Guadalajara’s upmarket Providencia neighborhood is home to an ambitious new school recently accredited by the one of the finest education systems in the world.
Founded last August, the Canadian School has just been accredited in Alberta, a province twinned with the state of Jalisco since 1999. It is the first Alberta-endorsed school in Latin America and one of only six worldwide, reveals the principal, Dr. Peggy Tally.
Accreditation ensures “very rigorous educational standards,” Peggy says, citing British Prime Minister David Cameron, who declared in September 2011 that “Alberta is the jurisdiction with the best educational results of any English speaking jurisdiction in the world.”
The Canadian School includes toddlers through grade one levels and currently takes in children aged 2 to 6. So far the accreditation is for this age group but Tally says the school plans to add another accredited grade every school year until it reaches grade 12.
The decision to model the school on the Alberta education system was taken after board-level research. Tally says several staff visited Edmonton, capital of the Canadian province and “decided Alberta had one of the the best educational systems in the world.”
Uniquely, the Canadian School will follow the curriculums of both Alberta and Mexico, meaning students obtain a dual qualification. This will present them with a much greater chance of being accepted into elite universities outside of Mexico.
The school’s 10 classrooms currently house 210 children, but as of August this will rise to 400 pupils in 18 classes (places are still available for the forthcoming school year). There are two children of “Canadian citizenship and some Americans but the majority are Mexican and native Spanish speakers,” Tally says.Lessons are taught 75 percent in English and 25 percent in Spanish. The staff of 30 are all approved by a teaching standards branch in Alberta, a guarantee of high academic standards.
“The majority are locally educated Mexican citizens,” Tally says. There are two American teachers and one Canadian, although two more from Victoria, British Columbia will be joining for the next school year.
The classrooms are all equipped with state of the art technology, including flatscreen TVs, iPads and laptops. Smartboards are soon to be installed and there is also a mobile computer lab with an additional 24 laptops.
Located at Montevideo 3306 beside the aqueduct in Providencia, the school has a play area and even a garden for growing fruit and vegetables. It is an advantage to have such a great location, Tally says, as many new schools are forced to find properties outside of the city.
Tally has been working at the Canadian School since January, but she has family in Guadalajara and has lived here for two and a half years. She worked as a teacher and district administrator in Alberta and also worked for several years as a district psychologist in Victoria, British Columbia.
Seeing potential in the Lakeside expatriate community, she hopes to set a mentorship program at the school. The “idea is to mine the rich resources that we have among the Canadian and American retirees in the Lake Chapala area,” Tally explains.
She is looking for “artists, writers, mathematicians, teachers, scientists – people who had careers in these areas who are interested in volunteering at our school and working closely with our students in a mentorship program.”
They would work on projects with “small groups of children who show special interest or talents in a given area.” Tally encourages anyone interested to “call the school (at 33-3610-1595) and arrange to come in and discuss what they would like to offer.”
The links between the Canadian School and Alberta also mean there is obvious potential for exchange programs. Staff have the opportunity to take part in two-week, six-month or one-year immersion programs with the Alberta Teacher Association, which has some 36,000 members.
While the children are considered too young to take part in student exchanges for now, they can work on joint classroom projects with pupils from a partner elementary school in Edmonton. Then, “in the future, when they are old enough, our students will definitely be involved in student exchange programs,” Tally pledges.