ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Our elementary school program places a strong emphasis on enriching and deepening student learning that demonstrates proven performance. We continue to stress the importance of community and citizenship, while celebrating student achievement and success. Realizing that both grade 5 and grade 6 students are just coming out of an elementary-school environment, special attention is given to making a gradual transition into mid-grades for these younger students.
Fundamental to our program is the expectation that students direct their learning by organizing Ontario Education curriculum learner outcomes into relevant learning experiences and products that demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. Our continuously evolving program includes a wide variety of course selections.
The experience of a child in the elementary grades is like a voyage of discovery through the "the spiral of learning." With the love and guidance of a main teacher and several special subject teachers, an elementary child experiences
Meeting and honoring many cultures through the integrated study of the history of the world's civilizations
Introduction to French and Spanish language
Living and learning in community with classmates
Joyful creation of beautiful and useful things through the handwork curriculum
An academic program fully integrated with painting, drawing, and music
Learning through many styles and by living fully in the studied subjects
OUR SCHOOL
meets the needs of students who want to make a difference in the world, by developing the critical thinking and problem-solving skills to learn how to make a difference, and hone their writing and oral presentation skills in order to lead the way in resolving local and global issues. We have a strong academic focus, but activities in all areas are enhanced by having an additional global perspective. We encourage students to research issues from a number of different viewpoints, to examine ideas using higher order thinking skills, to learn how to ask why and learn how to make a difference themselves. Our aim is to develop thoughtful, well-educated citizens who are motivated to make a difference in the world and to equip them with the skills to accomplish their goals.
The academic program focuses on five major disciplines: Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and French. This core coursework is supplemented throughout the grades by experiences in Fine Arts, Physical Education, Computer Studies, and Character Education.
of our graduates get into the top post-secondary program of their choosing
100%
Science
Social Studies
The social studies curriculum is designed to help children organize and develop appropriate perceptions of themselves and the world around them. Class discussions and role-playing are used, along with materials from various programs designed to strengthen self-concepts and decision-making skills. To enhance their studies, students frequently work in cooperative groups, give oral presentations, enact historically significant events, and make use of the computer as a tool in research and presentations.
Language Arts
The middle school language arts program teaches advanced reading comprehension, literary analysis, critical thinking, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation, and writing skills. In the middle school literary analysis strand, students perform a variety of activities before, during and after reading, and learn to identify genre, voice, point of view, mood and use of various literary techniques such as flashbacks and foreshadowing.
In middle school reading comprehension, students will distinguish between fact and opinion, cause and effect, fantasy and reality, as well as learn to identify the main idea of a passage. Students will paraphrase and summarize in order to enhance comprehension.
In the middle school grammar and punctuation strand, students learn more sophisticated elements of sentence structure, dependent and independent clauses, and work with parts of speech, including action, helping, transitive and intransitive verbs, adverbs and adjectives, and conjunctions.
Middle school writing is developed through extensive composition work that is closely tied to the other skills being taught in middle school language arts. In the middle school critical thinking strand, students are challenged to think critically as they analyze propaganda techniques and advertising messages, learn to distinguish fact from opinion and work with metaphors, similes and analogies.
The development of reading and language arts skills is a major focus of the elementary school. An eclectic approach, combining children's literature with exercises from basal readers, is used. Emphasis is placed on phonics and other word attack strategies, comprehension skills, and vocabulary building. All other aspects of language arts – grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. – are incorporated into the program through writing, which is an integral part of the language arts program.
Quantum Academy offers middle school science and social studies enrichment activities through a series of modularized lessons that allow students to learn and review at their own pace. This rich assortment of lessons can be used as a supplement to any standardized curriculum.
In science, students develop an understanding and working use of the scientific method as they practice questioning, predicting, observing, experimenting, collecting data, and drawing conclusions. Activities and experiments encourage students to develop skills of scientific inquiry as they deal with a wide range of topics within the physical, chemical, and biological sciences.
Math
In middle school, the math levels move forward quickly, so children without sound foundational skills can get lost and need remedial help. Quantum Academy allows parents to place children independently within our curriculum to ensure that each student is working at his or her optimal level. It is not unusual for a student to be working at an eighth grade language arts level and a seventh grade math level, for instance. The middle school math lesson plans are organized by skills.
Each lesson focuses on a skill, first introducing it using an animated or illustrated lesson designed to interest middle school students. Students then work their way through interactive exercises to learn the skill, use printable worksheets for reinforcement, and finally are tested with unit quizzes to assess their mastery of the material.
Our middle school math curriculum includes:
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Middle School Number Sense
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Middle School Algebra
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Middle School Geometry and Spatial Reasoning
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Middle School Measurement
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Middle School Data Analysis and Probability
