St. Bonaventure's College

Teaching Philosophy

Our approach to curriculum is framed by cura personalis , or care for the person. Our entire pedagogical process revolves around the needs, talents and potential of the individual student, and her/his movement from Kindergarten to Grade Twelve. The plan is based upon three strategic priorities across grades K-12 at the school that are intended to foster the formation of each student: Continuity —ensuring the seamless progression of learning outcomes across grade levels. The fact that St. Bon’s is a K-12 School allows subject teachers from all grade levels to come together to develop an integrated plan for teaching a subject across the primary, elementary, junior high and senior high school levels. Enrichment —deepening of existing regional outcomes. All grade levels and subject courses are enriched at St. Bon’s. This means that the outcomes of the regional Atlantic Curriculum are enlivened through enrichment projects that allow for a deeper understanding of a concept or skill—an approach that challenges students to move into the significance level of the material under investigation. Extension — extending Atlantic outcomes into new knowledge domains. This ensures that students are able to go farther in their learning of a subject and to move at an accelerated pace if so desired. All three pillars of the academic plan are undergirded by the focus on higher-order thinking—an approach that emphasizes the development of analytical skills from an early age which deepen in sophistication at each progressive grade level. This is accomplished through a problem-posing curricular approach which acts upon the rigorous content accrued in the enriched and extended St. Bon’s Curriculum. Each facet of the plan is achieved through collaboration within the Curriculum Committees , which have included numeracy and literacy sub-committees, languages and humanities committees, as well as a Provincial Assessment Analysis/Academic Initiatives committee. These committees bring together all educators teaching in a similar subject area from Grades Kindergarten to Twelve, as well as educators from different disciplines working on a common project or problem. These groups have brought countless new academic initiatives to the school and the academic plan has been furthered through an enhanced professional development process, which includes opportunity for exposure to new national and international ideas both within the knowledge base of the faculty, as well as at conferences, seminars and workshops inside and outside of Canada.