Academic Overview

Since 1980, parents have trusted CCS to provide their children the foundation they need to reach their potential. A Biblically-based program of study emphasizes mastery of the fundamentals vital to each student’s success for years to come.

At CCS, your child will be prepared to be an informed, discerning individual equipped with the knowledge and abilities that enable success in future academic endeavours, career pursuits, and life.

The academic curriculum at Community Christian School is taught from a Biblical worldview; it complements the guidelines of the Ontario Ministry of Education while reflecting the mission and vision of the school. While maintaining academic excellence, we will help your child further understand the world in which they live so they can evaluate our culture and respond obediently as responsible disciples.

With small class sizes and lots of one-to-one attention, our certified teachers work diligently in promoting high academic achievement and in encouraging spiritual growth.

Science

God is the Creator and Sustainer of the entire universe in which we live. All of creation witnesses to the mighty acts of the Creator and to His providential care. Through a well-developed science program the students will grow in their relationship to God, increase their understanding of the world they live in, and prepare them to serve stewardly and effectively in an increasingly scientific and technological world. Scientific inquiry into the natural and physical universe expands our knowledge of creation and is a significant tool to equip us to wisely care for the earth and its life. Science differs from other conventional subjects in that it is, by definition, an inquiry. Although students can absorb scientific facts, a sense of awe and wonder at God's majesty, revealed in His creation, is nurtured within them. A curious mind, thinking skills such as analysis and abstraction, as well as laboratory skills are cultivated in the teaching of science.

At CCS this begins in the primary grades through the Creation Studies curriculum and continues to be developed throughout the grades where students are confronted with the opportunity to respond to a growing knowledge of God's creation.

Mathematics

The mathematics program enables students to increase their understanding of God's creation and prepare them to serve effectively in the world in which they live. Students learn about God's faithfulness and lawfulness in the numerical and spatial aspects of His created order. The study of mathematics gives students the ability to communicate ideas through the use of numbers, symbols, proofs, and graphs. Students engage and practise this foundational knowledge in novel problems and everyday applications. 

Language & Literature

Basic to the biblical approach in language arts is the recognition that God is the Creator of language and communication and He has given them to use as a gift. The curriculum provides a carefully designed balance of short stories, novels, poetry, media studies, writing, and skill development. Through the curriculum, a proficiency in the language arts contributes to the development of the students' relationship with God, knowledge of God's word and creation, effective communication skills, analysis and discernment skills with a Christian worldview, language skills, and an overall appreciation and enjoyment of written and spoken words.

Social Studies

Social Studies focus on humans in relationship to God, to him/herself, to others and to the rest of creation. This is accomplished by studying these various interactions. Through the creation studies, students in the primary division experience their immediate environment and begin to explore our heritage. In the junior division, the students study the historical and geographical aspects of their own country, Canada. In addition, the study of other cultures and civilizations provides a contrast to their own experience.
In the intermediate division, students begin to think analytically, and are presented with the further division of the social studies content into the disciplines of geography and history.

Bible

The Christian school exists to train students for a life of discipleship to the triune God in the world, and the Bible is crucial for that development. It is used in a devotional context, along with personal reflection and prayer, and also in a distinctly "academic" approach, as a subject among other subjects.

The school's Bible program, Walking With God, presents the Bible as the divinely inspired Word of God. In learning about God's people throughout history, students learn that through the high and the low points, God's continuing love for his people is evident. Despite doubt, rebellion, fear, or pressure to conform, each student (just like the people in the Bible) is on a spiritual journey under God's care. Students too, belong to the story. The Bible helps shape our sense of who we are, where we have come from, what we are living for, and where we are headed.

Arts

Every child has the potential to be expressive in art. It is important that the Christian education system embrace the task of bringing out this creative potential. Thus children become aware of who they are, how great the works of God are and their creative responsibility in His world.

The visual arts program at CCS is one that promotes much variety and discovery, and results in celebration and sharing of our redemption in Jesus Christ. The countless techniques and uses of paint, paper, and ink that are found, recycled or discovered in objects provide rich experiences in classrooms of very creative and eager young students. However, the wide ranging truth of life, death, hope, fears, and beliefs that are safely, lovingly, and graphically shared give joy to all of us who take the time to see it in the art that is produced in our school.

MUSIC

Music is a significant vehicle through which believers worship God. It has a capacity to provide spiritual enrichment through aesthetic enjoyment, creative expression, and communal and individual worship.

At CCS we study the basic elements of music: melody, rhythm, harmony, form, and timbre. We experience music by: listening, singing, moving, playing various instruments, reading and writing music. At the various levels, students engage in vocal and instrumental music. Our goal is to teach the children to appreciate the gift of music and to seek opportunities to use this gift in God's world. Currently, students in our grade 5-6 class have the opportunity to learn to play the ukalele, and our grade 7-8 class has the opportunity to learn how to play a wind instrument, percussion, or guitar as part of our grade 7-8 band.

Students who have a keen desire to share their musical talent, are encouraged to do so at weekly chapel.

Physical Education

Human beings, created in God's image, function and respond through their bodies to fulfill the tasks to which they have been called. In physical education, we study the movement of the body and we practice skills to acquire and maintain physical fitness and co-ordination. A balanced approach that incorporates fitness, play, and skills is developed throughout the grades. We believe that physical activity brings enjoyment and awareness of how wonderfully our bodies are made. In addition, students have opportunities to grow in self-knowledge, self-respect, competition, and social skills. 

Health Curriculum

In health education, students learn how to fulfill their God-given responsibility in such areas of nutrition, cleanliness, personal safety, and disease prevention. Students learn how we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" in studying body systems. They also learn interpersonal skills necessary for getting along with others. Working through family topics helps students to establish basic Christian patterns and to appreciate the blessings of family life. The health curriculum seeks to guide students to experience healthy living through the examination of scripture. God designed humans as sexual beings and He established a healthy pattern for how humans interact in this area. Therefore human sexuality is taught in the classroom with attention paid to age appropriateness. The school desires the home to play a role in this teaching and has included both home and school objectives. Our curriculum presents healthy living in a Christ-centred manner and upholds God’s plan for the family and His plan that our bodies are the “temple of the Holy Spirit” as we strive to become His image bearers. Teachers, at each grade level, will inform the parents prior to the classroom instruction period in order for the parent to initiate and instruct their own children in the age appropriate topics.

French

Grades 5 and 6: Community Christian School continues to implement the Intensive French Program introduced in Grades 5 and 6 in September 2017.

Studies have shown that hearing and speaking for long periods of time is an effective way to learn a second language. Students in Grades 5 and 6 participate in a French language theme-based oral program for two hours each morning. Students begin their day hearing and speaking French, guided by the teacher who models the language through a variety of activities designed to engage students and develop their oral vocabulary. The program is designed for all students to meet with success as they learn the French language and become accustomed to speaking and reading it. Our Grade 5 and 6 Intensive French program is not an immersion program, as students are not being taught specific subjects in French. Rather, the program teaches French much the same way a young child would learn to understand, speak, and write English by conversing in a natural way while participating in class discussions, devotions and prayer, creating art, or practicing music skills.

Grades 5 to 8: Since our Grades 5 and 6 French program was a success and we have more students who are comfortable speaking French, it was important to provide the opportunity for further growth in reading, writing, and speaking skills to students ready for the next steps in learning French. Select students in grades 5 through 8 receive additional French instruction three afternoons per week. Unlike the Intensive French program, where students are conversing in a natural way, students who choose to participate in our Integrated French program will be taught History and Geography in French, using French resources, and writing their assignments for these two subjects in French.

We continue to offer our strong core French program in all other grades, using the Accelerative Integrated Method in grades 1 through 4. Through participation in our French programs, students will be better prepared to meet the rigours of high school French classes.

Technology

We live in a world where information technology is rapidly expanding and changing. It transforms – and sometime enhances - so much around us. It affects our communication, our lifestyle, our way thinking. IT also affects education.

We seek to teach discernment when learning more about IT (and how we use it) and the various programs, applications and experiences available to us.

IT is another tool, or medium, to add to an existing collection of educational supports. IT provides another way to present our teaching strategies as we explore God's creation.
Students have access to an on-line keyboarding program in order to be able to effectively use the computers to publish assignments. CCS has a well-equipped computer lab, a class set of iPads, and an extensive library. Regular use of each complements all subjects.

Leadership

Our small student population allows for numerous leadership opportunities in areas such as refereeing intramural games, leading worship in chapel, mentoring peer pals, serving, and participating on student-led committees.