canada

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to Canada organised around visits to our two partner schools there – York House School in Vancouver and The Study in Montreal.
I took our two students who are this year’s visitors to York House, out with me and delivered them safely to their families. We were met at the airport with balloons and hugs! I later saw them at the school about to embark on a challenging outdoor education exercise equipped with huge rucksacks and lots of sensible clothes. Everyone was smiling!
York House is a delightful school that has much in common with KEHS. They have just finished one huge building project that has included a new underground theatre and are about to embark on another rebuild – all paid for by fund raising by the school. The site is smaller than ours so they have to make creative use of every inch.
The Study (what a wonderful name for a school!)is situated in a gorgeous part of Montreal and our two KEHS girls seemed to have settled in very well. I was fascinated to learn more about the bi-lingual nature of the education there. Quebec Province is both French and English speaking so it is a unique opportunity for our girls to hone their French and consider the implications of such a culture. I watched a very interesting French lesson that used a particular method based on signing and gestures to give young children the language skills they needed as early as possible. What a huge advantage it is to be fluent in two languages by the time you are in your teens.
I had very useful discussions with both Principals about the areas I have been looking at during my sabbatical. I shall be able to draw these into my thoughts as I start to pull together some conclusions.
As well as schools, I saw the Rockies for the first time, beavers, a moose, bald headed eagles and fell in love with Quebec!