dearness continue to achieve strong academic results on provincial tests conducted by Ontario's Education Quality Accountability Office (EQAO).

Volunteers at Dearness

Community volunteers assist in a variety of ways, such as coaching teams, helping to supervise class trips and working with students in classrooms. They provide ongoing support for the school under the direction of the Principal and parent committees. We truly value the great community support here at Dearness!