The Spring Issue of the QFHSA News
is here!
We’ve all made it through the long pandemic winter and are setting our sights on spring. This issue of the QFHSA News has us thinking about a number of things, including the Law 40 legal battle, the challenges teachers are facing, and how our Home & Schools are managing. Other highlights in this issue:
— English School Boards: The long journey to preserve them and the role the QFHSA has played through the years to advocate for them.
— The QFHSA’s Parenting Workshop Series Coming Up in May on Zoom
— News from local Home & Schools, and more!
The QFHSA Unsung Hero and Golden Torch Awards:
Time to Recognize Your Incredible Team!
Each year, the QFHSA helps local Home & Schools recognize the heroes in their midst—those Home & School volunteers and other volunteers who have made a difference in school life. During this pandemic year, many H&Ss have needed the support of the school administration, teachers, and support staff to accomplish their work in addition to their stellar volunteers. Who would you like to recognize in this exceptional year? We are pleased to offer H&Ss a couple of options:
For individuals: certificates and lapel pins (Cost: $10) As in previous years, you can present individuals with the Unsung Hero and Golden Torch awards described below.
For groups: certificates only (Cost: $5) You can also recognize a group of Unsung Heroes from your school that went above and beyond to help your H&S accomplish its activities this year. Perhaps your lunch monitors stepped in to help or a team of teachers?
Deadline for submissions: April 30
About the Awards
The Unsung Hero award recognizes volunteers, teachers, staff members, and administrators who are actively involved in everyday school life, who have proven to be helpful, reliable and courteous, who honour their commitments throughout the school year and who have been willing to take on additional responsibilities when the need arose, sometimes even behind the scenes. The dedication of these individuals merits recognition locally and provincially.
The Golden Torch award recognizes H&S Association or committee members who have demonstrated active leadership, organizational skills, encouragement of the participation of all volunteers, and whose dedication merits recognition locally and provincially.
Free Parenting Workshops!
Building Understanding:
Transitioning From Elementary to High School
The QFHSA is happy to welcome back Family Life Educator Karen Delage for this two-part parenting workshop series. With over 15 years of experience working with families and youth under the Youth Protection mandate, Karen Delage shares her wisdom through engaging and informative workshops.
This workshop series is especially useful for parents of children in Grades 5 and 6, but parents of Grade 4 students are welcome too. To get the most out of the experience, parents are encouraged to sign up for both workshops. If that is not possible, please join us for the workshop of your choice.
Workshop 1:
Preteen Developmental Stages & Evolving Needs
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021
7 to 8:30 p.m. on Zoom
This workshop will:
— Explore the developmental spheres and changes of this life stage (Ages 10-12)
— Translate changing behaviours into needs and identify how best to respond to them
Workshop 2:
Mutually Changing Roles & Responsibilities
Wednesday, May 26th, 2021
7 to 8:30 p.m. on Zoom
This workshop will:
— Explore what skills and competencies our preteen must start learning and why
— Identify parental adaptations that help support the development of autonomy in children
Our Annual General Meeting is coming soon! Find out more (including the QFHSA Resolutions that will be voted on) here.
Where is the Support for English-Speaking Students?
The QFHSA is deeply dismayed that the Quebec government is not allocating funds for tutoring for students in Quebec’s minority English-speaking community.
The Swing into Spring Webinars Are Now Available Online
In May 2020, the QFHSA collaborated with LEARN to offer two very informative workshops led by Family Life Educator Karen Delage. The workshops are full of information and practical suggestions for parents. Follow the links below to learn more about the following topics:
Webinar 1: A Time of Crisis = An Opportunity for Transformation
This workshop explores change – how we react to it, adapt to it, and move forward from it. Learn how you and your family can thrive in challenging times. The webinar is available here.
Webinar 2: Helping Families Navigate School Transitions
Especially useful parents of 10- to 12-year-olds, this workshop provides tips and tools to support a child making that leap into high school. The webinar is available here.
Offered in collaboration with
Challenge to Law 40
Bill 40 An Act to amend mainly the Education Act with regard to school organization and governance, tabled in October 2019, infringes on the constitutional rights of the English-speaking community of Quebec to manage and control our own education institutions.
We urged the Minister of Education to withdraw Bill 40, amend Bill 40, and /or exempt the English school system from its provisions, all to no avail.
Statement on the abolition of the “Ethics and Religious Culture” programme
The QFHSA’s Education, Rights and Resolutions Committee welcomes the opportunity to comment on the following: The abolishment of the Ethics and Religious Culture Course and the Consultation On The Ethics And Religious Culture Program Of Study.
QFHSA Member H&S Associations Interactive Map
Historical Listing of H&S Associations
Quebec Home and Schools may come and go over the years, but their contributions to their schools have not been forgotten. Here is a list of all the historic Home and School Associations. Those in blue ink remain active today. Find your H&S on the list!
NO TO LAW 21 CAMPAIGN 
Quebec’s Law 21 is discriminatory and divisive and must be fought on all fronts. The “No to Law 21” campaign, in partnership with Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations, invites Quebecers from all faiths, backgrounds and walks of life to proudly wear a button to demonstrate their opposition to this law.
QFHSA will be helping with the ordering and distribution of the buttons. To make a donation to this campaign, click on the donate button and choose the “No to Law 21” Fund.
Notice: QFHSA Annual Membership Fee Increase
At the 2018 Annual General Meeting, April 28, 2018, Treasurer Leah Trineer submitted a Notice of Motion to the delegates representing the member Home and School Associations. This notice advised the delegates that a motion to increase the QFHSA membership fee from $18 to $20 would be brought to the floor for a vote at the 2019 Annual General Meeting. (The annual membership fee had not been increased since 2012, when it went from $16 to $18.) This would give the member associations time to inform their membership.
On May 4, 2019 at the QFHSA Annual General Meeting, Treasurer Leah Trineer called for a Motion to adopt the new membership fee of $20.00 per family per year, effective September 2019. The motion was adopted unanimously.
All Home and School Association Presidents, Treasurers and Membership Chairs were subsequently advised of this increase.
QUEBEC FEDERATION OF HOME AND SCHOOL ASSOCIATIONS
Where is the community consultation?
May 13, 2019- The Quebec Federation of Home and School Associations, Inc. (QFHSA) defends the right of access to English education in Quebec, be it in small isolated rural schools in the regions, or small urban schools on the Island of Montreal. The QFHSA is, therefore, alarmed at the speed and heavy handedness which the current Minister of Education and Higher Education has used to forgo community consultation in favour of expediency. Only last year, the Ministry was proud to announce its education reform as a plan to give the community more direct say: “More than ever, we believe that schools must belong to their neighbourhoods. The members of a community are the people best equipped to determine the needs of their schools and defend the interests of the students in those schools.” – School Governance plan, CAQ website 2018, p. 4 Now, the process is more one of “informing parents”, not consulting with them, as was indicated in the recent letter sent by Jean-Francois Roberge, Minister of Education and Higher Education, to EMSB Chair Angela Mancini, regarding the unilateral transfer of three EMSB schools: Gerald McShane Elementary School, General Vanier Elementary School and John Paul I High School in the east end of Montreal to Commission scolaire de la Pointe-de-l’Île in Riviere-des-Prairies so soon after the transfer of Riverdale High School to Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys.
What happened to the promise of community consultation?
