Bill Ross's decision to enroll his son Kenny at Southpointe Academy simply came down to the fact that the independent school offered junior kindergarten.
Eight years later, his son is in Grade 6 and thriving at Southpointe, a nondenominational independent school for K to Grade 12.
"Originally, my wife and I decided to send Kenny there because he's a February baby. All his friends were starting kindergarten and he couldn't start because he was too young," said Ross. "We were hooked on Southpointe from that point on."
Ross said they chose to keep Kenny there for a number of reasons.
"I like the structure and the class size - there are only 15 students in his class; but, above all, the quality of the faculty is exceptional," said the Tsawwassen father, who also has three adult children.
"My son's teacher has her PhD in biology and there's a medical doctor on staff as well.
"We feel Southpointe is the best fit for Kenny."
Ross also likes the fact that the school demands a lot more academically from its students - they have more homework and longer school days than public school.
However, Ross is quick to add that he has no problem with the public school system.
"My three grown children from my first marriage all attended public school in Delta, and they did well," Ross said. "What sold us for Kenny was the broad learning environment offered at Southpointe. There's tremendous success with graduates getting placed in top North American universities, year after year."
Graham Baldwin, CEO and headmaster at Southpointe Academy, said the school, which opened in 2000, espouses values that resonate with parents.
"Our core values are respect, integrity, performance and passion," Baldwin said.
"Parents also like the fact that 100 per cent of our graduates qualify for university."
Southpointe Academy stands out because the faculty strongly believe that "all students are capable of going onto university and to succeed there."
"We prepare our students extremely well for university," he said. "We partner with several international schools all over the world, including Spain, China,
New Zealand and France, and our students can choose to spend three to four months at an international language school.
"Southpointe Academy also offers the International Baccalaureate program, which scores very high."
In December of last year, Southpointe opened its new 68,000 square-foot institution, which can accommodate up to 575 students.
It's a state-of-the-art facility with a communications infrastructure to serve Smart Boards, laptops and other devices. It also boasts a fitness centre, theatre and an Innovative Learning Centre (ILC).
ILC is for those students with conditions such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD and other learning disabilities.
Ryanne Woolford is the director of the ILC, which accepts 25 students from Grade 3 to 12.
"I think what makes our program unique is that we provide a service that is very individualized for all of the children in our program," said Woolford.
"We also support them within the regular classroom, and our team of three works closely with homeroom teachers.
"On our team, we have an Orton-Gillingham specialist, a multi-sensory phonics based program. We also have support from senior level teachers who are specialists in certain subjects, and who work with our students during free time and during afterschool tutorials.
"It's a very flexible and fluid program, which gets the support that is particular for each student and necessary for them to achieve their potential."
