THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PRIVATE AND INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS
A primer on how to navigate the Toronto private school world— and find the right fit for your family
There are more Than 250 independent schools
the City of Toronto alone, with hundreds more across the GTA. Certain schools provide an International Baccalaureate education, while some focus on athletics, language immersion or university preparedness, and others offer all of the above. And the varieties don’t end there. From coed or single-sex to faith-infused or secular, parents have a wealth of choices when it comes to the kind of education they want for their children.
These choices are exactly what makes an independent school education so unique, says Patti MacDonald, executive director of Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS), a national organization that represents 38 of the more than 1,300 independent schools in Ontario. “Each one has its own vision, mission and values, and that in fact is the raison d’être of independent schools,” she says. “They offer something that isn’t being provided by the public education system.”
Beyond smaller class sizes, the advantages of an independent-school education have long been known to parents dissatisfied with their local public schools. In a landmark 2007 Fraser Institute survey of 919 households with children in Ontario independent schools, 94 per cent of parents said disappointment with public schools was a factor in going the private route. Ontario parents also said the main benefits for their children were safety, dedicated teachers and a well-rounded, character-building education.
A balanced education goes beyond athletics and test scores. MacDonald says that, in the past decade, independent schools have placed student mental health at the forefront by being proactive about how best to support students academically and emotionally. Many independent schools have psychologists, social workers and counsellors on staff. Several GTA schools also provide counsellors at the elementary level, both to give teachers well-being development training and to work directly with students.
It’s About CommunIty
Independent schools ensure that their students connect with the world beyond their classroom walls to give them perspective and experiential learning opportunities. For example, Mississauga’s Appleby College organizes field trips including a recent tour of the Large Hadron Collider (the world’s biggest particle accelerator) in Switzerland. Appleby also hosts canoe trips and winter camping at its northern campus in Temagami, Ontario. Thirty per cent of Appleby’s student body is international, giving students opportunities to interact with different cultures inside the classroom as well.
A key aspect of beyond-campus education is an emphasis on giving back to communities. Younger students at the allboys Crescent School participate in community outreach activities in their Lawrence Park neighbourhood, such as singing at senior homes and toy drives during the holiday season. “The ‘my own backyard’ concept has to take centre stage,” says Sheryl Murray, Crescent School’s director of outreach. “We want our boys to realize that people in need of assistance are everywhere, even down the street.” Since 2000, Crescent School has also organized domestic and international outreach trips for their high school students, focused on immersing them in the lives of their host communities. Along with two-week trips to countries such as Ecuador, South Africa and Iceland (as well as a week spent with the Maasai tribe in Tanzania), students also
visit First Nations communities like the Moose Cree First Nation in Northeastern Ontario. The boys spend two days camping in a Cree reserve while learning the necessities of the locals’ way of life, from ice fishing to how to butcher hunted meat. “For students, it’s been an eye-opener,” says Murray. “Understanding these nations’ relationships with the environment and hearing from their perspectives have become invaluable.”
Innovation Matters
Independent schools invest millions in new facilities and initiatives to stay on the cutting edge. “Because they’re independent, they’re nimbler than the public school system and able to innovate in a more fluid way,” says MacDonald. Forest Hill’s Upper Canada College (UCC), an all-boys school, is opening a new design lab this fall for its Lower School students—one year after the launch of its Upper School lab. The labs will offer a combined 6,500 square feet of learning space, giving students access to multimedia workstations and equipment including laser cutters and 3-D printers.
Last fall, UCC also participated in a blockchain hackathon spearheaded by the neighbouring Bishop Strachan School (BSS). Ever since its trail-blazing start as an all-girls school in 1867, BSS has endeavoured to prepare its students for the rapidly changing demands of the workforce of the future, says Mary Anne Van Acker, assistant head of innovation development and technology at BSS. “We’re always looking for emergent fields and how we can integrate them into skills development from a learning perspective,” she says.
While STEM has been a prominent focus for more than a decade and coding is now integrated into the curriculum from JK to Grade 12, BSS’s hackathon employed a novel approach to introduce high-school students to the fastgrowing field of blockchain—a fun and intensive crash course in coding.
After hosting its inaugural blockchain hackathon in March 2018, BSS collaborated with four other independent schools (UCC, Havergal College, Royal St. George’s College and Holy Trinity School) for a five-day event with 50 students working together in teams of five or six. “We saw the blockchain hackathon as an opportunity to bring in true multidisciplinary learning through the lens of technology,” says Van Acker. Students were drawn from different areas of interest—computer science, math, business, media arts and more. Using real life United Nations sustainable development goals as guidelines, students conceived, coded and designed an app to address problems like poverty and inequality from a business perspective.
Another growing trend has been social entrepreneurship education. Branksome Hall, an all-girls school in Rosedale, just launched Noodle, Canada’s first high-school level startup accelerator at a girls’ school. Successful applicants from grades 7 to 12 will pitch their business ideas and compete for a $10,000 first prize in seed funding, which will be awarded in 2020 to support the winning project’s development. Secondand third-place prizes will be $1,000 and $400, respectively. Successful applicants are assigned mentors to help them on their journey and will also tour existing start-ups.
the application process
Once you’ve decided you want to take the independent school route, CAIS’s MacDonald suggests doing research on several different schools as well as talking to friends and colleagues with children in both public and private schools to get a sense of the city’s educational landscape. Parents typically book appointments for open houses in the fall— many schools also provide student-guided tours throughout the academic year (some also offer virtual tours). Schools start taking applications in the fall for the next school year.
While independent-school tuition costs can be prohibitive for many families, most schools offer financial aid options pegged to household income—the less you make, the more aid you’re eligible to get. In 2018 alone, more than $77 million was distributed to students enrolled in CAIS schools. This emphasis on financial aid is a reflection of the importance of student diversity for independent schools. “Our schools work very hard to make sure they reflect the cities they are in,” says MacDonald, pointing to the example of UCC, which commits to ensuring 20 per cent of its students receive financial assistance.
Interviews with prospective students and their parents are conducted during the fall and winter. Entrance testing is also generally necessary—older students are often required to take the Secondary School Admissions Test (SSAT). Parents can expect to be asked about their hopes and dreams for their children, their education philosophies, and what they’re looking for from the school. Admission offers for the subsequent academic year are made in February.
But before they do anything else, MacDonald recommends that families sit together and talk about what kind of education they want. “Independent schools represent many different philosophies and perspectives,” she says. “The most important thing is you find the school that fits your family and your values.”