How to join the founding cohort

When enough families have committed. We'd rather open with the right group than hit a date and hope. Everyone on the list hears as soon as we have a date.

We teach reading, writing, mathematics, science, history and geography to a high standard. In the other subjects we take the parts of the Ontario curriculum worth keeping and leave the padding. A private elementary school in Ontario can choose whether to follow the curriculum, and that choice is what makes room for money and business, engineering, the outdoors, and health, nutrition and fitness to be taught as subjects of their own.

Every unit is published to families before it's taught, and the full curriculum stays open all year. Ask a teacher what's coming in March and the answer is already written down.

Not yet. A school files its Notice of Intention to Operate before it opens, so ours goes in ahead of the first day and every year after, as every private school in Ontario does. One thing worth knowing: the Ministry doesn't accredit, licence or endorse private schools, so any school telling you it's Ministry-approved is describing something that doesn't exist.

Four years old on the first day of school, and up to Grade 6. We can't take a child who's still three, even if they turn four that autumn.

Children are grouped by where they're at, not only by how old they are. In each subject a student is taught what they're ready for and moves on once they've got it. You'll often see an older student explaining something to a younger one.

Each group has a teacher and an assistant. We're setting the exact numbers with the founding families, and we'll publish the number once it's set.

Parents ask it, so here's a straight answer. We don't teach politics, from any direction. No land acknowledgements, no gender or sexuality on the schedule, one flag and it's the Canadian one. What we do teach is how to take a question apart, make the case for both sides of it, and reach your own conclusion. This isn't about how a family votes. It's about teaching children to think clearly and leaving the rest to you.

That's the word a lot of parents use when they call, and yes, in the sense they mean it. Ideology stays outside the classroom, and the curriculum is open to every family in the school, all year, so you never have to take our word for what's being taught.

A bit of both. Lessons run outside whenever the weather allows, and the site we choose has to make that easy. Reading, writing and mathematics are taught to a high standard, every day. Some of that happens in a classroom and some of it outdoors.

Near enough, yes. Small groups, individual learning paths, and a day that isn't run by a bell. The difference is that we're building a full Kindergarten to Grade 6 school, with its own site and its own staff.

It's the closest thing to homeschooling that isn't homeschooling, and part-time places may be available for exactly that reason. You keep control of what your child is taught, because the curriculum is published to you before it's taught. What you get on top is other children, a teacher for the subjects that are hard to run at a kitchen table, and your week back.

Class size, what's on the schedule, and how much of the day is spent moving. We teach money and business, engineering, the outdoors, and health, nutrition and fitness as subjects in their own right. Beyond that, we'd rather tell you what happens here than describe somebody else's school.

It's where the families asking for this are. Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington and the country north of them are full of parents who want something other than the two systems on offer, and the nearest alternative is usually in Toronto.

We go out anyway, dressed for it. Families provide the outdoor clothing, and we'll send a list well before the first day.