W. Ross Macdonald School | |
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Address | |
350 Brant Avenue , , Canada | |
Coordinates | 43°09′09″N80°17′04″W / 43.15257°N 80.2844°W |
Information | |
School type | Public Day/Boarding Co-Ed for blind, visually impaired and deafblind students |
Motto | "The Impossible is only the Untried" |
Founded | 1872 as "Ontario Institution for the Education of the Blind" |
Oversight | Ministry of Education |
Principal | Daniel Maggiacomo |
Grades | kindergarten-12 |
Enrollment | 200 |
Language | English |
Website | pdsbnet |
The W. Ross Macdonald School was founded in March 1872 in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Its first principal was Ezekiel Stone Wiggins. [1]
It provides instruction from kindergarten to secondary school graduation for blind and deafblind students.
W. Ross Macdonald is the only school in Ontario for blind and deafblind students and the only such school in Canada serving academic students. It draws students from across Ontario and other provinces and has residences to accommodate those that do not live in the local area. Placement at W. Ross Macdonald is a decision made by students, parents and their local school board, when it is decided that such an environment would be the best option at that time. In addition to their own students, the school provides services to District School Boards for students who are blind or Deafblind through Short Term Programs and Vision and Deafblind Resource Consultants. All services are provided free of charge for both parents and school boards.
The school was originally named the Ontario Institution for the Education of the Blind when it opened in 1872, and later called the Ontario School for the Blind. It was given its current name in 1974 in honour of Brantford citizen William Ross Macdonald, who served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1968 to 1974.
Students receive instruction in all areas of the Expanded Core Curriculum, according to individual student need. This instruction is supported by student support staff after school for those students who reside at the school from Monday to Friday. All students return home each weekend. Day programming starts at Junior Kindergarten, with accommodation offered on campus for students when it is deemed they have maturity to benefit.
The school's motto is "The Impossible is only the Untried".
In recent years, a concerted effort has been made to provide landmarks in the physical layout of the newer buildings, to aid students in navigation. A variety of materials and textures are used in the building floors and walls to allow for more efficient orientation. The classroom windows are above eye-level of the students in order to provide indirect light because students with a vision impairment can find direct lighting difficult. Artificial lighting uses special lights with dimmer switch. As well, student lockers are larger than conventional school lockers and include seating.
Brantford is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County, but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independent of the county's municipal government.
Paris is a community located in the County of Brant, Ontario, Canada. It lies just northwest from the city of Brantford at the spot where the Nith River empties into the Grand River. Paris was voted "the Prettiest Little Town in Canada" by Harrowsmith Magazine. The town was established in 1850. In 1999, its town government was amalgamated into that of the County of Brant, ending 149 years as a separate incorporated municipality, with Paris as the largest population centre in the county.
William Ross Macdonald, served as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1968 to 1974, and as 22nd Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada from 1949 to 1953.
The County of Brant is a single-tier municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario. Although it retains the word "county" in its name, the municipality is a single-tier municipal government and has no upper tier. The County of Brant has service offices in Burford, Paris, Oakland, Onondaga and St. George. The largest population centre is Paris.
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Brantford Collegiate Institute and Vocational School, also known as "Brantford Collegiate Institute" or "BCI", is a secondary school in the city of Brantford. It is a member of the Grand Erie District School Board, a medium-sized school board in the Province of Ontario. About 1350 students attend BCI. BCI has many sports teams, clubs, and an active Library Learning Commons.
Jason Joseph Dunkerley is a Canadian Paralympian athlete competing mainly in category T11 and T12 middle-distance events.
William Gawtress Raymond was a Liberal party member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was born in London, England and became a merchant and postmaster. Raymond was a former student of the Ontario Institute for the Blind in Brantford, after losing most of his sight on a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope in 1873. He began his attendance at the school immediately after emigrating to Canada in 1873.
The 2010 Brantford municipal election was held on October 25, 2010, to elect a mayor, city councillors, and school trustees in the city of Brantford, Ontario.
The 1997 Brantford municipal election was held on November 10, 1997, to elect a mayor, councillors, and school trustees in the city of Brantford, Ontario. Some of the rural and small-town communities outside of Brantford also held elections on the same day.
Bob Taylor is a politician in the Canadian province of Ontario. He was the mayor of Brantford from 1991 to 1994 and served as a city councillor on two separate occasions.
Ezekiel Stone Wiggins was a Canadian weather and earthquake predictor known as the "Ottawa Prophet". He was the author of several scientific, educational and religious works.
Tom Thomson is a Canadian judoka, coach, and head instructor at the Brantford Judo Club in Brantford, Ontario, who has been the head coach of the Canadian Paralympic Judo team since the 2000 Paralympic Games in Sydney. In 2006 Thomson won the Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award for his work in the promotion and development of Visually Impaired Judo in Canada, and in 2010 he was recognized with a Special Contribution award at an Elite Coaching Symposium for Ontario in Toronto.
An intervener is a person who regularly works one-to-one with an individual who is deaf-blind. Deafblindness is a low incidence disability that describes individuals with varying degrees of vision and hearing losses. The combined loss often compromises the ability to access information in the environment or to communicate effectively. Interveners, by contributing communication and information, provide a medium through which deaf-blind individuals can link to the people, things and events in the world. Interveners provide services in educational settings for students, as well as in early intervention and community settings. The improvement of the social and emotional well-being of individuals with disabilities, is the goal of interveners.
Beverly Stanger was a blind Canadian Indigenous track and field athlete from the Timiskaming Band of Notre Dame du Nord, Quebec. She competed at the 1976 Toronto Olympics for the Physically Disabled, and the 1977 Ontario Summer games held in Brantford, Ontario. Stanger was a recipient of the prestigious Tom Longboat Award in 1976, only the second female to have done so and the first disabled athlete.
Kim Kilpatrick is a Canadian para-swimmer and therapist with a visual impairment. She won the gold medal in the women's 4 x 100-metre individual medley A competition as well as the silver medal in the women's 4 x 100-metre freestyle relay A-B and the women's 4 x 100-metre medley relay A-B events alongside Lisa Bentz, Yvette Michel and Andrea Rossi at the 1980 Summer Paralympics in Arnhem, Netherlands.