Testimonials Victoria School for Ideal Education

 VSIE is a gem of a school

dsc_0004“Kama’s birthday wish this year was that she would like to bring more love into the world. This school lets kids feel safe to express that compassionate and gentle side of themselves.

Victoria School for Ideal Education is a gem of a school. It is so wholesome. Kama is in grade five and has been at VSIE since kindergarten. She says that this is the best year ever for her because she’s in a class with all girls. Being in a group of girls is empowering for Kama. Her friendship with the girls has really grown.

Also Colleen [teacher of the girl’s class] is a gifted artist and musician which is right up Kama’s alley—she loves to sing and dance and do art.”

Darlene


A safe, nurturing learning environment

VSIE provides a safe, nurturing learning environment where children blossom emotionally and cognitively.  The confidence our son has gained since entering VSIE has been immeasurable.

It really is the “Ideal” school for education in Victoria.

Ian & Carolyn Hallas


Finding this school has been a revelation to us

My daughter is a 6th grade student at VSIE. We became concerned about her experiences at her previous Middle School which included elements of bullying, the use of some movies with gratuitous violence in school and a concern that she was feeling isolated from her peers and that everything in class seemed to be about her grades vs any sense of self motivated learning.

We visited VSIE with our daughter and were all impressed by how calm and happy the students seemed and at the way that both social skills and academics are encouraged and supported. We liked that the approach to learning is more focused on experiential learning than rote repetition and the homework load is lower than in a traditional school. We were also impressed by the school’s Provincial test results.

We like the intimate setting and the way the older students are also interacting with younger children as role models and mentors. Our daughter tells us that her teacher is the best she has ever had and we find the entire teaching staff seem to be very committed and gentle in their approach. Finding this school has been a revelation to us that it is possible for our daughter and ourselves to be truly happy with the school setting she is in at this age.

Dr Robert Oppenheimer


 She could finally bloom at the Victoria School for Ideal Education

wimmycrocus28feb2011-001We tend to think of extraordinary schools as being for unusual children. And our daughter is unusual in some ways: from a very early age, she’s been unusually blessed in academics, creativity, and empathy.

But she could finally bloom at the Victoria School for Ideal Education. We moved her to the VSIE partway through grade 1. We saw her open up in confidence and sheer joy: it was like watching a crocus emerge from its waxy and perfect leaf.

After a month or so, we realized that she’d never relaxed in her previous surroundings. It wasn’t that her former school had melodramatic failings; it was just that her class had been too big for her to thrive. Here, at the VSIE, her strengths are now even stronger: she has published her work and begun editing a newspaper. But what strikes us most is her more basic, kid-like aspects that were finally allowed to grow.

At the VSIE she could exhale, try out new forms of play with a group of children that are like extended family. I’ll always remember the teachers telling me in great excitement when I arrived for pick-up one day in the spring that my daughter had been spotted “playing zombies” during recess! The funniest part of it was how happy the teachers were about it. Three years later, we still recall that conversation with a laugh.

What I love about the staff at the VSIE is that they truly see the children as individuals. They don’t fall prey to the big trends that sweep through the larger pedagogical system out there, although they are on top of any useful new learning about, well, children and learning.

Ultimately the VSIE teachers see all the children as people first, with character and dignity. Our daughter really gets that, and she loves them back for it. She thoughtfully returns the favour by reflecting to me at home on her teachers’ own strengths as teachers and as individuals in their own right. She sees them, rightly, as people with humour, insight, and affection.

Bloom on, my baby. Bloom on.

Monique


 A jewel in the rough

This little school that can is a jewel in the rough. Children, and their growth and learning are always regarded and expressed in a positive light. The teachers and staff, and other parents, are always open and curious, warm and welcoming. It is such a warm and friendly and nurturing environment where children can learn and develop a positive sense of their place in the world, how all things are interconnected and interdependent. One of the things that I am most truly grateful to have witnessed is to see how my son has been learning that the more he respects and honours those things that are life affirming the more he cultivates and develops that which is best in himself. Another thing that I am grateful for is that the children are encouraged to cultivate and develop to their full potential their own unique form of personal expression. To be themselves. This little school is truly progressive.

Gilbert James