Programs guide students toward university success
Private schools aim to foster pupils’ interests, strengths
At three Toronto private schools, students are well prepared for the academic rigours of post-secondary study. They also have ample opportunity to determine the programs and schools best suited to their interests and strengths in innovative ways.
At Bayview Glen, St. Clement’s and Toronto French School (TFS), students are encouraged to explore their interests and develop skills that will help them focus on a potential field of post-secondary study and can establish their sense of place in the community.
At TFS, students in the upper years can volunteer with various non-government organizations, says Alison Uys, the school’s director of university relations.
They can also participate in a student exchange to study abroad, typically in France, while members of some of the school’s clubs often travel around the world.
“Ultimately they — through clubs, through societies, through experiential learning opportunities, being mentored by alum — will be well on their way to having a self-awareness not only about a possible area of study, but engagement in the community,” Uys says.
All of that is done within the context of what Uys describes as one of the school’s core values: academic ambition.
TFS is an international baccalaureate (IB) school, meaning students take a broad range of courses, a handful of which are at the university level. By the time they graduate, they will have completed a university-level research paper.
In the end, Uys says, “Students’ choices for university are broad because they’ve studied broadly and in depth.”
Each student is also assigned a counsellor, with whom they work on exploring and understanding their goals and interests. In their last three years, post-secondary prep includes career fairs, speakers’ series and school visits, as well as lots of practise for the standardized admissions tests for U.S. and U.K. schools.
“Our mantra is: ‘University is a match to be made and not a prize to be won,’ ” Uys says.
At St. Clement’s, the school’s LINCWell department offers a “whole school approach” to preparing students for post-secondary education, says Nicole Bryant, LINCWell counsellor.
The program starts for Grade 9 students, when entire periods are built into their schedules during which counsellors help them answer fundamental questions about themselves.
“Our girls need to know who they are in order to know where they’re going to go,” Bryant says.
While university visits, alumni speakers’ series and presentations are on offer, there are also classes in the later years aimed at academic, personal and physical growth to foster students’ sense of balance, including spin classes or cooking courses.
Grade 12 programming also helps students prepare for life outside the classroom, Bryant says. This includes everything from basic financial literacy to laundry.
“For Grade12 this year, our theme is ‘Adulting 101,’ ” Bryant says.
Over at Bayview Glen, students are assigned a faculty mentor when they hit Grade 9, and they also get a career and academic counsellor.
“What we’re trying to do is talk about careers earlier so by the time they come to me in Grades11and12 to talk about the post-secondary part, they already have an idea of what the options are and now it’s a matter of finding the right programs,” says Troy Hammond, the school’s director of university counselling and student services department head.
Those discussions begin early, he says. The school’s Career Breakfast Series is open to students in the prep school, which runs from Grades 6 to 8, as well as the upper school.
And as students begin applying to post-secondary programs, they can take advantage of numerous supports, including information nights, scholarship opportunities, and an electronic system that tracks important dates and seminars on how to write an effective admissions essay.
Once students are accepted, they get lots of extra counselling to help them decide what program, in the end, will be the best fit. They also attend a “university transition workshop” before their final school year is out.
Yet parent James Kim, whose son Christopher graduated last spring and began his studies at the University of Guelph this fall, notes it was the school’s Round Square program, which offers students community service opportunities both at home and abroad, that really set his son on his post-secondary path.
Christopher went to Costa Rica and Argentina.
“Each time he came back incredibly fulfilled and feeling more confident in himself, and it gave him a sense of perspective on what he wants to do and, to his credit, has decided to go into history and political science because he wants to get that world view,” Kim says.
“That’s an intangible from a university prep standpoint.”