Toronto Catholic School Board
Toronto Catholic School Board
Also known as the English-language Separate District School Board, it’s the largest Catholic school board in the world that is publicly funded. The Toronto Catholic District was established in 1953 has headquarters in North York and serves Scarborough, East York, Etobicoke, North York, and Old Toronto municipalities in the province of Ontario. Currently, more than ninety- two thousand students study in this school board, as it operates 185 elementary schools and 41 secondary schools which are anglophone, and six elementary and one secondary francophone schools.
Programs
The Toronto Catholic School welcomes international students to enrich their academic and spiritual knowledge in the Catholic system. The tuition fee for international students who wish to study in one of the secondary schools of the Toronto Catholic District School Board is around $16,000 CAD for a full academic year. The tuition fee for studying in an Elementary school of the Toronto Catholic Board is the same with health care insurance included. If an international student has sent a full package of documents but happened to be rejected a study permit, the full tuition fee will be refunded. For any other reasons, including the denial of the study permit due to the missing documents, the Toronto Catholic District School Board doesn’t refund the full sum.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board offers various programs to students with diverse needs and interests. Some of the programs are worked out specifically for the needs of the students who are visually impaired and hard of hearing, providing inclusive education to students. Some of the schools of the Toronto Catholic Board are focused on teaching students arts, offering them to study instrumental and vocal music and visual arts. Three schools offer the International Baccalaureate program and almost all of the schools have the Advanced Placement program available for students.
A special program called STEAM is also offered to take at some of the schools of the Toronto Catholic District . This program of the Toronto Catholic Board focuses on teaching students the skills of the 21st century in the field of Science, Engineering, Arts, and Math preparing them to develop the skills essential for a modern citizen’s prosperity. During the program, students of the Toronto Catholic District School Board develop their critical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as learn how to collaborate to maximize their results. Students of the Toronto Catholic District School Board who participate in the STEM program take part in various competitions and contests organized for the participants of the program from different school boards. They also work on different projects, gaining hands-on experience and acquiring Advanced Placement credits which will be of great help when entering a higher-educational establishment. To be enrolled in the program, the Toronto Catholic District School Board students have to pass a special test in math and science which aims to assess their skills and level of academic knowledge.
Another program which is offered by the Toronto Catholic School is French as a Second Language which is delivered in the forms of Core French, French Immersion, and Extended French. The Core French program is offered to the students of the Toronto Catholic District School Board from grade one to grade four. During this program, students study the language five days a week during thirty minutes classes.
The French Immersion program of the Toronto Catholic Board means that the French language will be the language of instruction for almost all the classes. During the first four years of elementary school, the Toronto Catholic school students have around seventy-five percent of their classes taught in French. Then the number of French classes decreases and fifty percent of subjects are taught in English from grades five to eight. On the whole, the Toronto Catholic District School Board administration understands that it’s extremely important for people to know at least two languages on the proficiency level as it increases students’ chances to find employment faster and get to the desired higher educational establishment. Students are also offered to take the Computer Studies program studying in one of the schools of the Toronto Catholic Board. During the computer studies classes, students learn how to analyze problems and create solutions for them, study algorithms, software, and hardware of computers and acquire main programming skills. These skills are of paramount importance for the future, as the world gradually becomes more and more digitized, that’s why the Toronto Catholic Board allows students to try their skills in programming from the school level so that they will be able to provide tough competition to other students at universities, colleges and at the workplace.
Students of the high schools of the Toronto Catholic School can also participate in the Apprenticeship program. This program aims at providing the Toronto Catholic School students with work experience and an apprenticeship certificate, which will serve as a confirmation that they have hands-on experience in one of the trades at a young age. Some of the apprenticeship programs available to the Toronto Catholic District School Board include Ironwork, Electrician, Indigenous Chef, Construction, and others. Finishing this program will grant students credits to complete their high school studies and leave them with the soft and hard skills needed for their development as professionals and just as confident people who are able to do anything from constructing a house to fixing a pipe.
International students who study in one of the schools of the Toronto Catholic School can take the program English as a Second Language. This program is available not only to foreign citizens who study in one of the Toronto Catholic District School Board schools but also to Canadians, whose native language is not English. The Toronto Catholic School also offers the program of English Literacy Development, offered to the students whose native language is not English and who also didn’t have access to proper school education and lack knowledge in some of the subjects or their overall literacy level is insufficient. Anyways, you don’t need to worry about your English level is not high to study in a school of the Toronto Catholic District School Board as it is always ready to help you to hone your language skills and brush up on your academic knowledge.
Students are also offered to study in a single-sex school from grades nine to twelve. The Toronto Catholic District School Board has four schools for boys and six schools for girls only, while the other twenty-two high schools are co-educational.
It’s important to mention that the Toronto Catholic School doesn’t only provide young learners with school education, but also adult learners via summer schools and night schools within the continuing education program. The programs for adult learners of the Toronto Catholic District School Board can be delivered in online and offline mode on a full and part-time basis. For instance, the Toronto Catholic School adult students can take the courses of Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada, English as a Second Language for Healthcare Professionals, French as a Second Language, Citizenship Preparation, and Essential Skills. The last program of Essential Skills offered by the Toronto Catholic District School Board aims at teaching adult students reading, writing, and math skills important for everyday life and work. This program is available to immigrants, citizens of Canada, and the residents of the province of Ontario who are nineteen years old and older, know English at the intermediate level and wish to hone their basic skills in a school of the Toronto Catholic School.
French as a Second Language program is delivered in the online mode for adult learners of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, who are eighteen or older and whose native language is not French or English.
Accommodation
During studying in one of the schools of the Toronto Catholic District , international students can participate in a homestay program. You don’t need to worry about the safety of living with a host family, as all of them are thoroughly inspected and instructed on how to treat international students and provide them with support, when necessary. International students of the Toronto Catholic School will feel at home and welcomed, living with a host family as the physical and psychological well-being of all students is monitored by a homestay provider and if any troubles occur, a student will be moved to another family, which matches them better.
Future Prospects
Once an international student graduates from a high school of the Catholic District School, they may go for post-secondary education in any of the Canadian educational establishments. Graduation from higher education institutions, in turn, brings international students the possibility of working in Canada for three years, by getting a post-graduation work permit. Having gained extensive work experience, former graduates of one of the schools of the Toronto Catholic School Board can obtain a permanent resident status via getting the Express Entry and continue living in Canada, building their professional careers.
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