FAQs

We offer Open Houses up to 4 times a year. Please call or email to inquire about the next scheduled open house.   

 

Phone: 604-273-2418

Email: office@choiceschool.org

Choice School offers a rolling admissions process, allowing applications throughout the year. Admissions are based on academic ability, previous school reports, and a successful experience day visit. For more details, visit the school’s admissions page. We encourage you to apply early to ensure we have availability and can start making a positive impact on your child’s academic and social emotional development. Spots may be limited depending on grade.

Choice School is designated by the Ministry of Education as a Special Education School for the Gifted—the only such designation in British Columbia. Vancouver Is Awesome

A child is considered gifted if they exhibit a number of different traits. While a psychological assessment would certainly help in this regard, many students who come to Choice School do not have this. When a prospective student comes to Choice School, we look at a number of traits including:

– academic achievement

– report cards

– creativity

– performance on benchmarks

– nominations by parents

Identifying whether your child is gifted often involves observing their behaviors, interests, and abilities, and sometimes seeking professional assessments. Here are some signs to help you determine if your child might be gifted:

Common Signs of Giftedness

1. • Reaches developmental milestones (walking, talking) earlier than peers.
   • Displays an advanced vocabulary or uses complex sentence structures early.
   • Quickly grasps new concepts and retains information easily.
   • Displays intense curiosity and asks thought-provoking questions.
   • Exhibits excellent problem-solving skills.
   • Recognizes patterns, connections, or abstract ideas beyond what is typical for their age
   • Shows deep interest in specific topics and spends significant time exploring them.
   • May show a strong preference for learning independently.
   • Approaches problems in unique or innovative ways.
   • Creates complex stories, drawings, or other creative outputs.
   • Exhibits heightened empathy or concern for fairness and justice.
   • May be highly self-critical or perfectionistic.
   • Has a high level of energy and focus on tasks of interest but might struggle with mundane or repetitive tasks.

During the experience day, your child will be part of the normal school day. During the day, he/she will attend every class along with other students. During the course of the three days, the teacher will ask your child to complete certain tasks. These might include some benchmark tests, some writing, reading and so on. Your child will experience three days at Choice School after which the Principal will discuss whether we are able to offer enrolment. This will depend on his performances at some of the given tasks but also on his general attributes observed over the three days. The main goal of the experience days is to ascertain whether the child fits into our learning environment.

Enrolment at Choice School is considered to be an investment into your child’s future. In order to help as many children as we can, our fees are lower than most other independent schools. However, we also understand that many economic factors may impose undue burdens on some families. In such a case, families may apply for tuition assistance.

Once enrolment has been confirmed, families can apply for financial assistance. During the application for such assistance, you will need to furnish financial information such as income, assets, liabilities and so on. Financial assistance up to 50% for tuition may be awarded if eligible.

Our students come from all over the lower mainland. While the majority of students live in Vancouver and Richmond, many students come from far away cities such as Coquitlam and White Rock.

We offer extra curricular activities until 5:30pm. However there is a small additional cost, should you wish to avail yourself of this service.

Every child attending Choice School is gifted. Some students arriving at Choice School are twice exceptional. For these students, Choice School provides the environment and staff that can best accommodate both aspects of a twice exceptional child’s personality through customized programming (by varying the pace, scope and complexity of the subject matter), specialized training of faculty ongoing professional development and small class sizes. In addition, we have the services of an occupational therapist and a behavioral consultant on site.

Yes, we offer school bus service to Richmond and parts of Vancouver for an additional fee. However, many families prefer to carpool and share the ride to school.