Educational Policies

Grade 12 and Gap Year Programme Criteria

There are three sets of criteria which must be considered.

    1. The requirements of the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) programme.
    2. The integrated, spiral, enriched program of The Dragon Academy.
    3. The requirements of Post-Secondary programs.

1) Requirements of OSSD Program

The OSSD, introduced in 1999, replaced the Ontario Schools, Intermediate and Senior divisions program and diploma requirements (OSIS), a curriculum policy in place from 1984.  There were significant changes OSSD introduced:  grade 13 was eliminated, senior level classes once spread over three years now had to be completed in two, many academic/enriched/specialized courses were dropped from the Ministry approved listing, and students were allowed not only to take fewer courses to qualify for a diploma, but to exercise a wide range of choices in dropping courses or concentrating on a single area.  In order to graduate with an OSSD, students must of course fulfill the Ministry’s requirements at an accredited school.  It is important therefore that we ensure that all Dragon graduates have been attentive to the OSSD requirements.

2) Dragon Program

The philosophical underpinning of the Dragon curriculum is in fact more in harmony with the old OSIS than the new OSSD.  We certainly believe that there should be a unified program from grade 7 through graduation.  Following best practices suggested by research in developmental psychology, cognitive science and educational methodology, we believe that students should have a programme which is:

    a) Constructive (students are active partners in the construction of their own learning);

    b) Socratic (students explore the material of the curriculum through discussion based and case based classes rather than old-fashioned didactic instruction from a teacher at the front of the class);

    c) Integrated (subjects studied both within a single grade level and throughout all the years of the program should be substantially linked through theme, content and historical location).

In order to ensure that the Dragon program fulfills these three requirements, it is important that the program be constructed by the academic faculty well in advance of the start of the school year, so that crucial links between subjects covered in individual classes can be established.  Furthermore, the staff is in a unique position to take into account the needs of the particular student body, and fine-tune the program to meet those changing needs.  Finally, it is important that the entire program be constructed by the academic faculty to further the aims both of Socratic teaching and of spiral integration (that is topics and concepts will be revisited across all of the years of the curriculum, linking them together).  To do this complicated task requires a pre-set program.  It is not possible to ensure that students receive constructive Socratic and integrated teaching if they are choosing what they take on the basis of personal preference or teacher popularity.  The very size of the school, which is so crucial for its warm atmosphere of mentorship and community, militates against the possibility of offering a smorgasbord of courses.  Indeed critics of the OSSD have noted that it encourages school amalgamation and expansion; this kind of choice can only really work in school of upward of 1000 students. 

3) Requirements of Post-Secondary Programs

We are not at all convinced that most grade 12 students are entirely prepared for the challenges of going off to a post-secondary institution—task commitment, organizational skills, learning skills such as note-taking, lab write-ups and essays, directed research, not to mention feeding yourself properly and making sure you get up in time for class.  In every year since its inception, the Dragon has had senior students who are taking extra high school credits preparatory to entering a post-secondary programme.  These students have three aims:  they want to boost their averages; they want to pick up missing pre-requisite credits; and they want to improve their academic and practical skills.  In our experience, all of these students have benefited greatly from the extra year, growing in maturity and finding themselves positioned to do well in the world beyond the Dragon.

     

When we accept students into the Dragon, we take great care to explain our mandatory curriculum.  It is clear that the greatest benefit of our academic planning accrues to students who enter at the grade 7 Level.  However, we have always admitted occasional students at other grade levels where we had space.  These late entry students pose the most challenging programme problems.  They may lack prerequisites, or compulsory courses, have spotty grades or uneven skills.  We have modified their Dragon curriculum in the past with great reluctance.  As the school matures and enrolment levels increase, we feel it is neither in the best interest of the students, nor of effecting the school’s academic aims to make such accommodations. 

As of 2007-8, the mandatory Dragon curriculum shall apply to all students in grade 7 through 12.  Individual program adjustments may require students to complete independent study, distance learning etc. 

ONLY THOSE STUDENTS WHO ARE IN THEIR “GAP” YEAR TAKING EXTRA GRADE 12 SUBJECTS WILL BE OFFERED PROGRAM OPTIONS AT THE DRAGON.  These students will be required to take a minimum of six courses, one of which shall be an English course.