William Berczy Public School
Encyclopedia
William Berczy Public School is a public elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...

 in the town of Unionville
Unionville, Ontario
Unionville is a suburban village in Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is located 33 km northeast of downtown Toronto and 4 km east of southern Richmond Hill. Unionville is located between Woodbine Avenue as the western limit, alongside the Rouge River leading to McCowan Road as the eastern...

, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is a public school in the York Region District School Board
York Region District School Board
The York Region District School Board, also known as YRDSB, is the English-language public school board for York Regional Municipality located in Ontario, Canada. The York Region District School Board is currently the province's third largest school board, with an enrollment of over 115,000 students...

. The school's name comes from William Berczy
William Berczy
William Berczy was a German pioneer and painter....

, who founded the town in which the school is located. It is relatively old compared to other schools in the area, having been built in 1968.

Original Layout

The school itself is a two-story building. Originally intended for a high school, William Berczy has a relatively large gym at the centre of the school with rooms surrounding. The ground floor mainly consists of offices and facilities with only 6 classrooms. The office, all the washrooms, the music room and the staff room were all located on the ground floor. The second floor of William Berczy is significantly different from other schools. Originally planned as an "open concept", the second floor of William Berczy is structured as hubs. Two large areas of the floor are connected by the library. In the centre is a hub in which the classrooms are decided upon 6 triangular shaped classrooms branching out from the hub. In the 1970s, walls were added to separate the classrooms. The walls could originally open and close, but are now stuck at semi-open. The upstairs is compacted with no hallways so students must cross other classrooms to get to their own classroom. In addition to this, a portable classrooms add another 4 rooms to the school along with 3 other separated portables. At the start of the school, there were 11 portables.

Renovations

In 2002, a new wing was added as an expansion to the north-west end of the school. Other changes include the moving of the portables and in its place creating pavement and several basketball nets. There was only one portable along with a portapak as of 2005. Because the office was hard to locate from the main entrance of the school, and for security, the school underwent construction in the summer of 2006. The school's office and an adjacent classroom have now been combined to make a bigger office which has a direct view of the main entrance. The stairs to the right of the main entrance were removed and a hallway was built in place connecting the new office to the main entrance. In 2007, two new portables have been added due to the increasing number of students attending William Berczy. The back of the school has two small soccer fields which could be combined to make one large soccer field, accompanied with a baseball diamond.

Gifted program

One of the main programs in this school is the Gifted program, which is the main reason for its high population. In Ontario, students are screened for giftedness in grade 3 and are transferred to a gifted program from grades 4-8 if identified as intellectually gifted. William Berczy is the school for most of the gifted students in Markham. It also receives the grade 7 and 8 gifted students that graduate from Roy H. Crosby Public School in grade 6, as they do not have a grade 7 or 8 gifted program there. For this reason, there are almost 10 school bus routes at William Berczy and only students at a walking distance from William Berczy are permitted to attend the regular program. More than 50% of the students of William Berczy are gifted. Gifted students from William Berczy may choose to go to Markham District High School
Markham District High School
Markham District High School is a public high school in the town of Markham,Ontario, Canada. It is one of 29 high schools in the York Region District School Board....

 as a continuation of the Gifted program. The Gifted program, however, only continues up until grade 10. Those at MDHS can choose to continue by taking advanced placement, or return to their home high school.

Sports

William Berczy offers junior and intermediate sports teams. The sports offered are basketball, badminton and volleyball. There is a basketball and volleyball team for junior and intermediates, and a badminton team for intermediates.

Music

Many extracurricular music programs occurred at William Berczy:

- 5/6 Band, a band for Grade 5's and 6's
- Senior Concert Band
Concert band
A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...

, a band for Grade 8s

- Junior Concert Band, a band for Grade 7s and selected Grade 6s

- Dixieland Beat

- Full Orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...



- String Ensemble

- Violin Duet

- Man Choir, also known as the Berczy Boys' Choir

- String Quartet, an ensemble of string players

- Tessitura Triplets, a trio of singers

- Triple Melodies, a trio of singers, plus an understudy

- Concert Choir, made up of junior and intermediate students

- Conductors Choir, made up of Grade 8 students

- Jazz Band, also known as Berczy Big Band

- Jazz Choir

- Trombone Choir

- Barbershop Quartet

- Berczy Super Group, a rock band consisting of seven musicians that claim to be the first public school rock band in the province of Ontario (possibly Canada) to release a CD album on May 26th, 2010 of Beatles music licensed by Sony.

Clubs

- Free The Children

- Art Club

- Dance Committee

- Better Berczy Club

- Tekkies

- Supertekkies

- Yearbook Commitee (Near the end of the school year only)

- Chess Club

Fraser Institute

William Berczy ranked 1 out of 2786 in 2008 according to the Fraser Institute. It has maintained a high academic level throughout the past 5 years, ranking 1 out of 2374.

External links

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