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Kendellhurst Academy School Leadership
Kendellhurst Academy's leadership emphasizes fostering a nurturing, fun, and interactive learning environment with strong communication among students, teachers, and parents. Families and alumni commend the school for its collaborative spirit and commitment to holistic education, where each student's academic and personal development is prioritized through enriched curricula and innovative programs like the Virtues Program.
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Insider community voices
Hear directly from Kendellhurst Academy community as they share insights into the School Leadership.
Facts and analysis
MESSAGE FROM THE LEADERSHIP
We invited Paula Carrasco-Kendell, School Director at Kendellhurst Academy, to share a message.
The overview highlights the vision, values, and guiding principles that shape leadership and the student experience at Kendellhurst Academy.
Paula Carrasco-Kendell, School Director
Hon.B.A., B.Ed. (OCT), M.A.T., M. Ed.
Hello and welcome to the Kendellhurst Academy web link at Our Kids! Kendellhurst Academy is set in the beautiful Credit Valley in the heart of Streetsville, Mississauga. We are a small, boutique style school with all the large school amenities such as a full indoor gymnasium with stage, huge play yards, soccer field, baseball diamond, and separate play yard spaces for our kindergarten students. Our oversized classrooms are warm, inviting and filled with sunlight - many classrooms overlooking garden spaces with mature trees. We offer an enriched academic program with a well-rounded curriculum plan. Six field trips a year complement our curriculum both in-person or virtually through our Digital Interactive Displays. We don't miss a beat at Kendellhurst with a seamless technology program. In school, we have daily French language lessons which support reading, writing and speaking en francais! Every Wednesday, our students enjoy Zumba, box fit and hip hop dance taught by specialized instructors. This is part of our regular physical education program. We have qualified teachers (OCT) carrying specialities such as French, science, dramatic arts, music, visual/fine arts, mathematics, etc. This ensures your child receives passionate and knowledgeable instruction. Our after school clubs are supervised by classroom teachers and include activities such as sports, running, Mandarin, culinary arts, Lego, STEM, etc. We are also members of the Private School Athletic Association allowing for a competitive sports program. We invite your family to visit our school in-person or through Zoom and meet some members of our administrative and teaching faculty. We look forward to providing you with a tour of our beautiful school campus!
INTERVIEW WITH THE LEADERSHIP
We interviewed Paula Carrasco-Kendell, Director at Kendellhurst Academy.
In conversation with school leadership, the discussion centred on the school’s mission, educational approach, and the vision shaping key decisions.
Paula Carrasco-Kendell, Director of Kendellhurst Academy, shared her perspective on the school’s nurturing philosophy, strong academics, individualized learning, close-knit community, and diverse extracurricular opportunities. She reflected on how the school’s flexible approach allows students to learn at an appropriate level, pursue reach-ahead credits, and develop through academics, athletics, and interest-based activities within a welcoming and multicultural environment.
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Highlights from the interview
We started the school with the mission of nurturing the mind and spirit, and we started as a preschool and grew solely from that. So a lot of our foundation, policies, and procedures are based on nurturing and care, and a strong academic focus came along after that.
They often say that it takes a village to raise a child, and that is what Kendallhurst Academy is. We are a community of families, and our whole goal is to raise a child as a community and to know that a well-rounded school experience is probably the best experience for a child and creates a warm and nurturing environment where they can then flourish.
In every classroom, we have different pods. We have emergent, intermediate, and advanced pods. And those pods of learners are fluid. So their child is always in a situation where they can advance, or if they're finding they're challenged in certain subjects, they might go into a different pod in order to achieve that balance and move forward.
We found that our students were pretty much a year ahead, and we weren't taking advantage of that as they graduated from school with us. So what we did was integrate that into our Grade 8 program, where our students are doing Grade 9 credits in math and English literature. Once they go to high school, they have these two credits under their belt.
We'd like to actually add more reach-ahead credits to our program. That way, our students could possibly even have a full repertoire of credits before they get to high school.
Our school is very multicultural and diverse, and our teacher population reflects that diversity. Our school is very welcoming and close-knit because we are very boutique and small.
When new students come, it's also very welcoming because we're excited to have a new family join the school.
One of the things that's really important to us is that, as a small school, we still get to compete in different sports because we belong to the private school athletic association. And last year, I will brag a little bit that we won the basketball championship for the U12. So even being a small school, we're able to compete and to do really well.
We have a lot of wonderful after-school clubs that are based on our students' interests.
