For Uxbridge families
Uxbridge calls itself the Trail Capital of Canada and has the ground to back it up. For most schools that's a pleasant fact about the weekend. For one that teaches navigation, shelter and where food comes from, it's most of the reason to be here.
We're opening for Kindergarten through Grade 6 somewhere in Durham Region, and the north of the region is a serious candidate.
The land up here
The Oak Ridges Moraine runs through the township, and with it the Durham Regional Forest, Glen Major and Walker Woods. Mature mixed forest with real elevation in it, minutes from the town.
Elevation is the part most of Durham hasn't got, and it's the part that makes a map lesson a map lesson.
Whether it lands north
North Durham has a smaller population than the lakeshore, so a school up here needs founding families who live close to it.
Uxbridge answers on the form are what would put it north. There's no other mechanism, and an honest drive time is worth more to us than a hopeful one.
We want your kids to be the best versions of themselves.
The Galt Academy is the school we want for our own children: somewhere they arrive keen, work hard at things worth doing, and leave better than they came.
Kids being kids while getting a great education
The curriculum is open
Parents can read every unit before it's taught. It stays open all year to any family in the school.
One flag
One flag flies here, and it's the Canadian one. The day starts with the national anthem.
Family and community values
Raising a family is the most important work there is, and having the support of a community is crucial. Parents here have the school behind them and other families around them.
Some subjects belong to families
Gender and sexuality are subjects for parents, not teachers. If it ever comes up, a student is directed to talk it over with their parents.
Politics stays out of lessons
When a question has two sides, students learn to make the case for both, which teaches them how to think instead of what to think.
Everyone can apply
Any family who wants this for their child is welcome to apply.
The core subjects, and other important life skills
Reading, writing, mathematics and the sciences come first. Part of the job is working out what each child is good at, and then giving them room to get better at it. Around that sit seven things a person needs.
Character
Choices and what comes of them. Taking responsibility for your own work. Doing hard things because they're worth doing. Finishing what you start. Getting something wrong, or losing, and going again. Doing the work when nobody's watching.
Health and fitness
Physical activity every day, and learning how to look after your body. Real food and nutrition, and why it matters. First aid, CPR, and what to do in an emergency.
Thinking and problem solving
How to break a problem down and work it out instead of memorising an answer. How to form a hypothesis, test it, and change your mind if you were wrong. Working from first principles: what you know to be true, rather than what you've been told.
Communication and working with people
How to listen, how to understand where someone else is coming from, and how to get your own ideas across. Making a case and defending it, speaking in front of a group, and taking a question you weren't expecting. How to work as a team to get something big done.
Money and business
How money works: earning it, saving it, what interest is, what things cost and why. Entrepreneurship and self-reliance. How to start and run a small business.
How things work
Engineering, learned by doing it. Taking things apart, putting them back together, building from scratch. Hand tools, simple repairs, woodworking, growing food. How a computer works and how to write simple code.
Outdoors
Time outside in every season. Finding your way, reading the weather, fire and shelter, plants and animals, and where food comes from before the store.
What it costs
We're aiming at $8,000 to $12,000 a year for full time, with part-time places likely. The exact figure is set before anybody enrols, and founding families are offered the opening rate.
The founding list is free to join. Nobody is asked for money until there is a site, a date and a figure to say yes to.
Questions about Uxbridge
Would you really open in north Durham?
It's a real possibility. The land up here is the best in the region for what we teach, and the constraint is whether enough founding families are close to it.
Is the drive from Uxbridge realistic?
It depends entirely on where the school lands, which is why the form asks. If it goes to the lakeshore, this is a long way twice a day.
Our children are already outside most of the time. Is this still for us?
Probably more so. A lot of what we teach assumes children who are comfortable outdoors and around tools, and families up here tend to arrive with that already in place.