I N D E P E N D E N T S C H O O L S
S p e c i a l F e a t u r e
by men, and in 2014, the school introduced
its agship program,
STEM (an acronym for
science, technolo•y, engineering and
mathematics).
STEM is embedded in all aspects of St.
Margaret's curriculum, including its
electives.
"Historically, girls haven't pursued
careers in
STEM," says Thornicroft. "We
are telling our girls that not only are they
capable, they can thrive
in these ‚elds."
In fact, since
STEM was
launched, St. Margaret's
has seen a signi‚cant
number of its graduates
going onto post-secondary
institutions to study these disciplines. "We
are ‚nding nearly half of our girls are
choosing to pursue
STEM careers," she adds.
Multicultural focus
West Vancouver's Mulgrave School—an
independent, secular, co-educational
school with just under 900 students—has
created an exciting global classroom.
"Mulgrave has a strong multi-cultural
focus in which our students are developing
cross-cultural competency and knowl-
edge," says Mulgrave's head of school John
Wray, adding that its students come from
44 diŽerent nationalities. "Our emphasis is
also on having our students understand
countries' cultural, religious and value-
based diŽerences so they learn to respect
and understand other people's beliefs."
All of its students, from pre-kindergarten
to Grade 12, study multiculturalism in depth
to support more young people to think, act
and live as globally competent citizens.
To learn to develop a global mindset,
it starts with a compulsory second
language focus.
"I think for our children to be success-
ful and more engaged in our international
community and the world, learning
another language is really important,"
Wray says. "We formally teach French,
Spanish, Chinese, and we work with a
number of tutors who teach such lan-
guages as Farsi and Korean."
Senior School students
at Southridge gather at
Harkness tables to discuss
and share ideas through
the Harkness philosophy of
teaching and learning
PHOTO
COUR
T
ESY
SOU
T
HRIDGE
Shaping Lives of Inquiry, Action and Joy
Visit wpga.ca/admissions to book a tour and apply.
The application deadline is December 1.
JK-Grade 12 Coeducational Independent School | wpga.ca
