FAQs

Why is the school called The Dragon Academy?
Dragons are found in all mythologies. Whether Scandanavian or Japanese, they guard treasures, have the power of flight and are powerful and wise. In the West, dragons are part of quest legend, and adolescence is a quest for who you are and what you can do. We chose the dragon as our symbol because we want our students to find those powers in themselves. And, of course, The Dragon was founded in the Chinese Year of the Dragon.

Do you follow the Ontario curriculum?
Yes. We are inspected and accredited by the Ministry of Education. Our students receive academic credits for all our courses, and graduate with the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. The transfer of credits between The Dragon and other accredited, inspected schools is not problematic. Our courses not only fulfill the Ontario Curriculum requirements, but are considerably enriched.

How long have you been in operation?
The Dragon inaugurated classes in September 2001. Our sterling reputation is built on our innovative teaching, our academic excellence, and the success of our graduates.

What qualifications do your teachers have?
Dragon teachers are specialists in their fields of instruction. Our teachers in the arts are practicing professionals, all our academic teachers are pursuing serious research in their fields, and bring significant teaching experience at both the high school and university levels. Graduates of major universities, they have qualifications that range from Bachelors of Education with Additional Qualifications in Special Education and Music to Ph.D.s. We also bring in notable experts from the academic, professional and artistic communities to implement special projects.

Is your school a school for the gifted?
The Dragon Academy is inclusive and accommodates diverse learning styles. It is a school that promotes academic excellence and many bright students are attracted to The Dragon Academy. With a meaningful, enriched and engaging programme, The Dragon is a school for all who welcome the challenge of intellectual and academic growth.

Does The Dragon Academy have any religious association or affiliation?
The Dragon Academy is secular and non-denominational. Our moral and social vision is philosophical in origin, and emphasizes discovering and pursuing a good life.

Is there a school uniform?
There is a school dress code designed to convey respect for the educational process and The Dragon Academy community, but it is very relaxed.

Is it a school for the arts?
Yes. It is also a school for the sciences and a school for the humanities. We believe that all of the traditionally distinct subject fields are valuable, and no subject is given priority over another. In the service of opening and engaging the minds of our students, we offer what is invaluable: a true liberal, humanistic education, studying all the subjects it befits a free human being to know.

How serious are the math and science offerings at The Dragon?
The required curriculum of The Dragon mandates math and sciences through the senior levels for all students. Our teaching supports the centrality of mathematical reasoning beyond puzzle solving, and our integration of work in the sciences and mathematics with work in the arts and humanities counteracts fractured specialization.

We offer a balanced and intellectually rigorous education, with equal emphasis on and strength in the sciences and mathematics. We reject the customary dualism of art and science, and work from the principle that science has an aesthetic dimension and art a cognitive one.

But what about laboratory facilities?
Students need an inspiring teacher, not an inspiring lab, to do relevant and memorable experiments. Our students make trips to the laboratory facilities at the University of Toronto for demonstrations and work with volatile substances. We also reproduce historically significant experiments, such as those of Galileo and Newton. And we are the proud recipients of an AKC Foundation grant which has allowed us to install a beautiful new laboratory facility, and to develop an innovative Integrated Progressive Science Programme.

What is an integrated curriculum?
Most subjects are connected to each other, conceptually, imaginatively, historically and culturally. In an integrated curriculum, subjects are not studied in isolation from each other. Instead, concepts across all subject areas are drawn together, linked to central themes, questions and ideas, and organized in each grade through its designated historical period. The material learned in one course is relevant and applied to the other courses. Our teachers have interests and knowledge in related, and apparently unrelated, fields. The model is a living web, not a straight road.

What is museum-based learning?
We go out from the school to take advantage of Toronto's many cultural and intellectual institutions. Our students are members of Toronto's key museums and achieve advanced skills of inquiry and research through exploration of the treasures they contain, and access to reserve collections and specialist curators.

What is the typical workload at The Dragon Academy?
Instead of a "homework policy" stipulating any set number of hours of homework, the students learn time management and resource allocation. They can minimize their homework by using the time given to them in class, as well as in choosing what can be done at home and what is best accomplished in school.

What is the size of The Dragon Academy?
The Dragon Academy is a small school (60 students are enrolled in 2009-10) by design. Extensive research supports the connection between small class and school size and lifelong achievement and skills mastery. An intimate environment for learning ensures that no one slips through the cracks.

What is the impact of the size of the school on social life?
There are no cliques or outsiders-students make friends across grade levels and through entire classes. Bullying and conflict are identified before they become problems. In the words of one of our students, "The friends I've made here are friends I hope to keep for the rest of my life, even where they're people who wouldn't have become my friends if I'd met them in a different context. Our shared experience of the Dragon is a glue."

What about extra-curricular activities and sports?
Our physical education programme is centred on friendly team sports and fitness. Students use community facilities. We also encourage them to take advantage of the many opportunities the city offers to develop their own fitness interests, and support their membership in sports leagues.

What about extra-curricular activities?
Students, teachers, and parents generate these activities based on their present interests and needs-we have initiated chess and role-playing groups, an e-zine website club, garage bands, skiing and snow-boarding groups, dance and fencing classes, film clubs and many more.

Is The Dragon co-educational?
Yes, although we do seem to have more boys than girls at present. But our close community encourages friendships, not romantic pursuit. Our students have the opportunity through each others' circle of friends to meet "the other", but the atmosphere within school is not so overheated, and is more relaxed and productive than it is in many schools where dating is a key issue.

What happens after graduation?
In our first five years, The Dragon had two or three graduates each year, and in 2006-07 and 2007-08, we have graduated our first full classes, 31 students so far. Our graduates have all been admitted to all the universities to which they applied, (University of Toronto, MacMaster, Western, King's in Halifax, Ryerson, York, Concordia, UBC, Queen's, in Canada, and admitted to Durham and the London School of Economics, as well as Brandeis amongst foreign faculties), over half of them with scholarships. They're studying everything from Studio Arts to Math and Physics. And they're all doing really well. They also frequently return to visit, and find support here for their post-graduate concerns and studies. We are also proud to say that our first Dragon M.A. and M. Sc. candidates have been admitted to post-graduate programmes at University of Toronto and at MacMaster this year.