Local Schools Reach Out to Prospective Students

“We wanted to underline how public schools are successful,” said Mike Cohen, spokesperson of the English Montreal School Board (EMSB) which organized the activity at the local mall as a pilot project. “Losing a lot of students due to the language laws and demographics, we have to be innovative and think outside the box.”

Besides the two local English-language elementary schools, there were representatives from John Caboto School in Ahuntsic, Sinclair Laird in Park Extension, and John F. Kennedy vocational school for adult students. (Another major focus was to bring graduates back to their old schools to tell students about the role that public education played in their eventual success).

Like the other schools, representatives from Carlyle and Dunrae Gardens included teachers, support staff, and involved parents. Both also emphasized the special family-like atmosphere found at their school.

“We consider ourselves a Carlyle family. We all get along very well,” declared Grade 2 teacher Tatiana Danassis. “Teachers look after all of the students even if they’re not in their class.”

Parent volunteer Demetra Spyropoulos said that when her son, who has already graduated, visits the school, the teachers are always concerned about how his studies are going. Carlyle also regularly celebrates important holidays related to the students who come from various cultural communities, added Kindergarten teacher Georgia Padadopoulos.

At Dunrae Gardens, Home and School Association vice-president Brenda Michetti noted that there’s a “really good vibe about the school. With a lot of parental involvement, it feels like a close-knit family.”

Both schools greatly stressed academic, language, artistic, and sports programs as well as other special activities and support services for prospective students. Dunrae Gardens is a French-immersion school that offers 100 per cent French instruction in Kindergarten and Cycle 1 and 47 per cent French and 53 per cent English-instruction at Cycle 2 and 3. Once they graduate, students can go to either French-or English-language high schools, noted governing board member Fotini Markopoulos.

While it’s not officially an immersion school, Carlyle offers 90 minutes of French instruction each day as well as for gym. While it also tries to respond to their diverse needs by teaching Tamil due to its many students of South Asian origins, Dunrae Gardens gives Italian and Greek lessons during its lunchtime language classes.

At Carlyle about a dozen special-needs students with autism are integrated and taught with help from Miriam Home. “The teachers work very well with those children,” said childcare worker Ian Mackenzie. Dunrae Gardens also offers conflict-resolution instruction and “Project Games” that teaches children how to play cooperatively.

Taking place just before school registration, both schools’ representatives felt that many people passed by asking for information with a variety of responses. The nearby location of the Rockland centre was especially advantageous to the TMR schools, noted the EMSB’s Cohen. “Someone just dropping by a shopping mall is not only getting some school information. But in the case of a TMR resident walking by with a one-year-old baby, that visit could bear fruit four years down the road.”

(Photo: Wayne Hiltz)