Founded in 1891, SMLS has been a leader in education for girls and young women for more than 125 years. As the only CAIS accredited, all-girls school west of the city, our niche is girls and learning. We believe courageous girls can challenge and change the world.
When you have been educating young women for more than 125 years, you look back on history with some degree of awe. This is especially true when reviewing our Alumnae records and seeing how many remarkable and empowered women have emerged from St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School.
Our Alumnae are highly-valued and treasured members of our school community. They are an unmatched resource for our current Millies as we actively engage our graduates in several mentoring and coaching programs. Through these programs, several of our Alumnae become a source of wisdom, teaching, and support. Our mentoring programs help students see the destination while not necessarily providing a detailed map to get there.
Grade 12 students receive visits from young alumnae who are currently in university/college. These graduate Millies provide first-hand, real-time insights into the post-secondary experience within our small and intimate Grad Seminar sessions. These sessions always prove to be productive, with our Grade 12 girls benefitting from the genuine experience of girls who only recently were walking the halls of SMLS.
Our Millies also benefit from our Speed Mentoring event. This program connects mentors with Grade 10 students to provide career insights and advice through a panel presentation and small groups. Mentors share their career and life journeys' stories while helping Millies understand the many paths that are open to young women as they move forward. This highly successful mentorship program enables students to gain actionable insights from alumnae who have experience in a diverse range of careers, from medical practitioners to architects, engineers, financial professionals, filmmakers, journalists, and many others. The breadth of career experience among our alumnae makes this program a huge success.
Our academic program utilizes the highest standard of proven best practices and innovative approaches. We identify each girl's academic strengths and challenges to support her in achieving success and confidence in her abilities.
We focus on every girl's social, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being from Preschool to Grade 12. We understand girls' developmental stages and work with each girl to ensure she is known, supported, and challenged to be her best self. Our faculty members are experts in their fields, with extensive teaching and learning experience designed for girls. They get to know each girl and form a personalized connection to help her thrive in her education at SMLS and beyond.
Our program integrates academic studies with relevant career and life experiences, allowing students to gain a deeper personal understanding of the world around them and to develop as global citizens and leaders. With admittance to their first choice of post-secondary institutions, our grads are poised to become women who will challenge and change the world in their unique way. Our goal is to prepare girls for post-secondary education and provide them with the courage and skill to pursue their passions.
At St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School, girls from Preschool to Grade 12 experience an enriched academic and co-curricular program delivered by teachers who are experts in educating girls. We support each girl's interests, talents, learning needs, and strengths, and our world-class facility and signature programs equip her to achieve excellence in whatever path she chooses.
Our innovative Preschool program welcomes girls between 2 ½ and four years of age, provided they are toilet-trained. In our warm and caring environment, our youngest students learn through play with hands-on, experiential learning, encouraging the development of imagination, creativity, and each child's individuality. Our integrated approach supports their natural curiosity, providing experiences that enhance learning through exploration and social interaction. Girls learn to interact with their peers while developing their independence and are supported to become confident learners, ready to take on their next challenge.
The commitments and values of St. Mildred's-Lightbourn School are expressed in our mission statement: "To develop courageous girls who challenge and change the world." These, along with the priorities contained within the Strategic Plan 2020, guide the Junior School's ongoing development.
In Junior School, our faculty work together to deliver rich and engaging programs that develop understanding, encourage critical thinking, and allow for creative problem-solving. The end goal is that the girls are capable of, and committed to, impacting a very complex, challenging, and increasingly global world.
When SMLS students deeply understand a topic or concept, they cannot only reproduce knowledge and demonstrate skills but also use their knowledge and skills in unscripted ways to apply their understanding in new and meaningful contexts.
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