Yes. Admission priority will be given to applicants who reside in the city of Toronto (M” postal code).
Student enrolment in grades 10 – 12 is determined yearly. For the 2024/2025 only students applying to grade 10 will be considered. A centralized random selection process will be held if the number of applicants exceeds the number of spaces available.
Yes, your child can apply to UFA even if they do not attend a TDSB school.
We are currently following the Day 1 and Day 2
UFA Class Schedule that is posted on our website. The
Wednesday Program are mini-courses in a wide variety of topics that students sign up for each month. The Wednesday Programs typically run for four weeks and there are four time slots of choices per Wednesday. On Wednesdays, classes begin at 10:15 a.m. and end at 3:05 p.m.
UFA is a semestered school. Students take 4 courses per semester.
Nut Break is short for “Nutrition Break” and it’s the ten-minute break we have between morning classes each day.
No. We do not offer any specialized courses. Our rigorous approach to the curriculum combined with self-directed learning opportunities in our Wednesday Program provides for a well-rounded and challenging learning experience for all students.
Yes. For the application to be complete all applicants must submit an “Expression of Interest”. Student applicants may choose the format of their submission and the submission should briefly outline or explain their interest in their selected program.
Approximately 90-95% of our students will attend university within two years of graduating from Ursula Franklin Academy.
For a small school of 500 students, we offer a comparatively wide array of teams each season. Our website at
UFA Extra-Curricular Programs shows typical athletic team offerings.
UFA provides a challenging academic environment for students. Because we devote approximately 15% of our class time to our Wednesday Program, our regular classes move at an accelerated pace. This is why students applying to UFA need to be at level 3 or higher in literacy and numeracy: students with strong foundational skills will be ready for the challenges and be able to meet with greater success.
If the number of applicants exceeds the number of spaces available in any given year, all eligible students will be placed in a pool for a random selection. The number of students we can accept varies from year to year, but typically ranges from 108 to 135.
The Wednesday Program is perhaps the most unique aspect of UFA. Throughout the school year, we run a series of mini-courses offered by our regular teaching faculty, and sometimes by guests such as parents, community members and students themselves. There are typically 6 units throughout the year, and for each unit, there will be 3-5 weeks of time where four time slots are filled with the students’ choices. Students find out what’s on offer by reading course descriptions online and then signing up electronically. It’s a great opportunity for students to choose what they learn and how they learn, and the marks they receive in these mini-courses will constitute 7% of their final grades in their 8 regular courses.
Yes! Students can approach their teachers for extra help at lunch and after school. As well, from October to May, the school offers PASS Club (drop in peer tutoring) twice a week at lunch. We also offer after school numeracy classes. Another excellent way for students to seek extra help is to sign up for remedial sessions offered for some courses during the Wednesday Program.
UFA is proud to have this reputation. Over the years, we have had our students involved in a wide variety of Wednesday courses, extra-curricular initiatives, and regular course projects that address issues of social justice. A foundational principle of our school is to try to create authentic, real-world projects for our students, and this has often led us to get involved in activities that help to make our school and broader community a more inclusive and equitable place. We look to Ursula Franklin’s own words to inspire us: “Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice and the absence of fear….”
No. People often ask us this because Ursula Franklin, herself, was Professor Emeritus of Engineering at the University of Toronto, and because we identify our specialized school status to be “integrated technology.” We do have a very strong and rigorous math and science curriculum, and we try to find authentic and creative ways to discuss and incorporate the critical use of emergent technologies into many of our assignments. We also are strong in the fine arts, liberal arts and social sciences. Unlike other schools, we require our students to take a third science credit in Grade 11 or 12.
We do not have instrumental or vocal courses, but we do have music via our Audio Production courses. We also have some music-related Wednesday Program offerings such as “Guitar Jam” and “Ukulele Club”. We offer drama courses and have a yearly drama production.
The grade nine retreat is typically 3 days in length and is held at Camp Tamarack near Bracebridge. Every grade nine student must attend, and the program is designed and led by thirty PALS and student leaders. The focus is on friendship-building and transitioning to high school. The teachers also lead a couple of workshops on social justice and the values of the school, with a close look at who Ursula Franklin, the woman, was and the contributions she has made.
The UFA PALS (People Acting as Leaders in Spirit) are a group of student leaders whose job it is to run activities designed to help new students transition smoothly and happily into their new school setting. Aside from leading activities at the retreat, they run activities at our Family Potluck in May, as well as on the first day of school in September.
No. There are three schools that make up this campus: Ursula Franklin Academy, Western Technical and Commercial School, and THESTUDENTSCHOOL, an alternative grade 11-12 school. Each school has very distinct and clearly marked areas, separate administrations and faculty, and we only share an auditorium and outdoor field. Very occasionally, we might join one another for an event, but typically, the students do not mingle at all.
