Westmount Charter School
Encyclopedia
Westmount Charter School is a charter school
based in Calgary
, Alberta
, Canada
; which educates gifted students from kindergarten to grade 12. It was founded in 1996 as ABC (Action for Bright Children) Charter Public School, a school for gifted children. The school started with 116 students, from grades one to three, and is now hosting a gifted student body of over 1,000 in grades Kindergarten through 12. The name was officially changed from ABC Charter Public School to Westmount Charter School in 2002, though the school remains publicly funded.
Westmount's first grade 12 graduation occurred in June 2006.
medaling in the many tournaments, including regionals, and provincials. Westmount also had a very successful senior debate team, currently reigning champions of the North American Qualifiers, the Billington Cup, the Western Redman debate Open, and the Henry Wise Wood annual Worlds Style Tournament all at the regional level, and the University of British Columbia Open, and the North American Debate Championships at the National and International level. Two students, Alex Yuan and Alif Karmali, attained first place in the Calgary Regional Debate Championship and second place in the Alberta Beginner Debate Championship in 2007.
as their home. They have since progressed through a building in the old CFB Currie, and for ten years shared the Viscount Bennett Centre with Chinook Learning Services. In September 2011, Westmount moved to two buildings: Parkdale Elementary, which will house Kindergarten to grade 4, and Sir William Van Horne High School in University Heights
, which will house grades 5 to 12. These buildings are leased from the Calgary Board of Education, the public school board in the area.
Previous Vice Principals include:
On October 30, just a day after the first act of indecent exposure, a man entered the school who has been described as Middle Eastern with spiky black hair and approximately 6 feet tall (185 CM). At around 10:15 AM he reportedly inappropriately touched an eighth-grade male student in the school cafeteria. The school was again put into lockdown, and the police were contacted. Over a dozen police vehicles and one of Calgary Police Service's HAWC helicopters arrived at the scene, but the suspect was nowhere to be found. The lockdown was lifted at 2:00 PM
Alberta charter schools
Alberta charter schools are a special type of public schools which have a greater degree of autonomy than a normal public school, to allow them to offer programs that are significantly different from regular public schools operated by district school boards. Charter schools report directly to the...
based in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
; which educates gifted students from kindergarten to grade 12. It was founded in 1996 as ABC (Action for Bright Children) Charter Public School, a school for gifted children. The school started with 116 students, from grades one to three, and is now hosting a gifted student body of over 1,000 in grades Kindergarten through 12. The name was officially changed from ABC Charter Public School to Westmount Charter School in 2002, though the school remains publicly funded.
Westmount's first grade 12 graduation occurred in June 2006.
Teams and Clubs
- Rugby unionRugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
- Cross-country running
- Track and fieldTrack and fieldTrack and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
- BadmintonBadmintonBadminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...
- VolleyballVolleyballVolleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
- BasketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
- DebateDebateDebate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
/SpeechSpeechSpeech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...
(Westmount Debate Society) - ChessChessChess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
- Scrabble Club
- Westmount Charter Film Society
- Intramural sports: Floor Hockey, Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Soccer
- Hip-Hop Club
Debate
Westmount has a history in debateDebate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
medaling in the many tournaments, including regionals, and provincials. Westmount also had a very successful senior debate team, currently reigning champions of the North American Qualifiers, the Billington Cup, the Western Redman debate Open, and the Henry Wise Wood annual Worlds Style Tournament all at the regional level, and the University of British Columbia Open, and the North American Debate Championships at the National and International level. Two students, Alex Yuan and Alif Karmali, attained first place in the Calgary Regional Debate Championship and second place in the Alberta Beginner Debate Championship in 2007.
Facilities
Westmount Charter School started out in 1996 with a small building in BridgelandBridgeland, Calgary
The neighbourhood of Bridgeland of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is located to the immediate northeast of downtown Calgary...
as their home. They have since progressed through a building in the old CFB Currie, and for ten years shared the Viscount Bennett Centre with Chinook Learning Services. In September 2011, Westmount moved to two buildings: Parkdale Elementary, which will house Kindergarten to grade 4, and Sir William Van Horne High School in University Heights
University Heights, Calgary
University Heights is a residential neighbourhood in the north-west quadrant of Calgary, Alberta. It is located south of the University of Calgary, McMahon Stadium, the Alberta Children's Hospital and Foothills Hospital...
, which will house grades 5 to 12. These buildings are leased from the Calgary Board of Education, the public school board in the area.
Band Program
Westmount's band program encompasses many styles and levels. Within concert band there are Beginner or Grade 5 level. The Junior, Intermediate and Senior levels all vary in grade level. It also offers numerous other music programs, those being String Orchestra, Choir, and two levels of Jazz Band. Unlike most other schools in the province, Westmount starts its Beginner band in Grade 5. Band is currently being taught by Graham Green and Gideon Choi with Wendy Mah re-joining the teaching faculty in 2011-2012.Giftedness
Westmount Charter School defines giftedness in this way: "Students are gifted when they perform, or show potential for performing, remarkably high levels of accomplishment in learning rate, depth of knowledge, and reasoning and problem-solving abilities when compared to others of their age, experience, and environment."Principals
- The founding Principal, Jo-Anne Koch, served from 1996-2002. She died due to cancer. The school library has since been dedicated to her memory.
- Magy Butterfield was acting Principal during the 2001-2002 school year.
- Dr. Elaine McDougall was Principal from 2002-2005.
- Martha Faulkner was Principal from 2005-2011, retiring in June 2011.
- Dr. Shelley Robinson has been named the next Principal, commencing in the 2011-2012 school year.
Assistant Principals
- Marylyn Waters
- Hal Curties
- Dani Sever
- Chris Hooper
Previous Vice Principals include:
- Magy Butterfield
- Marlee Cole (formerly Rhonda Watrin)
- Martha Faulkner
- Arnold Nugent
- Neil Robinson
October 2008 Incidents at Viscount Bennett Centre
On October 29, 2008 at the Viscount Bennett Centre, an unknown male intruder entered the Westmount mid-high area of the school and exposed himself to 2 students at roughly 3:30 PM, after classes had ended. No physical contact was made, and the two students immediately went to the school office. The school immediately went into lockdown, and the police were contacted. The police searched the school, and at around 5:20 PM the lockdown was slowly lifted.On October 30, just a day after the first act of indecent exposure, a man entered the school who has been described as Middle Eastern with spiky black hair and approximately 6 feet tall (185 CM). At around 10:15 AM he reportedly inappropriately touched an eighth-grade male student in the school cafeteria. The school was again put into lockdown, and the police were contacted. Over a dozen police vehicles and one of Calgary Police Service's HAWC helicopters arrived at the scene, but the suspect was nowhere to be found. The lockdown was lifted at 2:00 PM