Important information for the school year 2014-2015

by Chris Adamopoulos, General Director “École Socrates-Démosthène”

Here at École Socrates-Démosthène, we are busy preparing the return to school. We have another school year full of activity planned, where the preschool and primary education of your child is our top priority.

Entering the fifth year of our eight-year development plan, we continue to implement the 10 goals we have set for our school. These objectives include: francisation, updating of our Greek programme, the application of new technologies, improving the quality of our entire curriculum, promoting a sense of belonging for all students in the school and the community and improving the quality of our day-care programme, the creation of the first ever trilingual private high school and the creation of an international campus.

At École Socrates-Démosthène, we are constantly refining our programmes. A lot of time is invested and a lot of research is being conducted to obtain new materials, incorporate new technologies and improve our teaching methods. The optimisation of our technology infrastructure (computers and internet in every classroom) and teacher training in technology will remain a major concern.

We also invest in our complementary services. This year, learning-assistance teachers, as well as, recovery periods will be offered to students who need special assistance in learning.

Our Service éducatif parascolaire (SÉP) is a day-care program that is highly popular with families. It is an extension of the educational programme outside of the regular classes, with the same quality care in a safe, educational and recreational environment for students.

Following our environmental commitment, each campus will send all of its communications by email. In addition, the trilingual École Socrates-Démosthène website (socdem.org), is a source of valuable information about the School, its programmes, activities, procedures for registration and more.

After the success of our second trip to Greece last June, the ultimate Greek Educational Experience will be offered again to the graduating class this year. We hope that the 2015 version of the trip will be an even greater success.

Unfortunately, we also have less good news to share. At the very end of the last school year, the Quebec government announced that funding to private schools would be further reduced. The Ministry of Education (MELS) has informed all private schools that, among other cuts, transportation grants will be gradually reduced until they disappear within three years. MELS decided to cut transport funding by 33% from 2014 to 2015, 66% for 2015 to 2016 and up to 100% in 2016-2017. We are vigorously opposing these cuts to our grants, fighting them both on our own and in collaboration with other private schools.

On behalf of the School’s administration, the teachers, the support staff, and my office staff, we warmly wish to all our students and their parents a great school year at École Socrates-Démosthène.