Westmount Charter School is a

charter school A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

for

gifted Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, wi ...

learners based in Calgary,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

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which educates students from kindergarten to grade 12. It was founded in 1996 as ABC (Action for Bright Children) Charter Public School by the Action for Bright Children Society, The school started with 116 students, from grades one to three, and is now hosting a student body of approximately 1,300 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 graduation occurred in June 2006.

Demographics

As of 2017, 25.1% of students at the elementary campus are speakers of

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

(ESL) and 13.5% have special needs. 19.9% of students at the mid-high campus are speakers of English as a second language and 13.4% have special needs. As of 2016–2017, Westmount is ranked the 9th best school in the last 5 years in Alberta by the Fraser Institute. Admission to the school requires a detailed academic history as well as a private psychological assessment in order to assess that the student is gifted.

Giftedness

The school's mission is to provide gifted learners with an enriched, accelerated environment to challenge and stimulate them. In order to be admitted, prospective students must undergo a third-party psychological assessment and intelligence testing, such as the WAIS,

WPPSI The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) is an intelligence test designed for children ages 2 years 6 months to 7 years 7 months developed by David Wechsler in 1967. It is a descendant of the earlier Wechsler Adult Intellige ...

, WISC or Stanford-Binet fifth edition. Prospective students should meet the recommended criteria for Gifted and Talented, which is a WAIS Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) score or a WAIS General Abilities Index (GAI) score of 130 (+/- 5).

Teams

Westmount has the following Mid-High sports teams: *

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

Cross-country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

* Rugby - 15 & 7s (Senior Men's, Women's) *

Track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

Volleyball Volleyball 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. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Facilities

Westmount Charter School started out in 1996 with a small building in Bridgeland as their home. They have since progressed through a building on the site of

CFB Calgary CFB may refer to: *College football *Canadian Forces base, military installation of the Canadian forces * Caminho de Ferro de Benguela, railway in Angola *Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District * Cipher feedback, a block cipher mode i ...

from 1998 to 2001, then for ten years shared the Viscount Bennett Centre with Chinook Learning Services. In September 2011, Westmount moved to two buildings: Parkdale Elementary, which houses Kindergarten to Grade 4, and Sir William Van Horne High School in University Heights, which houses Grades 5 to 12. These buildings are leased from the Calgary Board of Education, the public school board of Calgary.

References

External links