Ideal Mini School
Ideal Mini School is a public secondary mini school in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is a complete grade 8–12 high school program. It is generally accepted as the "steward school" of Sir Winston Churchill Secondary, although was run independently under the leadership of head teacher Jim King, who retired and was replaced by Ernie Pao.
Entrance
An English and cognitive skills test is taken by prospective students as part of the application process. Community service, marks, and extra-curriculars are also considered for entrance. Interviews with the students narrow down applicants further.
Program
Other than for its size, Ideal differs from Churchill Secondary because of its enriched approach to learning. It offers an intimate and creative environment, and utilizes an informal, unique teaching style where the teachers are addressed by their first names and trust is highly regarded. Integration among grades, expression and leadership are extremely common and promoted with "school meetings". There are six classrooms in the school, which is currently attended by 120 students.
Alternative school
An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientations, while others are more ad hoc assemblies of teachers and students dissatisfied with some aspect of mainstream or traditional education.
Some schools are based on pedagogical approaches differing from that of the mainstream pedagogy employed in a culture, while other schools are for gifted students, children with special needs, children who have fallen off the track educationally, children who wish to explore unstructured or less rigid system of learning, etc.
Features of Alternative Schools
There are many models of alternative schools but the features of promising alternative programs seem to converge more or less on the following characteristics:
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