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Bishop Strachan School

School rating 4 / 5 by

298 Lonsdale Road Toronto ON M4V 1X2 Canada
Boarding
7th to 12th
Day
PK to 12th
Gender
Girls only

Academic

Bishop Strachan School review by .

First of all, I would like to point out how Bishop Strachan School, "BSS" is always striving and taking initiatives to provide a better environment for its students; and academics is no exception. They have launched another initiative to strengthen the math and science education, and with the outstanding faculty BSS already has, it will bring more good to its academics. Bishop Strachan School has its strengths in arts, foreign languages, social sciences, and in humanities. (Also, BSS has a variety of excellent sports teams ranging from field hockey to archery.) The quality of the teachers is far beyond great; not only do they have the knowledge in their specific fields and the ability to teach, they also care about each student sitting in their classes. Also, they are always willing to provide as much help as they can, when help is needed. For instance, if a student wants to take an AP exam in a subject that BSS doesn't have a class for, the teachers in a relevant department will help her prepare it along the way. I personally found most of my teachers more than approachable, and a lot of students have close relationships with their teachers individually. A true mentor so to say. The class size is adequate. Most classes have about 10 to 15 students, but in subjects where a close attention is needed, i.e foreign language classes, the class size is even smaller. And as mentioned, teachers at BSS are very caring. Speaking of the work load, it can be overwhelming from time to time, especially when you are taking many challenging courses. School provides a yearly agenda to everyone, and a lot of students use it effectively. From there, you can see that there is a major assignment due pretty much every other day, and it is fairly common that one student has more than three major assessments on one day. (of course, then that student can reschedule it a bit.) The teachers will always keep you busy. It is up to each individual to decide how much effort they will put in, but I find that most of those assignments were worth my time and energy. One other great thing I experienced at Bishop Strachan School was that they really emphasize on making sure each student understands the material. (This inevitably has something to do with the caring faculty, and honestly, I even hope that the school emphasizes a little bit more on exam-taking skills.) In addition, BSS has all kinds of technologies needed; senior school mandates using laptops with an excellent IT department, and BSS is the first high school to have a 3D printer in Ontario. Student body is somewhat diverse in terms of their academic competitiveness. About 20~30% of the students are fairly competitive, and there is a great diversity in what students are interested in. There are currently more than 18 AP courses offered.

College Counseling

Many of the college counselors at Bishop Strachan School were once teachers. And it should....

Sample insights on college counseling

  • They have contacts at most of the major universities and feel perfectly comfortable picking up the phone and advocating for a student to get accepted somewhere they feel is a good fit for that student. However, these counselors are certainly not magic bullets. They cannot guarantee that a student will get into an Ivy League university...
  • For those wishing to move on to Oxford or Cambridge, the provision is second-to-none. In the months running up to application and interview, every subject faculty offers classes (often run by former Oxbridge tutors) exploring further areas of their subject as well as offering advice on personal statements, interview technique and more...

Admissions - Getting Accepted

Like many other private schools, Bishop Strachan School asks for the previous transcript, SSAT, two....

Sample insights on admissions

  • For the interview, dress conservatively. Try to be very clean and put together. Also, I was a tour guide for two years and at the end of every tour, we were asked to evaluate the candidate so if you think the tour is not apart of the process, you are very wrong. Ask questions and be interested. Also, tip for the parents: the kids speak on the tour. Do not ask their questions for them...
  • Most younger siblings have an easy time in the admissions process. I can only think of one case of a younger sibling not being admitted. About half of the students who entered with me had come from public schools. The remainder came from private K-6 schools, or had transferred from other New York private schools The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard were two of the larger feeder schools...

School Life

Bishop Strachan School is located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Canada. It is beautiful and safe, and the school is particularly cautious about the surroundings. School cafeteria has gotten better and better every year, and healthier too! (They did have to give up those amazing chocolate chip cookies for that.) Though the school building is quite old, the maintenance is excellent. All the facilities are updated frequently, and once inside, you don't feel that you are in a very old building. Junior school was newly built a couple of years ago. BSS also has two huge gyms, a....

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