November 27, 2025
Change to the Automated Wright Living Lane Door Schedule
For safety reasons, the Wright Living Lane doors will no longer be automatically open during the morning, lunch and afternoon, as they have been. UTS staff will need to use their fob to gain access to our building from Monday to Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Students will be buzzed in by security. This is effective Monday, December 1.
Concerns with Student Attendance During Late Starts
We have noticed that a significant number of students continue to arrive at school during PD late starts, despite the day-before reminders from Heads of Schools indicating that the building is closed until 10 a.m. During the most recent late start, we had 81 students in the building (the majority were M3 to S6), posing a safety and security risk.
Beginning with the December 3 late start we will pilot locking the Washington doors until 10 a.m.
We are asking for your support in reminding students, especially in period 5 classes the day before late starts, that they may not enter the building until 10 a.m. on late-start days. In situations where exceptions are requested, please reach out to UTS Vice Principal of Academic Operations Jenny Pitt-Lainsbury to discuss. Thank you for helping us reinforce this expectation.
PA Day Report Writing
Reminder:
December 2 is a report card writing day for teachers. Students are not in the building on this day.
Teachers, please ensure you review the November 26 message from IT and the Report Planning 2025-26 for Teachers Pathway for instructions and guidelines related to report writing.
Please note: to account for the pause in the gradebook on November 27, teacher reports are now due on December 5th at 9:00am instead of December 4th.
Admissions will be using printers throughout the day for entrance tests. If you have print jobs to send through, please speak with any member of admissions to pause our print jobs!
Giving Tuesday
December 2 is Giving Tuesday at UTS! Thanks to a generous matching donor, this year, every gift made will be doubled, effectively making it "Giving Twosday."
Last year, the UTS community helped fund one full student bursary. This year, your gift can help us fund two full bursaries!
Double your impact and donate on December 2!
PA Testing
Facilities will be testing the PA System and adjusting the sound levels in offices and corridors from L3 to the third floor on December 2. This is the ideal time because students are not in the building and there are fewer staff onsite. The bells will sound periodically during the testing time. Staff will be notified over the PA system when this work will commence. We understand this may be disruptive. The alarms and PA will not be run for long periods of time but there will be a lot of intermittent testing. We wanted everyone to be aware so that they can make alternate arrangements if desired.
Late Start Notification
On the December 3 Late Start, Admissions will be having a pre-event meeting with 15 designated student helpers in room L133 from 9:15 to 10 a.m. A list of students will be shared with security for sign in.
Global Ideas Institute
A reminder that the Global Ideas Institute is using all classrooms on Levels 1 and 2 on December 3 after school. After school activities that usually run in those spaces have been relocated or cancelled. Please check your Google calendar.
Drone Filming
Drone filming will take place in the Fleck Atrium from 9 to 10 a.m. on December 3. No footage of identifiable people in the building will be taken.
Winter Concert and Charity Drive Dec 16 at 6 p.m.
‘Tis the season for musical performances at UTS! The Winter Concert is our biggest concert of the year, featuring nine of our co-curricular music ensembles from F1 to S6 and the M4, S5 and S6 music classes. With performances from a range of jazz, pop and classical styles, opera, festive tunes and traditional Japanese drumming, this concert will be a treat to the ears and a celebration of the Music Department’s incredible work this past term. For admission into the event, families are encouraged to bring a donation to the Student Outreach Coordinators SOCk Charity Drive. This year our SOCs are collecting items for the Yonge Street Mission. There is a particular need for:
new packages of socks
gently used clothing, particularly winter clothing
non-perishable food items
toiletries and hygiene products
Any staff who is available and willing to help support the concert in a supervisory role should reach out to Lyris Pat.
Egg Carton Drive December 1 to 15
UTS Sustainability and Environmental Action Committee is holding an egg carton drive starting on December 1. The empty cartons will be given to the Avenue Road foodbank to distribute eggs to foodbank clients. Cartons can be dropped off near the L1 microwaves starting on December 1. House points will be awarded.
Look Ahead: Relationship Mapping December 10 Staff Meeting
As part of our ongoing wellbeing work, we strive to ensure that every student has a positive, trusting relationship with at least one adult at UTS. This effort leverages ideas from Harvard’s Making Caring Common Project. This is our third year creating a snapshot of adult-student connection in the community and tailoring student outreach and support. If you are new to UTS, consider checking out information previously shared with staff.
UTSPA Funding Requests
The UTSPA request form is open to school activities that would like support for funding. The form can be found here and the deadline for this submission period is Friday, January 9, 2026. Good luck to all the applicants!
Room Bookings
Now that the school year is in full swing, co-curricular supervisors are asked to review their room bookings on their Google calendars and let the Student Life Office know if they are no longer using rooms, particularly at lunch.
Evans Library Staff Survey Results and Call for Class Visits
Here are some key takeaways from the 28 staff responses (and thank you - I’ll bring prizes to your office soon!)
Library staff need to promote our digital resources to staff and students. We’ll do this through our monthly newsletter, which is emailed to students and shared in Staff Updates, and additional promos. If you have questions about what’s available - for yourself, your classes or co-curriculars - please reach out.
We would never remove a digital resource from the Evans Library collection without consulting staff and students. Apologies if the survey made it sound like we might decide to get rid of something mid-year or without consultation.
I asked you to share if you might want to collaborate with the library this year. I was looking for you to let me know if there are ways I can support you/your classes/your student’s learning through co-teaching, library and research instruction sessions, digital/media literacy lessons etc. You all are so kind that you instead offered to help library staff/the library in various ways this year :) - thank you! I wanted to reiterate that as a teacher-librarian, I’m here to support you in your classrooms and courses, and there are many ways we can do this - reach out any time.
If you said that we should connect about infodemic, please reach out! There wasn’t a name attached to the survey.
Class Visits before the December Break
Through the survey, some students (especially those in lower grades and without spares) wished they had class time to visit the library and browse. Class time is at a premium, but if you’re interested in visiting before the winter break to stock up on holiday reading, we’d love to have you! Like last year, we’re aiming to check out 1,000 books between November 28 and December 19. This was shared with students in the November newsletter, but the more of us who promote the challenge, and promote holiday reading, the better! This week we had two of the F1 English classes in to do Book Speed Dating. It took 30-ish minutes, and was an easy and fun way to connect them with books they might not otherwise have given a chance. If you’re interested in something like this, or just free time for students to browse, let us know!
Finance Payment Requests and Order Request Deadlines Before Holiday Break
In preparation for the holiday break school closure, please see below regarding requests from Finance:
Payment requests: Please submit payment requests by Friday, December 12, 2025 at 5 p.m.
Amazon Business Orders: Please process all orders by Friday, December 19, 2025. Please avoid any delivery dates that fall between December 19, 2025 to January 4, 2026.
Non-Amazon Business Orders: Please submit all order requests by Thursday, December 11, 2025 at noon. Any orders received after this deadline will be processed in January 2026 when we return, to avoid deliveries during the holiday break closure.
Not sure who to send your request to? Please reference the Finance Request Process.
Follow up to GetReal Session on November 19
We've already heard some important and valuable feedback from staff about your experience and your learning needs on gender inclusion! Thank you. If you haven’t filled out the brief(really it is) survey, please do!
Many people have asked for slides. Find them here. Our Equity website will be updated with this resource along with the resources shared previously.
Finally, GetReal provided this FAQ document for your reference as follow up to their session: Get REAL - Educator Trans 101 FAQ
Class of 2025 Homecoming
On Thursday, December 18 at 4 p.m., join the Class of 2025 as they return to UTS for their Homecoming. Enjoy appetizers and soft drinks while reconnecting with our most recent alumni and hearing all the exciting things they have been up to since graduation.
Changes to Google Forms Settings
If you are creating a Google Form that is going to be shared with parents and guardians or other external users, be sure to set up your Google Form with these settings as the process has changed:
When you click the Share icon and change your Responder view to Anyone with the link, this is no longer enough!
In Settings under Collect email addresses select Do not collect
In the form itself, add a Short text question to ask for email addresses, set it to Required, then click the three dots.
Select Response validation.
Then select Text in the first dropdown, Email in the second dropdown, and if you like, add a custom error message.
Finally, open your form in an incognito window (Ctrl+Shift+N) and see if it asks you to log in or not. If it does not ask you to log in, then you have set up your form successfully. Congratulations!
