Montcrest School ADMISSIONS

I remember the admissions staff being really helpful during the process. So, obviously, we would fill out a paper application, just like we did at three schools in total. And then Abby went for a half-day visit with the Senior Kindergarten class because that was the year that she would be joining, just for her to get a sense of the environment and for the teachers to have a chance to meet her and get to know her a little bit. Then came a bit of a waiting game where you wait to find out if your child's been accepted. I did feel that it was a pretty seamless process and that Montcrest and the other schools as well were quite helpful during it.

One of our close friends said, ‘You really should consider this school— go and see what it's like.’ And we did and I wish someone had said that sooner, because I suspect we probably would have tried to move sooner if we could have.

We chose Montcrest for the typical reasons in the beginning. Location. We didn't want to go all the way to the West end. So location drove our catchment area. We were not fans of the school blazer. We wanted something a bit more casual, a bit more light. So that took out some of those schools as well. We narrowed it down to two. We chose Montcrest based on what we knew. We went to visit both and basically they delivered on both.

The typical classroom size, I think, is somewhere between 16 to 20. It's varied a little bit from year to year. They also try to maintain a healthy balance between girls and boys. So it being a coed school, sometimes in a particular enrolment year there will be more applicants for boys, but they really do try when making those decisions to keep that balance. So it's not heavily weighted one side or the other. I would say that 16 to 20 is a bit of a sweet spot. It's large enough that there's lots of different voices and different opinions coming through in discussions, but it's small enough that both Abby and Claire are getting the individual attention when needed. So I think it's just right for us.

We chose the school because we had several friends whose children went there, and we'd heard wonderful things about it. One close friend in particular had a daughter who had gone through Montcrest and graduated in Grade 8 and who had absolutely loved it. We chose it because it was a smaller school and it felt like a family. It was very welcoming and warm. And that's how we ended up deciding to apply for our daughter.

I would definitely recommend Montcrest School, and I have recommended it to lots of friends. We've had so many positive experiences there that we are happy to share those with others. In terms of advice, I would say just to be open and honest about your children's needs and the type of environment that you feel that they will thrive in. At the time you're applying, obviously, faculty and staff don't have a chance to know your child just yet, so you really are the best advocate for that. And then your children will get a chance to come and experience it for themselves. But I do feel, being there for as many years as we have, that sometimes they actually know better what's best for Abby and Claire than I do! They see them in that environment every day. It's nice to develop that trust with the teachers and really have that partnership in your child's learning.