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THINKING ABOUT PRIVATE SCHOOL?
Above: Grade 6 students from Strathcona-Tweedsmuir hold longboards they designed and built themselves as part of an immersive class experience exploring the principles of design. Top right: A West Island College campus classroom, where class sizes never exceed 20 students. Bottom right: Uniforms are mandatory at West Island College and many other private schools.
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n Mackenzie’s Whitfield’s grade 10 year, she began to encounter problems academically. Part of the reason for this, she says, was the large class sizes at her school, which would sometimes reach up to 40 students per one teacher. It got to the point where Whitfield didn’t feel comfortable asking a question in class and grew anxious walking the crowded hallways. Resolved to find a solution, Whitfield and her parents made the choice to move her out of the public school system and into Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School, a K-12 private school
just outside Calgary, where the class sizes are capped at 16 students. At her new school, Whitfield’s grades, and her confidence, started to soar. “I think the relationship with the teachers was the biggest thing,” says Whitfield. “[They] were able to get to know everyone really individually … their strengths and weaknesses.” She says she felt challenged and listened to in class by her teachers, and the once-shy teen even began to take part in school plays and other extracurriculars as her worry went away. Calgary has several premier private schools, and, while they may be diverse in their educational approaches, most rarely see class sizes
Photos: top left by Jennifer Chipperfield Photography; top and bottom right by Carla Huhn
Small class sizes, specialized curriculum and leadership development are just some of the advantages offered by Calgary’s premier private schools.
swell beyond 20 students. At Rundle College, a K-12 private school in southwest Calgary, classes are capped at 15 students. “We really focus on individualized education and building strong relationships between our faculty and students, and our faculty and parents,” says Rundle College Society Headmaster Jason Rogers. Knowing a child will receive the attention they need within smaller, more attentive classroom settings is just one item in a long list of reasons why almost 10 per cent of Alberta parents, according to a 2016 Fraser Institute Study, choose private or independent school education for their children. 63