Turner Fenton Secondary School
Turner Fenton Secondary School is a high school in the Peel Region, located in Brampton, Ontario, operated by the Peel District School Board. Turner Fenton Secondary School's name is inherited from two schools that were later merged, which were named after J. A. Turner, the first director of the Peel board, and W. J. Fenton, a pioneer educator.[4]
Turner Fenton Secondary School
Sports, clubs, and traditions[edit]
CultureFest[edit]
CultureFest,[8] called Diversity Celebration until 1996, has been an annual event held at Turner Fenton Secondary School since the founding of the school. It was started by students at J. A. Turner SS and was inherited by Turner Fenton after the merger.[9] The festival is entirely student-run and consists of live performances, educational booths and workshops, as well as a marketplace of international foods spread over two days and one performance night.
Turner Fenton also has clubs pertaining to cultural diversity and identity, including the Sikh Students Association (SSA)[10] and Turner Fenton Tamil Association.[11]
Conferences[edit]
Throughout the school year, many students are actively involved in a variety of different leadership conferences. Turner Fenton students run the annual START (Students: The Active Risk-Takers) conference, a 2-day event open to all Peel high school students. Moreover, the IB (International Baccalaureate) students of the school run the annual one-day Mentorship Conference (IBMC) in September of every year, introducing the new Grade 9 MYP (Middle Years Programme) students to the high school atmosphere.[12] Turner Fenton students are also recognized for their high involvement in the Peel Student Presidents' Council, whether students are executives on the council itself or take part in the yearly leadership conference as delegates, security or leadership developers.
The SOAR (Suddenly Opportunities Are Reachable) conference, which is a leadership conference held at the end of May for Peel middle-school students in grades 7 and 8, is also organized by Turner Fenton students.[13] Due to lack of positive response from teachers, the conference temporarily stopped taking place. However, in 2012, the conference was restarted and took place at W. G. Davis Sr. Public School, a feeder school for Turner Fenton. Because Ontario high school teachers protested against Bill 115 by not leading extracurricular activities, the conference did not take place in 2013 either. Since 2014, the SOAR conference has been taking place again at Turner Fenton.[13][14]
In December 2014, Turner Fenton hosted its first French conference Imaginons le Français, promoting francophone culture.[15]
HOSA[edit]
Since 2015, Turner Fenton HOSA has been one of the largest extracurricular activities offered at Turner Fenton, providing opportunities for motivated students to develop their scientific knowledge and their leadership abilities.[16]
DECA[edit]
Turner Fenton also has an DECA chapter, with members ranking at the Regional, Provincial, and International levels.
History[edit]
Turner Fenton Secondary School is composed of two buildings, called the North Hall and the South Hall. Until 1992, the two buildings were each schools in their own right, the North being J. A. Turner SS, and the South being W. J. Fenton SS. W. J. Fenton was the first of the two to open in 1972, built by Val Mitchell Construction. C.A. Smith built J. A. Turner Secondary in 1974. Both buildings were designed by architect Don E. Skinner Thughliphe.
The rooms of the North Hall are numbered 100s and 200s on the first floor and second floor, respectively; the South Hall rooms are numbered 300s on the first floor and 400s on the second floor. The portables are 500s. Each faculty department generally has its own section of the school. The English, math, science, business/technology and music departments, as well as the library and main administration, are in the North Hall. The history, moderns (French and other language studies), geography, arts (dramatic, visual, digital, culinary and cosmetic) departments are in the South Building. However, there are exceptions, such as certain biology classes that are taught in the South Hall. Administrative offices are split between the two buildings, with certain vice principals and guidance counsellors located specifically in the South Hall. Each building also has a cafeteria, the North Hall cafeteria being the larger of the two. Additionally, as the South Hall was equipped to serve culinary arts teaching, the cafeteria in the South Hall allows students to make/serve food.
Following the merger of the schools in 1992, the school was referred to officially on its main outdoor signage as "Turner Fenton Secondary School," but it had also adopted a secondary brand name "Turner Fenton Campus" used on school letterhead. In the early 2000s (decade), the school board forced Turner Fenton to standardize its name, because the school had not filed the proper forms upon its creation in 1992.