Academic Pillar

One of the best aspects of our current programme is the quality of education that specialist teachers bring to the educational development of our students.  This, coupled with an enriching learning environment, will remain the same.  Students are offered courses in the five core subject areas of English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and French.  In their Grade 8 year, students who meet a specific level of academic achievement and who have demonstrated a good work ethic may be asked to join enriched classes in Mathematics and French.

ENHANCEMENTS
The enhancements to the Academic Programme are the addition of a World Languages component to the French course, as well as some changes to exams. 

World Languages: At Saint Margaret’s, students are fortunate to interact daily with teens who join us from countries around the globe.  Each month we celebrate this international aspect of our school with a cultural assembly.  So, in addition to the cultural celebration at assembly, Grade 7 and 8 students will be introduced to basic greetings and vocabulary in other languages and will be given the opportunity to further explore the culture with some hands-on activities.  For example, if it is Japanese month, then the two to three hours scheduled for language study prior to the Japanese cultural assembly will be dedicated to learning Japanese greetings and perhaps enjoy some haiku and origami.  In addition, students will learn how languages have developed over time and how language families are connected.

The Dreaded “E” Word – EXAMS!:  The tradition at Saint Margaret’s over many years has been that all Senior School students, Grades 7 through to 12, write exams in each academic subject in both January and June.  These exams are written “en masse” in the school gym.  Over the years this likely has created the greatest anxiety over any other change for students moving from Junior to Senior School.  However, at SMS we view the exam experience as an essential part of academic preparation, particularly now that all students in B.C. are expected to write provincial examinations in English, Math and Science in Grade 10, Social Studies in Grade 11 and a minimum of English in their Grade 12 year. 

The Grade 7 students will write one and a half hour exams in English, Math and Science, as well as perform oral testing in French.  Grade 8 students will do the same, with the addition of Social Studies at that level and extending the exam length to two hours.  The exams will be written in the morning, and each afternoon the students will participate in a teacher-run study session in order to prepare for the exam that follows the next day.  At the end of the exam session, on the last afternoon, the Grade 7 and 8 students will celebrate together with a culminating group activity.  This past January we went ice skating at Pearkes Arena.