Academics
Turnbull School follows the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Curriculum, but this is just the starting point. Given our small classes, along with the focused and motivated attitude of our students, Turnbull students are able to complete the required curriculum thoroughly. Our teachers then create engaging and challenging opportunities for all children that broaden and deepen their learning.
Our carefully designed learning experiences promote individual potential. If students can show mastery of the topic of instruction, they then expand their knowledge through an enrichment or extension activity. If they need further assistance to grasp concepts, then the assistance is easily provided, leaving every student progressing confidently.
Enriching Curriculum
"Turnbull helped me to develop several valuable skills that proved useful in giving me an advantage throughout high school and university."
Turnbull School offers comprehensive and enriching programs at all grade levels, creating authentic and stimulating learning experiences for every student. Our classroom expectations focus on positive relationships and each child giving his or her personal best.
Our cross-curricular approach to learning benefits all students. The activities are designed so students can apply their knowledge and skills across various subjects, deepening their comprehension and application of their learning. A history assignment, for example, may be integrated with English class to fine tune the skills of essay writing, while in computer studies class digital presentation skills, graphics, or animation will show different ways of communicating their knowledge. A topic covered in science class, such as alternative, renewable energy sources, will extend to debating at Grade 8 where students combine and apply their scientific knowledge with oral presentation skills taught in English class, and their skills of expressing fact based opinions learned in Self and Society class.
By taking this type of inter-disciplinary approach, teachers at Turnbull School help students to develop their abilities in abstract and conceptual reasoning. It is the development of these higher level thinking skills that are most important as children progress into high school and beyond, and they have always served our graduates so well.
"Your approach has been one of thoughtful and meaningful education, and our girls have definitely benefitted from this"
As Howard Gardner stated in Reflections of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1995), there are many different ways of being ‘smart’. At Turnbull School, we look for ways to recognize and support students’ varying learning styles by helping them to set high standards for themselves and, as they grow, to assume ownership in the learning process.
Teaching Study Skills as a core subject in the Junior and Senior grades is just one way we facilitate this. All of our students are challenged by engaging learning experiences that have depth and are creative, as opposed to being highly repetitive. Each child is shown what his/her personal best looks like, and our teachers’ well mapped out learning approach takes them there.