REVIEW OF Wise Owl Private School BY parent, Kate Lebedeva

(5) Student Experience

My son is thriving academically and emotionally at Little Owl Private School. We came to Little Owl after his academic results were declining at another school, and Little Owl Private School facilitated recovery of his academic skills in line with his age group and his further development. Emotionally my son was also helped, when he joined Little Owl Private School he was very shy which affected his ability to make friends. However by the end of the first year at Little Owl Private School my son became very outgoing and now makes friends with ease at school and outside of the school environment. Joining Little Owl Private School was the right decision for our family, there is a lot of focus on both kid’s academic and emotional development.

(4.5) School Leadership

The Little Owl School offers compassionate leadership, where the kids are treated with kindness, fairness and just. All issues appear to be addressed swiftly, but in kind and compassionate manner. There is no guilt or fault culture, but rather the culture that fosters understanding within kids, and children’s poor behaviour is addressed promptly. Communication between school leadership and parents is timely, clear and concise. Teachers and school’s administration are available and communicate not only Monday to Friday but also make themselves available on the weekends when needed.

(5) Teaching

The teachers at the Little Owl Private School are passionate and really care to deliver quality education. While there is a structured program, teachers at the Little Owl Private School deliver content in an interactive way. Quality of instruction seems to be high across all subjects. The tasks kids are asked to do are challenging, but just challenging enough to make them attainable. Teachers provide support to the kids if they struggle to understand or complete their tasks. There is a lot of attention to homework being completed and submitted on time. My son loves all of the classes and is always happy to go to school, even on Mondays! We can’t say enough good things about teaching at the Little Owl Private School.

(5) Academics

There is a lot of focus on academics. We specifically picked The Little Owl Private School due to this school offering Standard and Accelerated Academic curriculum, as we believe for academics to be the building blocks of education. When we came to the Little Owl Private School, my son’s academic abilities were declining and were not representative of his age group, they were below expectations. By the end of the first year, despite COVID, not only my son’s academic skills have recovered to be representative of his age group, but his academic skills now well exceed his age group. We are very happy with the progress our son has made over the last 2 years. His progress would be concerned good in any environment, but it is worth noting this improvement took place during COVID pandemic.

(4.5) Extracurriculars

There are many clubs that the Little Owl Private School offers, unfortunately due to COVID some of the clubs were not running due to restrictions. Before COVID pandemic my son was taking 2 languages clubs, and a science club. We are looking forward to all of the clubs reopening soon, and planning to join music and dance clubs in addition to science and languages.

(5) Students

The Little Owl Private School is a small school, all the classes are around 10 to 12 students, which personally we like a lot because this allows for ample personal attention to be paid to each student. The school environment is very inviting and friendly, and all kids seem very happy. Students all seem to get along very well! If you ask my son, he will say that everyone is his friend at school. While kids are separated into defined classes by age group for academic learning, for clubs and free time they mix with other age groups. This approach allows younger and older kids interact together, which I personally believe has been beneficial to my son’s emotional development. We are very happy with this structure.

(5) School Life

My son loves going to The Little Owl Private School, before we joined this school, he was in another school and getting him to go to the school was an issue, especially on Monday’s. However now he looks forward to going to school, he loves everything about his school, classes, kids, teachers. While there is a lot of focus on academics, kindergarten teachers make sure the school day is broken up with yoga, dance, play, singing, exercise and going outside for breaks. All of this activity keeps kids engaged, and happy. Even during COVID pandemic, even when teaching on-line classes the teachers would ask the kids to stand up and dance or do yoga or or their physical exercises.

(4) Community

We joined the Little Owl Private School in December 2019, which gave us only 3 and a half school months prior to COVID, as such it is very difficult for me to comment on Community Involvement. In December 2019 School organized a wonderful Christmas concert and play, and an evening for the entire school and parents. Every kid attending the school had a part either In the concert or in the play, afterwards there was a reception for kids, parents and teachers. There were a lot of plans made for 2020 school outings and parents were being asked to participate, but unfortunately pandemic has changed all of these plans. Personally I am looking forward to things getting back to normal and all of those plans becoming a reality again.

(3.5) School Location

The Little Owl Private School is located in a busy neighbourhood, and kids have a school yard where they play, but outside of organized school trips they don’t really go outside of school premises. The neighbourhood the school located in is busy, but safe, and School can be conveniently accessed by both car and public transit, is close to subway and highway.