WESTMOUNT CHARTER SCHOOLAs a Charter School, Westmount is expected to engage in innovative educational practices that improve the overall educational landscape in Alberta. In a decade of operation, the school has introduced a number of fresh practices and perspectives which are detailed in the historical overview below. Currently, our innovative practices include:
- Admissions practices which recognize the complexity of giftedness. Students are admitted not solely on the basis of across-the-board IQ thresholds, but on a broad range of input from parents, educators, and student interviews, test and assessment activities.
- a strong emphasis on humanitarianism as a key component to the full social-emotional development of gifted adolescents. Locally-developed Human Condition courses and humanitarian travel, including a trip to Ecuador in 2007, are receiving strong support from students and parents. Students participating in at least 60 hours of volunteerism during their high school years receive Gifted Education Diplomas in Community Volunteerism and/or School Leadership.
- engagement of the phenomenon of "gifted underachievement". Our cycle III AISI project is focusing on the need for student, parent and school to act in a "tri-partnership" in order to address gifted underachievement, and the Student Services team has been expanded to increase the amount of in-school support available for students in need. Westmount works closely with the Centre for Gifted Education, University of Calgary, to ensure that current understandings and "best practices" are shared between our institutions.
- special emphasis is being placed on the mentoring of new teachers. Westmount has been a site for many student teachers, and recently certificated teachers are part of an ongoing program of mentoring, with the assistance of Dr. Cynthia Prasow and school administration.
Westmount Charter School was founded in 1996 by the Action for Bright Children (Calgary) Society, under the name of ABC Charter Public School. Initially offering classes for gifted grade 1-3 children in little Bridgeland School, Kindergarten was soon added. For this first year, the school's public accountability was through the Calgary Board of Education. In 1997, efforts to add grade 4, to begin expanding the program to a full K-12 school, were delayed until the Alberta government made changes to the reporting and accountability framework of charter schools.
In 1998, now publicly accountable through its own Charter School Board, in a larger location on the old Currie Barracks in SW Calgary, ABC added grades 4 and 5. One additional grade was added to the school each year until 2005, when the school reached its full K-12 grade range.
From 1996 to 2002, ABC Charter Public School's Principal was Jo-Anne Koch. Jo-Anne was a visionary leader in bringing this publicly funded School for Gifted children into reality. ABC's unique contribution was the combining of gifted education principles with Multiple Intelligence theory, a compacted curriculum, Personal Education Plans (PEPs) for each student, and re-grouping in core subjects according to while maintaining an age-peer home room, and many of those concepts remain hallmarks of the Westmount program today. Parent participation was particularly high during these years, including "Treasury of Talent" days in which parents came to do presentations for gifted students on a variety of vocations and interests. As the student population increased and "mid-grades" were added, Magy Butterfield joined the ABC team as Vice-Principal.
The 2001-2002 school year was filled with transitions. The program moved again, from the Currie Barracks to the Viscount Bennett Centre, and by mid-September Ms. Koch had become very ill. Acting Principal Magy Butterfield and Vice Principal Marylyn Waters did an admirable job in managing this year of transition, which saw a huge increase in student numbers in a facility that was still under renovation. One innovation of this year was the combination of Language Arts and Social Studies into Humanities, which allowed academically-advanced students to move ahead without having to engage subject matter for which they were not yet emotionally ready.
Dr. Elaine McDougall became Principal in 2002. Vice Principals during this time were Marylyn Waters, Marlee Cole and Martha Faulkner. High School was added, beginning with the question, "what qualities do we want to see in graduates of our High School?" A high value was placed on volunteerism, which became an expected component of all High School students' lives, and on the need for the school to keep honouring the multiple-intelligence-related areas of excellence that are so much a part of a gifted student's reality. Fine Arts programming was added, including the Summerstock Drama program, Band and Visual Arts. Grade 7 students had the opportunity to choose "Project Earth", an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to core subjects which includes a significant focus on Outdoor Education. The importance of Differentiated Instruction became a focus area for the teaching staff, with the innovative "Professional Partners" program (our cycle II AISI project) providing cross-subject, cross-grades professional learning communities for all teaching staff.
Now that the ABC program had expanded to include middle school and high school, it was also time for a new name. The name Westmount Charter School was selected after considerable consultation, a name chosen in part because it did not have a lot of preconceived connections - it would be up to the school's students and staff to create a reputation of excellence for the Westmount name.
In 2005, Martha Faulkner became Principal, with Vice Principals Marylyn Waters, Arnold Nugent, Neil Robinson, and, in 2007, Dani Hunter and Hal Curties. The school held its first Grade 12 graduation in 2006, with students receiving Gifted Education Diplomas according to their accomplishments in Academics, Community Volunteerism, School Leadership, and (in 2006) Performing Arts, in addition to their Alberta High School Diploma. Advanced Placement (AP) courses have been added, to meet the needs of motivated, high-achieving High School students, and the locally-developed Human Condition courses and associated humanitarian travel opportunities have become a strong part of our school culture.
Long Service
Westmount Charter School is proud of the fact that so many of our teachers, administrators and support staff have many years of experience with us. Many staff members joined during the ABC years, and have been part of the trials and joys of seeing a small school of elementary-aged children grow to a full K-12 program without losing its unique focus on the academic and social-emotional needs of gifted learners.
The following staff members have been with ABC/Westmount for 10 years or more:
(2006) Chris Byron, Wendy Cole, Bonnie Graham, Bev Lynch; (2007) Marylyn Waters, Kathy Champ. Many more members of our staff have been with the school for 5 or more years, providing the Westmount community with an experience of stability and continuity.
It is also noteworthy that twenty-one grade 11 and 12 students currently enrolled at Westmount (in the 2007-2008 school year) were part of the very first year of ABC/Westmount in 1996!
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