Located in the historical town of Prescott, ON, St. Lawrence Academy (SLA) is a private/independent Christian day school for grades K - 8. With a history that spans more than 10 years, students benefit from a challenging academic program, an award-winning arts program, and an enriched physical education program.
- Small class sizes (classes are capped at 15 students)
- We offer quality private school education in the beautiful and safe town of Prescott, Ontario
- Specialist teachers for English, Maths, Science, Social Studies, French, P.E. Music, Drama & Visual Arts
- District and National honors for speeches, essays, and spelling bees
- ‘Best Elementary School Award” at the Rideau St. Lawrence Science Fair for 3 years in a row.
- Successfully compete in Canada Wide Science Fair
- Top Honours at Lions Music Festival
- Our EQAO standardized testing scores for Grades 3 and 6 have always met and exceeded curriculum expectations with 100% of our students achieving level 4 in Math.
- Our Physical Education Program includes curling, golf, track and field, skating, and tennis.
- We offer private music lessons in violin, voice, piano, ukulele, and guitar
- We care deeply, give generously and share willingly with many local and international organizations
- We offer bussing from Brockville, North Augusta, Maitland
- Our unique educational partnership with Rideau International Language Organization caters to the needs of our international students
- Our graduates have a 100% acceptance rate into the Secondary Schools of their choice
The Christian foundation and multi-grade level system at St. Lawrence Academy is what drew me when it came time to look for an alternative. As an educator, We see SLA as providing the most balanced system available today. When it comes to preparing children for real-life a multi-grade level class that encourages students to work within a group setting where abilities vary and ages converge, most practically mirrors the work world students must transfer into upon graduation. St. Lawrence Academy’s inclusive focus and family atmosphere are one of its strongest assets. Every child has their niche and strength. Our responsibility at SLA is to find that strength, aid in its growth, and build upon it. All children can know success.
The Pre-K and Kindergarten program at SLA utilizes the Learning Without Tears, Jump Math, and Jolly Phonics curriculum. Focussed on creating readers ready for Grade 1, SLA’s Kinder program uses a hands-on learning approach while acknowledging the importance of rote learning. It is through this balanced program that we build students ready for the challenges of grade 1.
Jolly Phonics is a comprehensive program, based on the proven, fun, and multi-sensory synthetic phonics method that gets children reading and writing from an early age. This means that we teach letter sounds as opposed to the alphabet. These 42 letter sounds are phonic building blocks that children, with the right tools, use to decode the English language. When reading a word, they recognize the letters and blend the respective sounds when writing a word they identify the sounds and write down the corresponding letters. Children are taught 42 letter sounds, which is a mix of alphabet sounds (1 sound – 1 letter) and digraphs (1 sound – 2 letters) such as sh, th, ai, and ue. Using a multi-sensory approach each letter sound is introduced with fun actions, stories, and songs.
Children who master handwriting are better, more creative writers. The earlier we teach children to master handwriting, the more likely they are to succeed in school and write with speed and ease in all subjects. We use fun, engaging, and developmentally appropriate instructional methods to enable children to master handwriting as an automatic and comfortable skill.
JUMP Math is dedicated to helping children succeed at, and enjoy, learning math. There is a strong causal link between a child's academic success and his or her future contribution to society. We strive to increase children’s chances of success, reduce socio-economic disparities, engender a sense of belonging, and, most importantly, endow voiceless children with opportunity.
The JUMP Math approach starts with a confidence-building exercise that has demonstrably changed children's perceptions of their abilities. By adopting the methods and principles of JUMP Math, schools can teach mathematics to a higher standard, without leaving students behind, and in a cost-effective manner. There will always be differences between students, but we don’t need to exaggerate or highlight them by setting up unnecessary hierarchies. By using materials and methods that minimize differences, teachers can cover more of the curriculum and can narrow or close the wide gap in student performance that exists in most classrooms.
Empower Reading is a program designed to teach readers a set of valuable strategies that they can use to decode words. By using these strategies students will experience success in reading and thus gain confidence in their reading skills. Empower Reading will equip students with multiple word attack strategies that will aid them on their way to becoming independent readers. Empower Reading is a program designed to teach readers a set of valuable strategies that they can use to decode words. By using these strategies students will experience success in reading and thus gain confidence in their reading skills. Empower Reading will equip students with multiple word attack strategies that will aid them on their way to becoming independent readers.
Physical activity has been shown to have substantive effects on brain chemistry and positively impact perception skills, IQ, achievement, verbal and math scores, development, and academic readiness. The St. Lawrence Academy offers a comprehensive Physical Education Program, with classes scheduled every day. It includes the study of age-appropriate team sports throughout the year, learning and practicing a new sport each month. Health classes, built upon the Ontario curriculum, occur twice a month with testing at the end of each month to ensure well-rounded body knowledge. SLA enriches our Physical Education program with the use of various local facilities and clubs in and around Prescott, such as the Prescott Golf Club, the Leo Boivin Arena, the Prescott Tennis Club, and the Prescott Curling Club. Competition in local Track and Field Meets, Cross Country Meets, and team sports round out a very comprehensive program.
Research indicates that students’ experiences in their first year of high school often determine their success throughout high school and beyond. This is why, that along with the completion of the grade 7/8 curriculum, our program is successfully structured for our students to make a smooth transition to secondary school. We understand that high school can be a frightening and overwhelming experience for many students as they adjust to new responsibilities and challenges. Our teachers have taken careful consideration into creating unique opportunities to encourage and promote specific skills that are of great benefit to our middle school graduates as they embark on their high school journey. Many of these skills are weaved throughout our courses over the entire year, while the last month of school is primarily dedicated to ensuring that our students leave with a solid foundation in the following skills, time management, and organizational strategies. Note-taking and study skills, Leadership training, and peer mentoring, Confidence and positive self-esteem, Accountability which includes students tracking, reflecting, and taking ownership of their grades, Critical thinking and problem solving, setting and achieving goals. Healthy work habits, effective communication skills to apply across the secondary school curriculum, test, and exam preparation.
