Counterpoint Academy (Ottawa location)

Counterpoint Academy actually has 2 locations, one in Overbrook (near Vanier) - Ottawa location and one in Kanata. I visited the Ottawa location.  This school is located in a quiet neighbourhood in Overbrook, and is actually in what was once the Overbrook Public School. There is a community centre across the street, which is currently under renovation; but the teachers say that the kids usually go to swim and play in the park there. It starts with pre-school (2.5 years) and goes up to grade 6. Some things I observed:

Price:
Pre-school is very reasonably priced at $900 a month. No food or snacks are provided, so it gives parents an early start on the lunch packing! The daycare centre consists of two rooms that where kids play in certain themed areas. I do have a friend who sends his son to the pre-school and says that his son has enjoyed his time there. They advertise that it is a bilingual school, although I did not meet with the teachers so I personally can't testify to the level of French the teachers actually do have. (I speak French fluently, and it is actually a pet peeve of mine when schools don't take language instruction seriously. I have personally known 2 Anglophone teachers who were sent for French training at Algonquin college so that they can offer French classes at their school. They were only at the intermediate level in French. Considering the number of Francophone teachers we have in the area, I find that rather shocking. ) The pre-schoolers here get the added bonus of getting to take advantage of some of the activities happening at the school. They get to watch the in-school concerts and get to take advantage of the school facilities that other daycares may not have.

Grades JK-6 the tuition fees are roughly $14,000 which is the city average. There are no bursaries offered, and there is a different rate for International students.



Uniforms: The uniforms look quite smart with gray and navy blue being the main colours. Looking at their uniform list, it does seem rather excessive to me however. There is a spring uniform and a fall uniform, the winter one is basically the fall uniform, but with an added sweater. The spring uniform is worn from May-June, which seems like a rather short amount of time to me. The gym uniform consists of shorts, T-shirt, track pants and sweatshirt. A lot of items which will end up costing quite a bit, however, in the grand scheme of things...not a big deal.


School grounds: One thing I did notice was the lack of grass. There is not one single patch of grass in the playground. The playground is next to the parking lot and its all cement with one sand pit where the structure is located. Its a large enough space for a city school, but I can't imagine too many kids fitting into the playground. 


Staff: My appointment was with the principal and I did meet some of the staff.  She was friendly enough, but I had the impression that she ruled her school with an iron fist. There was no doubt who the boss was in this setting. I personally, don't react well in situations where I feel as if I'm being talked down to - particularly if I'm the client. I personally think the key to leadership is making people want to follow you - not forcefully making people follow you. Subtle difference, but a difference to me. So, because of my personal reaction to her style of communication, I would worry about any interaction I would have to have with her should my child have any problems at school. The trust and comfort factor weren't there for me. I think a lot of it also had to do with the sales pitch, and the fact that it actually felt like a sales pitch.

When I decide on a school for my child, I want to make sure its one that I can keep her in for the long-haul. So, to me, this is like entering into a long-term relationship. I need to make sure the staff and I share similar goals and similar approaches to education; and that should there be differences, we can communicate and work the issues out together. I didn't quite feel like this was a good fit for me in that sense.



Board: This is a private school period. There is no parent board, no board of directors, nothing. The principal owns the school and what she says goes. She was not shy about that fact. She actually said she didn't want to deal with the hassle of consulting because people can't agree, so whatever decision she makes, the community will have to deal with. Its easier and simpler this way she claims. Personally, I'm not sure if this is a soup kitchen and the single chef analogy works. I'm more of the 'it takes a village to raise a child' mindset (although, arguably, some people hold more significant impact in a child's life than others, but still. All interactions matter); so again, not a good fit for me.

Curriculum: They advertise an enriched curriculum, as all private schools do. They follow the Ontario curriculum and are beginning to roll-out French immersion. One thing I did like about this school was their student-teacher ratio. Larger classes have a primary teacher and an assistant teacher who stays with the class throughout the day. Having the assistant really keeps the ratios low, which I really appreciate. However, there is a very high occurrence of combined classes at Counterpoint (two grades in one class). Their enrollment seems rather low and the school rather small. Some grades have as few as 4 students it seems. So if you are not a fan of combined classes, this may not be the school for you, as judging by the numbers; combined classes seem to be a probable reality.

Activities: Their calendar is shock full of activities. There are camps, field trips, ski trips, concerts, off-site phys-ed and much more. These activities are not included in the tuition, so parents need to budget accordingly for these. However, no fees are specified when you sign on, so you don't actually know how much to budget. Also, if your child is sick and misses the trip or activity, their contract clearly says that you still have to pay for these activities even if your child does not attend.

Overall rating: "I'm not sure I share the same philosophy as the school, and I'm not sure about the structure of the school. I fear that there may be a conflict of interest when the principal owns the school. Not for my family." 

**Addendum: I just spoke to my friend who has their son at the school. He is friends with the mother of a little girl in a different class. The girl was just pulled out of the school because of a disagreement that occurred with the principal which is now escalating to a lawsuit. The details surround the little getting hurt at the school, twice over the span of a month, both instances resulting in the girl being hospitalized. The mother claims that when she requested details of the incidents to report to the doctors, instead of being cooperative, the principal yelled at her for disrespecting her teachers by questioning the level of care that was given to her child. The lawsuit concerns the refund in tuition for the withdrawal of the child. I don't know the full details of the situation, and this information was obtained through a 3rd party source so there may be some inaccuracies.**

St. Laurent Academy

I heard about St. Laurent Academy through a neighbour who had a grandson that attended the school for a few years, so I decided to book a visit. Its close enough to town that its not too far out of my way to drop my daughter off. Its in a larger school building and is situated right next to park which gives it the advantage of extra grounds for the kids without having to actually pay to maintain them. The neighbourhood is residential, just off of the main street, so pick up and drop offs should be rather safe for the little ones like mine. There is a nice gymnasium and they have a lot of space in the school for future expansion. Here are some of my observations.

They follow the Ontario curriculum and advertise that its an enriched curriculum, which basically means they cover more than the basics. All private schools will say that, so that isn't a distinguishing feature for me. Plus, I have discovered that for private schools in general, there is actually very little oversight when it comes to curriculum. The Ministry of Education simply asks that private schools indicate whether or not they intend to offer their services each year and apply for their licence, and apparently that's that. The Ministry of Education brushes their hands and they are done. Private schools are considered independent of the education system so it is up to the school's principal to maintain standards. (Someone please comment if you have any other details to shed light on this point. I have had a hard time finding much about how private schools are regulated, if they even are regulated and monitored in terms of quality of education.) So this is another reason you want to make sure that the school principal shares similar philosophies on education as you do, or else, what the heck are you paying for? It also means that if you don't see eye to eye with the principal, there is very little recourse as the Ministry of Education has very limited vested interest in private schools. Perhaps this is a flaw in our system that should be brought to light.

Separate French and English cohorts. I personally found this idea to be very hard to understand and I actually had to ask the principal to clarify a few times what this actually meant. If I understand correctly, there is one French cohort and one English cohort and they actually remain separate for pretty much everything. Both cohorts have classes in the other official language, however it is not considered an immersion program because it doesn't meet the time requirement to qualify to be called an immersion program. (time is pretty much the only qualifier for a program to be called "immersion") I'm not quite sure what the advantage is for the school to keep them separate to this extent, other than the possibility that they may not have sufficient specialized staff to offer a full enriched bilingual curriculum. In which case, this signals to me, that one of the cohorts may have fewer teachers that are responsible for multiple subjects because of the language barrier.

Community-oriented. One of the things that struck me most about St. Laurent Academy was that you could immediately sense that you had just stepped into a warm community. Everyone seemed to respect and genuinely care about the other. Parents seemed highly involved in the school as there are many volunteer groups. The teachers seemed like they were fully invested in the interest of the school and the interest of the children. I could sense the team spirit. I sensed it the second I met the principal. She seemed like someone who is in it because she cares. She seems like the type of person that genuinely wants to make a difference and will work hard at it. She didn't come across as a slick business woman, or a tough salesperson; but to me, that is a good thing. Who wants that in a principal? Not me. I don't want someone who is going to put business first and then the children are just an afterthought.

Learning through experience. When I visited the classrooms, I was amazed at how much hands-on learning these kids were doing, and the level of investment that the teachers were putting into their classes. They had done things from building prototypes of the inside of the space shuttle to a mini-science museum in the classroom. The history room had recreated scenes depicting historical events and recreated ancient artwork. It was so incredibly hands on. If you are a proponent of this type of hands-on learning, I think you should definitely visit the school to learn more.

Tuition is around the city-average. You're looking at roughly $14,000 per year.

Overall rating: "Looks like a great school, but not sure if its a good fit for us"

Elmwood School Ottawa

(*note: when I use the term private school, I am referring to all classifications of schools...independent, not-for-profit, private etc. It gets too complex and confusing to differentiate otheriwise.)

Anyone that has shopped for private schools in Ottawa has heard of Elmwood School.  Elmwood, along with the neighbouring Ashbury, are private schools in a league of their own. They have the advantage of time on their sides. They are what I have in mind when I think of private school. They are similar to the schools that I went through personally, and it was in schools like those where I was truly challenged as an individual - I may not have necessarily liked all of the challenges growing up, but looking back, it was those experiences that really shaped me.

Some highlights from Elmwood:

Elmwood follows the IB program which means a solid curriculum, international recognition, and hence a slight advantage for graduates applying to universities overseas. I only say slight advantage, because truth is, Canada is a well respected country internationally and our high school diploma will be recognized pretty much anywhere in the world. However, one added advantage of the IB program is that this minimizes significantly the chances of your child being a split (blended) class. As many private school parents will know, many of the smaller private schools in Ottawa tend to have lower enrollment and sometimes two grades will be put into one class and hence share the teacher's time. Elmwood's enrollment is not currently an issue, but should such a scenario present itself, the IB structure is not conducive to split classes. So if split classes are an issue for you, you may want to consider the IB program.

Elmwood is classified as not-for-profit. This means that there is a board which is made up of a mix of current parents, alumni parents, as well as independent bodies. They make the decisions pertaining to the school and send their direction to the principal who is in charge of the execution of these decisions. This has the advantage of separating the education aspect from the business aspect by one degree of separation. This doesn't necessarily guarantee that all will be peachy-keen, but its one of the more democratic ways to run a school. So if you don't want to be at the mercy of the whim of one sole principal, you may wish to look into a not-for-profit structure or ask if the school has a board of directors.

Large school grounds. The history of Elmwood goes back many decades. Many of the grounds were actually donated to the school. Since Elmwood has time on its side, the school's properties are rather enviable in a time where grass is a rarety in a city-school. There are sports fields and separate buildings for the junior and senior schools. Shared facilities, such as gymnasiums are in good shape and roomy.

Teachers. Many of the classes at Elmwood are covered by one primary teacher and one assistant. Oftentimes, the teacher's assistant is a fully qualified teacher as well. Due to the school's large size, Elmwood has many specialized teachers who only have one, perhaps 2 main core subjects.

Price. What is that saying? "You get what you pay for..." Well, if that is any indication, Elmwood must be a darn good school. JK and SK are slightly more expensive than their other private school counterparts, but remain competitive at approx $16,000 a year. This price tag includes early morning drop-off. The big gulp, *gulp*, comes when students enter grade one, with a tuition jump that brings annual tuition to a whopping $20,000 a year. Add in the cost of uniforms, text book fees, and other outings and etc...parents had better plan their investment accordingly.

Bursaries. Elmwood does offer bursaries. They have an application process, and from what I have observed and heard through the grapevine, they are good with their bursaries. By good, I mean, they offer them to students. Although they may be a not-for-profit, they still need to pay the bills. So money, is still an issue. So bursaries add some tuition flexibility to aid the overall business plan.

Uniforms. I'm not overly picky with uniforms. As long as the school has them, I'm happy. And as long as it doesn't get too ridiculously expensive, I'm fine with that. These uniforms are a rather ugly green, and some of the items are rather expensive; but in the grand scheme of things, not a big ticket item...in more ways than one.

Overall rating:  "If I could afford it, I would send my daughter there"