Community Involvement Hours Requirement

Service Learning Hours at The York School

General Overview

Students must complete 40 hours of community involvement between the summer before grade 9 and the end of grade 12. The purpose of the community involvement requirement is to encourage students to develop awareness and understanding of civic responsibility and of the role they can play and the contributions they can make in supporting and strengthening their communities. 

The York School encourages students to complete most or all of the 40 hours before the beginning of grade 11 so students may focus on developing their Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) portfolio in the Diploma Program.

Students will record their community involvement hours on ManageBac as OSSD Service experiences in the Service as Action (SA) section in grades 9 & 10 and the CAS section in grades 11 & 12. 

At the end of each school year, all completed community involvement (service) hours that have been successfully recorded in ManageBac will be recorded on the student's report card.

What can I do to earn my service hours?

There are certain activities that qualify for service learning hours and can be counted toward the Ontario graduation requirement.

Some of the eligible activities offered at York and with external organizations can be found here.

Students are also encouraged to develop their own service plan as long as it adheres to the Ministry of Ontario guidelines and York School guidelines (*See Below*)

How to Document Your Hours

The steps to document your hours are as follows:

• Enter the activity in ManageBac under SA, for grades 9/10, and CAS, for grades 11/12.

• Give a description of the activity and select target learning outcomes

• Add a supervisor’s contact information

• Ask your Advisor to approve the activity

• Start your service experience!

When you’ve completed your service experience:

• Add the number of hours you volunteered to your activity in ManagBbac

• Complete a reflection that comments on the experience and how you met each learning outcome

• Click “Supervisor Review” to send the link to confirm the accuracy of your documentation to your supervisor

• Let your Advisor know when the Supervisor has signed off on the ManageBac link so they can change your SA or CAS activity to Completed!

*The Ontario Ministry of Education's List of Ineligible Activities*

The ministry has developed a list of activities that may not be chosen as community involvement activities and that are therefore ineligible activities. An ineligible activity is an activity that:

• is a requirement of a class or course in which the student is enrolled (e.g., cooperative education portion of a course, job shadowing, work experience);

• takes place during the time allotted for the instructional program on a school day. However, an activity that takes place during the student's lunch breaks or “spare” periods is permissible;

• takes place in a logging or mining environment, if the student is under sixteen years of age;

• takes place in a factory, if the student is under fifteen years of age;

• takes place in a workplace other than a factory, if the student is under fourteen years of age and is not accompanied by an adult;

• would normally be performed for wages by a person in the workplace;

• involves the operation of a vehicle, power tools, or scaffolding;

• involves the administration of any type or form of medication or medical procedure to other persons;

• involves handling of substances classed as “designated substances” under the Occupational Health and Safety Act;

• requires the knowledge of a tradesperson whose trade is regulated by the provincial government;

• involves banking or the handling of securities, or the handling of jewellery, works of art, antiques, or other valuables;

• consists of duties normally performed in the home (i.e., daily chores) or personal recreational activities;

• involves a court-ordered program (e.g., community-service program for young offenders, probationary program