Elementary School
The elementary program at Century is centred on the goal of inspiring excellence. With an enriched curriculum and a focus on leadership, character development, and community service, our dedicated teachers provide support and engagement as students strive to achieve academic success and personal and social growth.
We believe that specialists are important to our success. With specialists in French, Visual Arts, Drama, Music, and Physical Education, and from grades 5 to 8 in Math, Language, Science and Social Studies, Century offers teachers who provide unique expertise in their fields. In addition to our commitment to core subjects, Century also celebrates the Arts. By updating our Music room and Drama Studio, we are continuing to take steps to encourage and nurture the creative disciplines.
Mathematics Program
Century Private School offers a Mathematics program designed to help students build a solid conceptual foundation that will enable them to apply their knowledge to problem solving. Students engage with the five strands in an enriched curriculum, in addition to developing financial literacy.
Attention is paid to the mathematical processes that support learning such as reasoning, reflecting, problem solving, selecting computational strategies, and communication. Teaching practises combine traditional styles with a hands-on, interest-based approach. Instruction is differentiated to meet the unique needs of learners and maintain equity by promoting the active participation of all students.
The goal is to help them recognize the applicability of what they learn to the world around them, and give them the tools to tackle abstract problems.
Language Arts Program
Century offers an advanced Language Arts program focusing on skills in the critical areas of Reading, Writing, Oral Communication, and Media Literacy. Students learn to love reading as they explore influential authors from Roald Dahl, to Langston Hughes and Shakespeare. Whether they are working individually on book reports, or collaboratively during literature circles, students become active participants in their learning.
Focus on grammar, punctuation, and spelling conventions encourages students to develop strong written skills and meaning in their work. Creative writing allows one to build on their imagination and essay writing in the upper elementary prepares students for success in high school.
Through a focus on oral presentations using skits, speeches, read alouds, and more, students develop strong verbal communication skills imperative for their futures.
As Century prides itself on developing technologically savvy and capable students, media literacy is a major focus of our curriculum. Producing brochures, educational PowerPoints, and even exciting movie trailers, students learn the power of media, as well as, critical thinking skills.
Through our Language Arts program, children can discover their unique talents while having fun in a positive and fun environment.
Science Program
Your child’s natural curiosity and innate need to learn through discovery are nurtured by the sciences. Our Science program curriculum encourages curiosity by covering studies in chemistry, physics, astronomy, zoology, and botany, complemented by field trips that allow your child to see the theories and principles they’ve learned in the classroom in real-life applications. Through our Science program, your child is exposed to the fundamental theories and concepts of science with the goal of giving them an understanding of the natural and physical world, their interdependencies, and how these roles and functions apply to life.
Health and Physical Education Program
Health and Physical Your child’s health is important to us as well, which is why our Health and Physical Education programs extend beyond the gymnasium with activities that foster their fundamental movement skills, healthy living, and active participation. Through our Health and Physical Education program, your child will develop a positive self-image, self-esteem, confidence, and team-building and leadership skills – all of which can be applied outside of sports and physical activity as well.
More specifically, through Century Private School’s Health and Physical Education curriculum, your child will
develop:
- An understanding of the importance of physical fitness, health, and well-being, and the factors that contribute to them;
- A personal commitment to regular physical activity and positive health behaviours; and
- The basic movement skills they require to participate in physical activities throughout their lives.
What your child learns through our Health and Physical Education program will not only enhance your child’s life, it will also result in a healthier and happier student population, making Century Private School a positive environment in which to learn and grow. In addition to the curriculum-based Physical Education program, we also have competitive teams in soccer, cross-country, and track and field.
Finally, throughout the school year, your child will participate in house leagues, taking full advantage of our three soccer fields and basketball court. Our gymnastics program is also a highlight during the winter months.
Through these activities, your child will develop a healthy and fun competitive spirit towards sports and health, encouraging them to continue fostering a healthy lifestyle well into their adult lives.
French as a Second Language (FSL)
The goal of the French program at Century Private School is to have students communicate and interact with growing confidence in the French language. As stated in the Ontario curriculum, the ability to speak and understand French allows students to communicate with French-speaking people in Canada and around the world, to understand and appreciate the history and evolution of their cultures, and to develop and benefit from a competitive advantage in the workforce.
French, a global language and the official language in Canada, plays a critical role in defining Canadian identity. Learning French equips our students not only with the ability to communicate, it also encourages them to develop an awareness of the role language plays in our culture. Knowledge of a second language strengthens your child’s first language skills and enhances his or her cognitive development.
At Century Private School, we strive to provide our students with the necessary skills required to use French to communicate and interact effectively in a variety of social settings. Our Advanced curriculum, beginning at the preschool level, lays the foundation for language acquisition by focusing on three areas of learning: reading, writing, and oral communication. Our focus is on teaching grammar and proper language structure, which inevitably provides each student with the tools they need to be highly successful throughout their educational careers.
The Arts Program
The Arts program is an important part of our school’s curriculum, as it contributes greatly to the overall development of your child. Century Private School’s Arts program encompasses Visual Arts, Music, Drama, and the Performing Arts. It’s important to us that your child have an opportunity to learn and grow through many capacities, particularly through hands-on learning and providing creative outlets. Our Arts program helps to foster your child’s intellectual, social, and emotional growth, nurturing creativity and gives your child an alternative means of expression, both verbally and non-verbally.
The following are some additional outcomes and features of our leading Arts program:
- It encourages self-expression and communication as well as strengthens your child’s critical and creative thinking skills.
- It helps your child develop the skills to work effectively in groups as well as the confidence to work independently.
- The Arts program is a vital component of an integrated curriculum, showing the relationship among subject areas and demonstrating the connectivity that exists in all disciplines.
- A specialist in each area of expertise teaches our Visual Arts, Music, and Performing Arts programs.
Visual Arts Program
The Visual Arts curriculum will help students develop their confidence and creativity, as well as the ability to communicate with other people through visual images. In learning to express themselves in visual ways, students will sharpen their powers of observation. In developing the ability to analyze and describe works of art from various periods and different styles, they will also learn to understand and appreciate a wide variety of art work.
The students will develop the elements of design. They will experiment with different mediums and materials using tempera paints, clay sculpture, watercolour, acrylic paint, soft lead pencil, pastels and charcoal. Students will also learn 3- dimensional perspective, sketching, shading and shadows, colour theory, compositions and proportion.
Music Program
Music encourages self-expression and exercises the brain in a multitude of ways. For these reasons, we take great pride in our leading Music program.
The Music program at Century Private School is a comprehensive and progressive course designed to capture your child’s interest and cultivate his or her love for music. Your child will receive two lessons a week in which they develop their creative skills and gain the essential musical knowledge needed for a true appreciation of the art. With the aid of specific Montessori sensorial materials, from preschool to senior kindergarten, your child will develop his or her auditory skills and acquire essential musical experience in creative movement, choral speech, singing, and playing unpitched percussion instruments.
The program also incorporates both the Carl Orff (instrumental) and Zoltan Kodaly (vocal) methods of music education. From Grade 1 through 3, your child will learn to sing through formal choir classes, read music notation, and perform in various music ensembles, such as a drumming circle and the Orff instrumentarium (melody instruments). The recorder ensemble (soprano and alto recorders) is introduced in Grade 2 and 3.
Through Century Private School Music program, your child is exposed to and encouraged to appreciate music of different cultures and historic periods by listening and playing. Being part of a music ensemble gives your child the opportunity to learn to problem solve, and develop good communication and critical thinking skills.
Band class begins at Grade 4 and continues through Grade 8. Through band, your child will learn to play a woodwind or brass instrument and participate in mentor groups and small ensembles. Your child will develop important leadership skills, a sense of team-building, and strong work ethics. The band program starts earlier than the public schools, meaning your child will be getting a head start on music notation, analysis, composition, and history.
All of our students enjoy performing in concerts throughout the school year with major performances in December (Winter Concert) and June (Spring Concert and FunFest). Your child will also perform with our ensembles at various venues in the community and attend a variety of concerts and music festivals. Century Private School has an elective choir that is open to students from Grade 3 to 8.
Performing Arts Program
The Performing Arts curriculum is intended to help students to develop an understanding and appreciation of drama. Drama provides many opportunities for students to practice communicating with different audiences for a variety of purposes, through moving, speaking and writing in role. Role playing is a key component of the Drama curriculum. Through role playing, students will use their growing understanding of drama forms, conventions, and elements to develop process drama with others, explore issues through improvisation, or develop or interpret scenes.
The Dance curriculum will help students to develop an understanding and appreciation of dance, as well as the ability to create works using the elements and the choreographic forms of the discipline. Dance is a form of expressive movement with purpose and form. All dance communication is transmitted through movement. A dancer is, therefore, both the performer and the instrument through which dance is expressed. Students will develop their own movement that they will use to create dance pieces that communicate their feelings, ideas, and understandings.