Our Approach

Who We Are

TSA is a member of Toronto’s premier progressive independent schools, offering classes spanning grades 3 to 12 in a gender-inclusive environment. We are proudly small and student-centric. Our innovative approach caters to neuro-divergent learners as one of a select few schools for 2eTwice-exceptional (2e) students are a diverse group of learners with complicated learning profiles. They exhibit gifts and talents in certain areas and experience impingement on their learning in others. Learn More students, where every pupil receives the attention and resources to thrive academically and personally.

Why Choose TSA?

Vibrant school community

  • A wide variety of clubs designed with student interests in mind
  • Field trips, overnight camps, and Inspire Week
  • House challenges and activities that facilitate social connections

High academic standards

  • Graduates successfully attend their post-secondary programs of choice
  • TSA is accredited by Cognia
  • AP® courses are available in grades 11 and 12

Personalised approach

  • Advisors, Student Success educators, and Associate Teachers provide individualised support
  • Every student has a collaboratively built learning plan
  • Our student-centric approach to teaching emphasises learning skills development
 

SUCCESS STORIES

Nia, from bored to blossoming

Nia’s Challenge: Nia came to us from her local public school. Although Nia was doing well, she (and her family) felt that she was underperforming and lacking the fire and excitement that had fueled her earlier years in school.

Our Solution: Abundant opportunities for academic enrichment and a collegial learning environment have reignited Nia’s passion for school. She has reengaged with learning and is now fulfilling her academic potential.

How Davi overcame his obstacles

Davi’s Challenge: Davi has a particular challenge with decoding text and was not afforded opportunities to remediate the skill nor provided any form of accommodation to work around this particular impingement on his learning.

Our Solution: Davi implemented strategies provided by his teachers and through his perseverance, capitalized his intelligence to become an adept essayist. Davi leveraged his success at The Study Academy into admission into his dream program, Environmental Design at OCAD.

Jordan is thriving in her environment

Jordan’s Challenge: Jordan joined TSA from another private school in Toronto. She is an intelligent and ambitious student who is also highly sensitive and anxious. Jordan was finding the social environment at her previous school difficult to navigate and would frequently need to take days away from school to help manage her anxiety.

Our Solution: Jordan was paired with an Academic Advisor who helped provide her with strategies on how to get the most out of her friendships at school and how best to manage her time to help reduce some of the stress associated with deadlines. Jordan also benefits from the supportive social environment at The Study Academy. Jordan is rarely ill, feels great about herself, and has a robust circle of friends at school.

How Cassius came out of his shell

Cassius’s Challenge: Cassius joined The Study Academy as an underperforming and under stimulated student with a gifted designation. He had felt that his questions in class had gone unanswered until he eventually stopped asking.

Our Solution: Cassius immediately connected with his philosophy teacher in analyzing a beloved public debate between Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking. Cassius found his love of learning and regularly participates in classroom discussion and debate as well as enrichment activities in a wide variety of classes while receiving support in his area of relative weakness; written composition.

Learning Approach

At TSA, we believe that  talent development is best achieved by providing students with choice, high expectations, and learning supports. We introduce elective classes starting in grade 3, and provide a wide array of choices by grade 12. Read more below on how we layer learning opportunities for students based on their strengths and preferences.

The Arts

Students in grades 3–8 explore various artistic disciplines, including painting, sculpture, photography, and filmmaking. Through hands-on experiences and collaborative projects, we ignite creativity and nurture artistic talents. Our inclusive approach caters to a diverse range of skills and experiences in the arts.

Students in grades 9–12 have the opportunity to further explore their passion for the arts through specialised courses in visual and media arts, as well as music and drama. Our dedicated faculty members provide personalised instruction and guidance, allowing students to refine their artistic abilities and pursue their creative interests at an advanced level. We support students in portfolio building and curation when applying to post-secondary programs, and our environment is well-designed for gifted students and those in need of 2e schools.
To enrich our academic and creative environment, we host workshops featuring renowned local artists. Students have the opportunity to learn from professionals such as Taha Muharuma of Taha Photo, Mark Gleberzon of MJG Gallery, and Brent Orr of Never Too Short Productions. These workshops provide invaluable insights, inspiring students to push the boundaries of their artistic endeavours.
Beyond the classroom, TSA offers a wide range of extracurricular opportunities in the arts. Students can participate in art clubs, showcase their talents in our annual talent show, display their artwork in student galleries, and contribute to our student-produced arts magazine. These extracurricular activities allow students to further explore their interests, collaborate with peers, and showcase their creative achievements.

Humanities

Our Lower School timetable integrates social studies with science into a combined social sciences curriculum, which explores Canada’s history, geography, and economics through the lenses of continuity and change, cause and consequence, and perspective evaluation. Languages are studied in small groups using a strength-based approach.

Upper School students have various humanities courses to choose from, including economics, history, politics, law, English, and social sciences, in addition to mandatory grade 9 geography and grade 10 history courses.

Field trips are used to complement classroom activity and aim to use the bountiful resources of Toronto to benefit student learning. Recent destinations have included the Holocaust Museum, ROM, and Toronto Archives.

Students keen on enriching their learning in the humanities have ample opportunities with AP® classes, participation in the Canadian Geographic Challenge and the Diplomacy team, and may author editorial content for school newspapers.

STEM

Students participate in a robust science curriculum, exploring the nature of matter and energy, form and function, electricity, and biotic and abiotic elements of the world. The emphasis is on learning to form meaningful questions and understanding the rigorous steps required to answer them. Math learning blends its focus on both core numeracy and higher-level problem-solving.

Upper School students have a robust set of elective options available to them in math, computer engineering technology, science, and computer science. These electives are designed for students with subject-specific curiosity and aspirations for post-secondary study in the field.

Students who excel in STEM-based subjects have rich learning opportunities available, including extending their learning in class through the Lower School Social Science Fair or exploring extended topics with their teacher, earning a first-year University credit through AP® courses, and competing against the best and brightest math and science students in the world through the CEMC.

TSA offers a wide variety of STEM-based extracurriculars, from coding clubs to math and science contest preparation to building projects in our maker space.

Oversized pink quotation marks

Our faculty fosters curiosity, cultivates research skills, refines critical thinking abilities, and ignites creativity by empowering our students to explore their interests and take ownership of their learning at one of the very best private schools in Toronto.

JASON KRELL Principal, Upper School

Our VIEWbook