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Connect Charter School

We are a unique public charter school in Calgary, Alberta, focused on preparing students as extraordinary citizens, through a disposition of inquiry.

Learn about Our CHarter
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Essential Resources

Registration

Learn about getting your child on our waitlist, and the admissions and registration process.

Busing

Get information about getting your child to school on time and safely, including routes, fees, and delays.

Inquiry

Learn about what makes our program unique, including our approach to inquiry-based learning.

Volunteer

Share in our passion of helping student success. Our work is made possible by with our volunteers.

Calendar

We work on an alternative calendar to accomodate experiential learning opportunities.

PowerSchool

Access information about your child's learning, pay fees, and update contact information.

Field Experience Centre at Sibbald Lake

Our primary goal with the Field Experience Centre to reinforce the value of outdoor, experiential, and environmental education in the academic, social, and emotional development of children and youth.

With 64 acres that includes 5 buildings, the site can host up to 120 students at a time and fits a range of rich learning opportunities in the heart of Kananaskis at Sibbald Lake.

Visit the Field Experience Centre Website (External Link)

Charter Schools in Alberta

A charter school is a tuition-free public school that provides choice in education. Recognizing a need for enhanced learning options, Alberta Education legally established charter schools in 1994, making Alberta the first Canadian province to move forward on this exciting path. There are now 13 charter schools operating in Alberta, each designed to implement unique innovations in the organization and delivery of education, which result in improvements in student learning.

From: The Association of Public Charter Schools of Alberta (www.taapcs.ca/) 

Charter Schools...

  • are tuition-free public schools
  • are operated by non-profit organizations
  • employ Alberta certified teachers
  • are accessible to all students
  • have no religious affiliation
  • offer curriculum approved by Alberta Education

Charter Schools Offer...

  • innovative and enhanced methods of instruction
  • opportunities for meaningful parental involvement
  • a safe, caring and responsive environment
  • active and effective leadership
  • certificated and dedicated staff
  • dedication to excellence

Charter Schools are publicly accountable for...

  • student achievement
  • financial reporting
  • meeting educational goals
  • compliance with provincial regulation and policies
  •  

Recipient of the ASCA Excellence in Learning Partnerships Award

The Alberta School Councils’ Association (ASCA) has recognized the work of Connect Charter School, Tsuut’ina Education, and Mount Royal University with the Excellence in Learning Partnerships Award. This award recognizes partnerships that include the school council, and support parent and community involvement in education to benefit thecommunity and enhance the learning experience of students.

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Our Charter

The pillars of the Connect Charter school charter highlight the emphasis in the school on:

  1. Promoting exemplary learning, teaching and leading through a disposition of inquiry.
  2. Enhancing learning and teaching through the appropriate and effective use of technology and maintain an intentional, authentic and innovative perspective in the use of technology.
  3. Engaging students in meaningful, real-life learning activities in a variety of rich learning environments, with a focus on mind, body, emotions, creative spirit and ethical citizenship.
  4. Providing environmental, outdoor and global education learning opportunities for students to experience and appreciate the world outside of the classroom and to develop social, leadership and stewardship skills.
  5. Fostering a culture of collaboration and caring relationships of mutual respect with students, staff members and parents sharing a passion for learning; together and from others, in the classroom, within the school and beyond.
  6. Nurturing thriving classrooms and other learning environments where teachers are informed by research and where students and teachers explore and develop deep understanding as active researchers.

 

Link: Connect Charter School Exemplary Teaching, Learning, and Leading Frameworks

Recognized as an Apple Distinguished School

For 2021-2024, Connect Charter has been again named an Apple Distinguished School, which is a recognition of clear vision on technology integration to support learning, and of cultivating learning environments where students can be creative, collaborative, and think critically. Connect is proud to have been recognized as an Apple Distinguished School in each of the previous periods, since 2015.

#AppleDistinguishedSchools

Our Story
Press Release
Apple Distinguished School Program

Staff

Meet the team at Connect, dedicated to helping your child learn.

Teams

Access information about grade teams, and services in our school.

Policies

Access policy documents, regulations, and important forms.

Board

Learn about our governance structure and getting involved.

Welcome from the Principal

Welcome to Connect Charter School. As a publicly funded charter school, we have a responsibility to provide innovative educational programming for our students. Our vision is to prepare our students to be extraordinary citizens, and our approach to achieving that goal begins with understanding the value of deep inquiry; instilling in our students the confidence to ask difficult and challenging questions and then think critically about how to reach solutions and solve problems in meaningful ways. Inquiry at Connect is supported by the integration of technology into learning, as well as through a robust outdoor education program and a focus on connecting learning to the ‘real world’ through experiential education. Students enter Connect in grade 4 from across the City of Calgary, and leave at the end of grade 9 with skills and attributes that prepare them to be contributing and empathic members of our community.
Dr. Phil Butterfield
Principal

Frequently Asked Questions

Inquiry is a more natural way of learning. At its core, an inquiry-based way of teaching provides for a more authentic way of learning, it is rigorous, it demands the involvement of outside expertise, normally technology plays a role in how information is gathered or how students demonstrate their learning, and it is far more collaborative than a traditional way of teaching and learning. In our experience, an inquiry-based disposition toward learning results in more highly engaged learners.
No, not really. While we end the year at the same time as most other public schools, we operate on a modified calendar. Our students and teachers return in mid-August in order to allow for a number of non-student Professional Development days through the year as well as some extended holidays (including a week off in October). Please consult our annual calendar for specifics.
No, there is no test to get into the school. We have a maximum capacity to the building and so because demand is greater than the space we have, we must maintain a waiting list of people. Families are placed on the waiting list and offered spots based on when they contact the school. Student academic ability or achievement do not determine whether a student is offered a spot in the school – it is based solely on their place on the waiting list.
The demand to get into the school exceeds the capacity we have in the building to place students in classrooms. We place families on the waiting list in order to address this supply and demand issue. We keep 400 names on the grade 4 waiting list. We keep 100 names on the waiting list for grades 5 to 9 because we occasionally have students withdraw from the school and so we need to fill those spots.
We believe it is important to try and keep families together, so we have a sibling clause in our admissions policy that states when one child is admitted to the school their siblings are moved to the top of the list. When siblings from multiple families are on the waiting list for a particular grade they are ordered based on the date the family first contacted the school.
Yes, as with most public schools there are fees. We have an enrichment fee that provides for the many field trips (excluding one of the overnight trips), a laptop or iPad for each student, resources for special events and guests to the school and more. There is a reasonable lunchroom supervision fee as well as a small technology insurance fee (in case of accidental damage to the school-owned laptops or iPads).
No, we do not offer a second language program at this time. Offering such a program would require resources that would be drawn from core programming; our charter document does not include mention of a second language program, so we have not committed resources to it.

Connect Charter School is a recognized Apple Distinguished School. To learn more about this designation, and our one-to-one technology program, check out our iBook from 2018-2021, or website from 2021-2024.

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