A private school for Durham Region families
The Galt Academy is a private day school for Kindergarten through Grade 6, small enough that every teacher knows every child by the end of September.
We're not open yet. The school opens once enough founding families have committed, and where those families live carries real weight in where it lands.
What a private school lets us do
A private elementary school in Ontario chooses its own curriculum. Nothing is inherited, so money and business, engineering, the outdoors, and health, nutrition and fitness get their own place on the schedule.
We teach reading, writing and mathematics to a high standard. Around that sit seven strands: character, health and fitness, thinking and problem solving, communication and working with people, money and business, how things work, and the outdoors.
What it costs
We're aiming at $8,000 to $12,000 a year for full time, with part-time places likely. That sits below most private options in the region, and well below what the same education costs in Toronto once you've added the drive.
Nobody is asked for money until there is a figure to say yes to, and the families who join the list first are offered the opening rate.
How you can check what we teach
Families read each unit before it is taught, and the whole curriculum stays available all year. Nobody has to take a prospectus on trust or wait for a parent evening to find out what happened in March.
That openness is the whole accountability structure here. Ontario doesn't accredit, licence or inspect private elementary schools, so there's no inspector's report to fall back on. The material is what we can put in your hands instead.
For families in
- WhitbyCentral to the region, which counts in its favour while we look at sites.
- OshawaThe largest city in Durham, with the most schools within reach.
- AjaxThe western edge, for families weighing a school in Toronto against the drive.
- PickeringFast-growing, and the town that asks most often about part-time places.
- Bowmanville and ClaringtonThe eastern end of the region, where a lot of families already live outdoors.
- BrooklinBetween the lakeshore and the country, with as many young families as anywhere in Durham.
- UxbridgeTrail country, and a real candidate for where the school lands.
- Port Perry and ScugogOn the lake, at the northern edge of what anybody would call a commute.