Safety and Security

As part of our mission at The Sterling Hall School, we are committed to offering a secure environment for the education of boys in mind, body, and spirit. At its most basic level, this includes creating an environment that is physically safe.

To ensure that we are providing the safest possible setting, SHS has worked with a safety and security consultant to improve our excellent safety measures even further. As an ongoing check, the SHS Safety and Security Committee regularly reviews issues and concerns, and initiates changes whenever necessary.

Safety precautions

The following are some of the key safety initiatives that we have in place to protect our students:

• Secure entrances. All doors are locked except for the main entrance, which is staffed by a Receptionist. This helps us limit accessibility for improved security.
• Visitor check-in. Visitors to the school are asked to sign in and to wear security tags identifying them as visitors.
• Parent pick-ups. Students in JK to Grade 2 are dismissed directly to their parents, who must come into the school to pick them up. Children may be released into the care of another adult only if a release form is completed by a parent in advance.
• Outdoor supervision. Teachers are on duty outdoors during the arrival and departure times and during recesses.
• Background checks. All adults working at the school, whether they are full-time, part-time, or volunteer, submit to a police check.
• Health and medical care. A School Nurse is on site during regular school hours to address any health issues.
• Allergy alert. We operate as a "nut aware" environment, which means that we do not bring foods into the school that contain any type of nuts or peanuts, to protect boys who may have serious allergies.
• Practice drills. We conduct several practice drills each year, to rehearse procedures in case of evacuation or lock-down situation.
• Small classes. Our high teacher-student ratio of better than 1:8 means that we can provide more effective supervision of students than schools with larger class sizes.
• Risk monitoring service. We employ a risk monitoring service that assesses our safety and security protocols on a monthly basis.
• Faculty and Staff. Our Faculty and Staff are receive training annually in CPR and AED life-saving skills. 

A community effort

The support of our community is essential for the success of our safety initiatives. We ask for the participation of our parents in helping us to fulfill these safety protocols, and we welcome your comments and suggestions.

View safety tips courtesy of the Toronto Police Services.