About St. Thomas of Villanova College - (2) Academics & Customs

St. Thomas of Villanova College is an independent Catholic Augustinian school committed to excellence and dedicated to the education of young people in Canada, since 1999.

Villanova College offers grades 4-12 and the courses are full-year for students.

Middle School

At Villanova College, school understands the unique qualities and needs of young adolescents, intellectually and socially. They teach students how to learn, by guiding them to refine their learning skills and work habits to prepare them for success in the Upper School. Middle School students have their own lunch period in the cafeteria with access to indoor and outdoor space to enjoy recess. They benefit from our top-notch facilities for music, technology and physical education. The after school program includes a supervised homework room, tutorials, access to the school library and a full complement of co-curricular programs. A caring faculty ensures individual talents are nurtured and supported through these critical middle years.

• Junior Program (Grade 4, 5, 6)

VC's junior students get support and guidance through their homeroom teacher who teaches the core subjects of English, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, and Religion. French, Physical Education, and Music are taught by subject specialists on a rotary schedule. Homeroom teachers and our youngest students develop relationships which allow the teacher to nurture and provide appropriate challenges based on each student's needs and talents. There are 2 homerooms for each grades with less than 18 students each.

• Intermediate Program (Grade 7,8)

Intermediate students are prepared for the transition to the Upper School through the introduction of a rotary timetable taught by teachers who are specialists in their area of study. With this shift from core to full rotary, all Middle School teachers work closely together as a team to provide support and personalized attention to each student. Through inquiry based learning, we further students' intellectual curiosity and increase their abstract thinking and problem solving abilities. There are less than 40 students for each grade.

Middle School students from VC

Upper School (Grade 9~12)

At Villanova College, upper school students are challenged to discern and develop their interests and strengths with the personal attention and support of a caring faculty - guidance counselors - who are committed to seeing their students succeed at the post-secondary level and beyond.

STEM program

Villanova College offers the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program, an exclusive, four year academic enrichment program directed by Professional Engineers who are certified teachers. STEM pathway is available to Upper School students with an aptitude in the fields of math and science.

Students will take an enriched math and science program in grades 9 and 10 to prepare them for the Advanced Placement (AP) program in math, chemistry and physics to be completed in grades 11 and 12.

Advanced Placement (AP) courses

Villanova College offers a selection of Advanced Placement (AP) courses to allow certain students to study at a higher level and intensity in subjects of their choosing in academic areas in which they have expertise and interest.

The AP Program is a cooperative educational endeavor between secondary schools and universities. The program provides motivated high school students with enriched university level courses in a high school setting. Students who take AP credits gain university-level skills, and in some cases they may earn a university credit while they are still in high school.

For each AP course, a standardized AP Exam is administered at participating schools worldwide. Students enrolled in AP courses in their senior year will write a standardized AP exam in each course in May and then write a final exam in June to complete the course of study at Villanova College. AP results are sent directly to the student in July from the College Board and students may choose to use the grade achieved on the AP exam to be granted as a credit in their freshman year of university.

AP courses offered at Villanova include:

• English Literature & Composition

• Calculus AB

• Statistics

• Chemistry

• Biology

• Physics 1

• Physics 2

• Economics (Micro/Macro)

Leaders in Church & Culture

Students in grade 12 who are interested in further developing their leadership skills are encouraged to apply to this course, offered through the Religion Department. In addition to the grade 12 religion curriculum, this course places an emphasis on experiential leadership in a Catholic context and encourages students to explore their role as a leader within the Church and the greater community. Students participate in a three day training retreat in September and a week-long mission trip to work with Habitat for Humanity and Catholic Social Services. Through various texts, experiences and guest speakers, students are exposed, in a new way, to the Catholic Church.

Guiding Learning Centre (GLC)

Guiding Learning Centre provides necessary supports and accommodations to achieve their academic potential. It provides a classroom in a separate quiet space to write tests and exams with accommodations, work on in-class assignments, and meet with guided learning staff. Students who are part of the program learn and develop strategies to support them in areas such as reading, writing, math, time management, organization, and studying, and will gradually learn how to become self-sufficient learners who have confidence in their ability to achieve their goals. In grade 9 and grade 10, students in the Guided Learning Program, will earn the GLS 1O and GLS 2O credits.

Tutorials

Tutorials are available for students who require extra support in specific academic subjects and also for students seeking personal enrichment. They are offered for every course and are available on a daily basis from 3pm to 4pm, depending on each teachers' schedule.

In addition, VC provides a daily supervised homework room for Junior and Middle School.

Teacher-Advisor Program

Villanova College is committed to provide individualized attention in a caring and supportive environment. The Teacher-Advisor Program offers another level of personalized support for students. The role of the Teacher-Advisor is:

• maintain regular contact with student

• support and guide the student in both academic and social matters;

• act as an advocate for the student;

• to communicate positive and/or negative trends in academic and/or social behaviour and offer support or refer the student to other resources as necessary;

• be available to meet with students one-on-one when necessary;

• be a key contact for parents.

Upon entry to the Upper School, each student is assigned a Teacher Advisor. Advisor groups are comprised of 10 to 12 students of the same gender and grade and these students remain together until graduation. The groups meet weekly to participate in developmental guidance activities within a supportive peer group setting.

The House System

The tradition of the House System is widely used in Britain, and schools that have modeled themselves after the British—in countries with past colonial ties—have similarly adopted this practice. The system began in boarding schools in which students actually ate, drank, and slept in individual houses during school terms. The house system still operates this way in prestigious schools around the world.

At Villanova, the house system has many benefits. The houses provide not only an increased feeling of identity and belonging, but they also provide students with a sense of tradition and leadership opportunities.

Villanova College has four houses, each named for an Augustinian saint:

St. Augustine, St. Monica, St. Nicholas and St. Rita

Students earn points for their Houses throughout the year, which culminate in the much anticipated annual House Olympics each May. The House system and Teacher Advisor Program are linked, as all students are assigned a Teacher Advisor based on their house. In this way, we reinforce the feeling of identity and belonging, and build Unitas—unity—at Villanova.

As seen above, Villanova College provides various courses for students who are preparing for Upper School and post-secondary education. Clubs and Sports will be introduced at the next blog.