Roundtable Q&A Discussion About La Citadelle International Academy of Arts & Science (2020)

What differentiates La Citadelle is that family touch. We're friends with the other parents. It's a big, happy family. We were at the school doing activities and we know that the kids are well looked after. We share anything. We've become friends that way. The parents have coffee on Friday mornings. We just go up to the Longo's and whoever joins, joins.

Academically, La Citadelle is more demanding than others and it’s fun. Because of the amount of courses offered at La Citadelle, our children have a broader education than the average high school students here. Throughout the schooling, they have to take all these courses that give them a broader range of knowledge, and I think that's very important. Now that my oldest son is at university, he knows how to pace himself. Exams are not as stressful as for other people around them. When my oldest son was there, they would do exams starting in Grade 1, then they moved them and made it a bit more relaxed. Exam time is not stress time.

Another value that the school has is discipline. My younger son is a bit of a mess and they are moulding him into becoming a bit more responsible, a bit more disciplined. They’re teaching me to be patient with him, which is amazing.

Everybody knows the kids from years before, and the years after. When there is a new student coming into the class, other students help them integrate better. When my son had just started, there were some Grade 4 students who came up to me and asked, ‘Does he like the school?’ I replied, ‘No, he's not too used to it. He's still new.’ The Grade 4 students spent about a month's worth of recesses with my youngest son, who was in JK, to make sure that he was feeling welcome. And this is something I don't think you see in any other school.

It’s important that there are many teachers teaching different subjects, starting at the lower grades, because students learn how to learn with different teaching methods. You're not going to have one teacher or one “boss” or one interaction with one type of person. You're going to have to deal with a lot of different personalities, a lot of different ways of talking, of guiding.

If any of the parents of new or old students need something, they have a question, we've set up WhatsApp chats for within the grade. The parents would get support as well as the students. So somebody forgot their homework, somebody forgot their books, we have that support, we have that unofficial process in place. My oldest son got a summer job through one of the parents at La Citadelle because of connections. It's a community as well as a school.

The amount of homework students bring depends on the students. My son does his homework at school and he manages to finish it. So it depends on the students. The homework is the same for every student in the same class, but it depends on how the student handles it. My son has issues with long-term projects and planning them. But the daily homework is easy enough.

Teachers will collaborate with each other so that another teacher doesn’t assign a big assignment for the same day. They will try to overlap them, or spread them out throughout the month or the trimester.

The interactions between the grades allows for everybody to know each other. I could spend my recess as a Grade 11 student just playing tag with third graders without it being weird. My friend group in high school, we would sit, and it would be students from Grade 9 to 12. It was really fun doing activities. All the parents here, I knew their kids. I tutored some of their kids for French and helped them read. And it was really cool because I still feel part of the community now.

I really like the environment, the fact that you could just knock on a teacher's door, and they would be happy to sit down with you, talk about your problems or just talk about life, and really help you with either your schoolwork or your personal life. I remember spending some of my lunches with my French teacher. She was like a second mom to me. I'm still in contact with her. It was just really welcoming and interactive.

Exam season turned out to be my favourite time of year sometimes because after you did your exams, it was such a relief and you were just there around your friends. During my first exam season, I was so nervous. But then I realised that it's such a supportive environment that I didn't need to panic that much because everybody was there to support me.

The science courses really helped me prepare for university, and the fact that I think some of my high school exams were almost the same material as my first-year university exams. At one point, I could see how they overlapped.

La Citadelle definitely helped me manage my time and pace myself. Everybody was there to support you, so when it was the time to be stressed, I got so much support and learned how to deal with it that when I'm in the university setting, I feel comfortable and don't feel rushed or overwhelmed with stress.

My English teacher was really understanding. He would spend more time explaining the basic concepts in class, because he knew that I was maybe not at the same level as everybody else. He would pull me aside and just help me with homework. Or my French teacher, we were a really small French class: only two in Grade 10. So she would really help me. I was struggling with literature. So not to be afraid to ask for help even from the students because people are there to help you.

It’s really bilingual, the fact that I could speak in French or in English with almost all the teachers, or if I was just having a French day and couldn't think of a word in English, I could just spill it out in French and everybody would understand. Some of the conversations were really bilingual.

I was shocked when my three-year-old in pre-K actually participated in the Science Fair, and did a project on the Rainbow, and did it all by herself. That's pretty remarkable when you see your children presenting, in French, their own science experiments. I think it's super important that academics are being instilled at a very, very young age.

The biggest impact La Citadelle had on my child definitely is confidence, respect, and academics. Coming up to Grade 1, my daughter is very confident. Confidence is a big thing that they try to instil in these children and teach them because they make them accountable for their own actions, even from a very young age.

As far as school values go, I think there's a notion of resiliency that's really focused on how a child is really adapting and building those healthy relationships. Whether it's with other students or with their teachers or just even among their own little classroom, they really do teach them that. And it's not just about academics either, it's about discipline and respect and how we treat others.

What families would find most surprising is that everyone knows everyone, whether you're in Grade 12, whether you're a student or a teacher, or whether you're down in elementary. And you can see that even with the parents who come in and volunteer, no matter which grade we're in, we know the kids, we know the parents. It really is a family community. It really is.

Core values also extend out to the families who come to the school. I have no problem having my child hang out with some of the families, because I know that we're going to learn something from them, and maybe they will learn a little bit from us as well. We're cut from the same cloth. So it's a good thing. It's a really good thing.

That was our biggest fear: ‘How am I going to help with the homework because of the language barrier?’ But as I was told by the school, your job as a parent is to make sure that the child is actually attempting it. Basically, write back to the school and tell them this is the situation, this is what did happen or didn't happen, and they just take it from there. You're going to get as much out of it as you put into it as a parent. So the resources are there. You just have to tap into them. So they do have support systems in place for that. Everybody's watching out for your child.

If you're looking for a strong academic program that’s disciplined, teaches respect but is also fun and makes your children enjoy learning, I think La Citadelle is a fantastic choice. It's a good, safe environment, as well.

I feel you can be friends with the teachers as well as the students, so I feel like that’s what really differentiates La Citadelle from others.

I came from an English-speaking school. I came to La Citadelle in Grade 7 when all classes were in French. And at first, I was a bit lost. I didn't really know what's going on, but I was able to talk to the teachers and they also were able to accommodate me by keeping me after school and teaching me French after school, so that I could understand.

A heavy workload at La Citadelle helped me learn how to prepare for university and how to manage my time. We had a significant amount of exams at La Citadelle, because of the number of courses we took. Up until Grade 10, I remember I used to have 10 courses, so that would mean 10 exams. And now in university, I only have five courses.

I would say that typically you get homework after every class. That doesn't apply for every single class, but that's what I felt. And also in terms of assignments, maybe like one assignment per month for every class on average. Which I think was pretty manageable.

You can really rely on the teachers for support, something that I felt throughout my entire time. There was just a continuous feeling of support, whether it was from the teachers or from other parents. At La Citadelle, you can ask your fellow students for help. They can help you. Maybe they're struggling, too, and you can both ask the teacher, and very, very much rely on the support system that the school offers, because it will come in handy.

​​A lot of schools, especially private schools, are very competitive and even though the academics are very rigorous at the school, you don't really get that same level of competitiveness just because everyone is so supportive of each other. You can let them know that you're struggling.

La Citadelle taught us how to study and also how to pace your time during the exam. I learned how to be able to write a good essay in a short amount of time. And it's a really important quality for university exams. Some of my university exams have been shorter than my exams at La Citadelle. So I really appreciated having that foundation going into university.

The academics at the school are truly, really good and well-rounded. I spent my entire school life there, so the person I am was very much shaped by my peers, my teachers, even parents at the school. I think that the school community is very engaging and it's worth it to go to the school, even just for the community. I think the school has been integral in shaping me into the person I am today.

What I want to tell other parents is that the kids do work hard, but they really enjoy it while doing that. So it's a nice balance.

This is our eighth year and as I see the growth in my kids, it's certainly a pleasure to see them progress both academically and then blossom socially and creatively. I'm glad that the school does foster that environment where they can grow and develop in those three important areas.

The collective environment and community that La Citadelle provides is unique. What families would find most surprising about La Citadelle: I can't think of kids from other grades interacting with each other in any other school. I think that is unusual. I think it's rare.

​​I was proud of the way that La Citadelle and all the teachers did a fantastic job of pivoting to the online program during the pandemic. I was proud of the way that the school and my son, in particular, quickly pivoted to a very effective online program. And then, as they've come back to school in-person, I think that the protocols make sense.