How We Meet the Diverse Needs of our Students at St. James
St. James Catholic School Community is Christ-centered and encourages all to learn to the best of their ability. We pride ourselves as being a safe and welcoming environment for our students as we build our Catholic community, this is a vital part of our mission statement as a school part in the Toronto Catholic District School Board. We begin with a strong focus on the curriculum and make adjustments for individual needs.
Our programs include but are not limited to:
- Instruction for students from Junior Kindergarten to grade 8
- Vocal music
- Instrumental music grades 6-8
- Classes for pupils identified with learning exceptionalities
- Assistance for students requiring English as a second language
- An enrichment programme on a withdrawal basis for pupils identified as gifted
- A school-based support team (SBST) & interdisciplinary team, for assistance with programming
- Exceptional students are integrated into regular programmes, and withdrawal for individual and small groups as required
- Fifth Block-a reading recover programme for grade 1 students
- We are an Empower Hub--a specialized reading recovery programme for students from grades 3-5
- Instructional is provide to serve the differentiated learning styles of our students
- FSL-French for students for grade 1-8
- Co-curricular activities
- Extra-curricular activities.
We strive to keep all stakeholders informed via this website, our monthly newsletter (which informs the community of upcoming celebrations, reports and events), monthly calendars, classroom letters, email from the office, and phone calls.
Our aim is to build a community that is based on:
- openness
- equality
- respect
- a sense of belonging.
As we journey together as a faith community, consisting of students, parents, staff and church, we:
- strive for excellence
- commit ourselves to live our vision
- acknowledge our uniqueness, gifts, and talents of our diverse community
- strive to create an atmosphere which nurtures our Catholic Faith.
As a Catholic community, one of our foremost tasks is to provide an environment in which we model our action, words and beliefs on the life of Jesus. In our diverse population, we work to meet each student’s spiritual, academic, social and emotional needs. We realize that all our students learn at different rates and in different ways and we strive to ensure that all our students achieve success. To help our students achieve success, certain lessons may be modified, accommodated or enriched to suit their learning needs. These programmes are discussed and implemented via our on site staff (SBST) and our readily available special services team (JTM).
Students with special needs are identified formally, via an assessment process, and students’ needs are met in our community. Our parents are constantly kept aware of programme modification via verbal and written communication from staff and principal. School life fills and important social/emotional need for our children. Relationship is an important value. We also realize that our students need to be active and this is provided in our DPA-Daily Physical Activity programme as well as interschool and extra-curricular sports.
Enrollment
185
Principal
Joanne Saragosa
