Brampton, ON | Grades JK - 8 | Shortlist
The students are amazing. The class sizes are small and so this naturally allows for close bonds to be formed. What I really love about walking into the school and seeing the interactions is the children blend together regardless of age or grade. You will hear the bigger children saying hello to the younger ones and the younger ones running up to greet the older ones. The older children also take on a leadership role with the younger ones - helping out with the kiss and ride and calling the playing children after school when parents arrive. The students also work well with helping out at field trips and events. The younger children look up to the older ones. This allows for an organic mentorship that happens year after year!
The school has small classes, like 8-12 students per class, my son's class has 8 kids which allows him the ability to have sufficient classmates for interacting with and ability to work in groups. This class size also enables each student to get individual attention and the children also feel more comfortable sharing and contributing verbally in class because of the smaller more intimate classes. The entire school does certain sports together, this encourages camaraderie among the students. The students in my son's class support, encourage and help each other. They also work well in groups and provide positive feedback to their classmates after their presentations. My son sometimes talk about reading to the junior and senior kindergarten classes, so I know the children are given an opportunity to practice helping each other.