Since it’s inception, KCS has been committed to being an academically excellent school. For some, the simplest measure of whether a school is ‘academically excellent’ is how it does on standardized tests – such as BC’s annual provincial exams. By this measure, KCS has and continues to be one of the strongest schools in the province, increasing year over year.
We believe that things like strong provincial exam scores are a consequence of our core mission – not its purpose. We exist as a school to educate and inspire our students to become disciples of Jesus who make a difference.
Excellence is a core value of our school, but we don’t just mean high test scores. We mean students should strive to do well, and through encouragement and engagement achieve their personal best in a process of continuous improvement. Excellence at KCS means we push ourselves and our students to keep getting better using our best effort.
At KCS, we aren’t seeking simply well educated students who try to live moral lives (although that sounds like a pretty admirable goal). We desire graduates who are truly different – who are peculiar. People who see and respond to the world differently. People who seek God’s handiwork all around them and desire to accomplish His purposes. Ultimately, we believe in teaching and education that is transformational. In the classroom, through things like our Design Principles for Teaching and Learning we seek to make learning an opportunity for students to fully engage in their own growth.
One great piece of advice that Kristi Cooper, our KCS Director of Teaching and Learning, loves to give and we love to see in the classroom, is to introduce students to the word “yet”. Read more about this in her blog “Developing Growth Mindsets in Our Children”.
