Ottawa, ON | Grades 1 - 12 | Shortlist
There is a martial arts program after school and there are competitions with other schools in various sports, however, I feel that there is not enough of an emphasis on truly being competitive within any given sport. Most of this is for fun outside of the martial arts program. While this has been great for our son, is a significant difference from regular schools. Parents generally will enroll their children in outside programs if higher competition is something they are looking for and the school will support this by working around schedules should they conflict. Some of the inter school programs include volleyball, basketball, soccer, rugby but as previously mentioned is mainly just for fun. Our son enjoyed the camaraderie of this and the opportunity to attend.
My daughter is enrolled in martial arts which is not something she would have ever considered in the past so it is making her a much more rounder person. They offer many socially conscious programs such as Me to We that are for me very important in addition to academics. School trips and events are also of interest to her. For a smaller school, the amount of extra-curriculars are appropriate.
I am not aware of many extracurricular activities (e.g. clubs, teams, etc.), but that could be because my child is not particularly interested in organized activities. Additionally, because most students require transportation by parents (no buses, and school not within walking distance), pick up can be an issue for coordinating participation in after school programs. There are some clubs and sports teams. My child said that the physical education class at Heritage was the first one that actually challenged him. The end of year trip and ski club are usually big hits for the students. This year, the students are taking an exciting trip to Toronto to visit a variety of venues and participate in some fun activities. The field trips occur fairly frequently, and take the students to fun and interesting places to enhance their learning experience.
Extracurricular activities were great and always enjoyed by the kids. The challenge is team sports because there are not enough kids to do that. But they focused on individual sports. In fact, Mike started a Ju-Jitsu program that our daughter loved and she transitioned into wrestling in high school as a result and has competed provincially 4 years in a row.
