International Student Program
The world has become a global village. We are now living in a global community in the new century. To teach our students how to interact interdependently and how to get along with people from different cultures is of paramount importance.
A goal of the International Student Program at R.E. Mountain Secondary School is to promote cross-cultural understanding among students, staff and parents. To support cultural diversity, we invite students from various countries to pursue a high school education at R.E. Mountain Secondary. This gives local students an opportunity to interact and work interdependently with people from different backgrounds. Through multicultural peer counseling programs, our students learn to respect differences and to get along with people from various cultures.
When international students attend R.E. Mountain Secondary they are offered a variety of opportunities to acquire English language skills, to learn about Canadian culture, to earn a Canadian graduation diploma, and to learn with students from different cultures. In addition to our required course offerings at Mountain, ISP students have the opportunity to receive specialized instruction in ESL classes to improve English skills.
ESL (English as a Second Language)
For an outline of our ESL programs please see our ESL Course descriptions.
Students are eligible for ESL instruction and support if their use of English is sufficiently different from Standard English to prevent them from reaching their potential in high school.
Students registering at R.E. Mountain for the first time are tested to determine the level of their English reading, writing, speaking and listening skills before being assigned to classes. Students are enrolled in regular English classes and one ESL support block. Some students may require only the services of the teaching assistant to monitor their progress in their integrated classes and to assist with proofreading.
Placement will be done in consultation with a counselor. On-going evaluation may result in placement changes during the year.
The goal of the R.E. Mountain Secondary School program is to enable students to achieve academic fluency and to support their integration into regular classes as soon as their language skills indicate that there is a reasonable expectation for success. A second language learner who has achieved academic fluency is evaluated against the same learning outcomes as all students in an integrated class.
ESL VISUAL LEARNING AIDS
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