WESTMOUNT CHARTER SCHOOLThinking of applying to Westmount? - see below |
Westmount Charter School's mandate is to provide an excellent, publicly-funded program for Gifted Learners. Our Charter defines Giftedness in this way: "Students are gifted when they perform, or show potential for performing, remarkably high levels of accomplishment in learning rate, depth of knowledge, and reasoning and problem-solving abilities when compared to others of their age, experience, and environment."
Since we honour the Multiple Intelligences, we use a variety of tools in the qualification process prior to registration. Our largest intake group is at the grade one level where there are 68 spaces each year. Since our high school program is still young, there will be a significant number of openings in grades 10, 11 and 12; the openings at any of the other grades usually ranges around 10 per grade level.
What Westmount offers for your gifted learner
-Small class sizes
-Differentiated programming based on Alberta Education Curriculum that allows students to proceed at their own rate provided they have understood the concepts of the entire curriculum at their present level
-An emphasis on developing the Whole Child
-An emphasis on teaching students how to learn
-An emphasis on understanding concepts
-A caring learning environment that honours differences
-Qualified and dedicated staff
-Over a decade's experience in educating gifted learners
-A growing extracurricular and athletic program
-School bussing and easy access via Calgary's public transit system
-A teaching staff that models life long learning
-The opportunity to attend the same school from elementary grades to grade 12.
Click here for more information on how to select the right program for your gifted child!
Differentiation: a key aspect of our teaching
Through differentiated instruction teachers respond to each learners needs where the teacher becomes more a facilitator of the learning than the traditional teacher role as director of the learning. The guiding principles of differentiation focus on varied and flexible groupings of students, engaging students by allowing them to direct how they demonstrate their knowledge and understanding, and making full use of students multiple intelligences. When differentiation is fully in place, student enrichment is a daily occurrence, and time management skills and responsibility are natural by products.
All students work from the same learning outcomes but students and teachers can differentiate content, process or product according to a student's readiness, interests and learning profile. Differentiated instruction incorporates a range of instructional understandings such as:
-problem-based learning
-compacting
-literature circles
-self-directed studies
-varied texts
-questioning strategies
-small group instruction
-full group instruction
-group investigation
-individual investigation
-project work
-presentations
-conferencing
-clubs & activities.
Westmount's fee structure
Westmount Charter School is a publicly funded institution. We cannot and do not charge tuition! Like most public schools, however, Westmount charges modest instructional resource fees, and some Middle School and High School courses carry additional fees. To see the fee schedule, click here.
Learn more about the Westmount program:
To learn more about our kindergarten, click here.
To learn more about our elementary grades (gr 1-5), click here.
To learn more about our middle school (gr 6-8), click here.
To learn more about our high school (gr 9-12), click here.
To download a public copy of a recent newsletter, including a message from one of our valedictorians, click here.
Information nights for 2008
Our application process for 2008-2009 began with the annual Information Nights: which have already occurred: February 5th for Kindergarten to grade 5, and February 12th for grades 6-12. These evenings draw several hundred interested students and parents and provide a key opportunity to hear about the school's program, and meet students, staff and administrators. For more information about our admissions process, click here.
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