School Leadership

We interviewed Paul Bamberger, Principal at Junior Academy, who discussed the school's progressive education, inclusivity, and strong community. He highlighted their talented staff, individualized student support, and extensive extracurricular programs. Principal Bamberger emphasized the importance of communication with parents and the school's legacy of fostering a nurturing, inclusive environment for diverse student backgrounds.

• Highlights from the interview

  • I meet all of the students as they come in every day at the back doors and greet them. I'm always outside for at least one, if not two, recess duties interacting with students from various grades, often engaged in a game of ball tag or something else, maybe playing tag on the front playground. We've got such talented teachers, and watching them teach and interact with the students is always impressive.

  • We're constantly in a state of change, and I think that's what progressive education is. Being progressive is what's necessary in today's day and age, and not just looking at the academic skills anymore, but supporting all of the social-emotional pieces, supporting all of the executive function. Those things that were once the soft skills really aren't the soft skills of education anymore. We need those to be successful in life. The use of common language and common philosophy, common training for the teachers, so the language that we use in a grade two classroom might be very similar to a grade five to a grade seven classroom.

  • When kids are joining us in kindergarten, they're still learning a lot of those pre-academic skills, the most rudimentary skills for how to interact with each other, take turns, and socialize. Watching them learn how to read, gain numeracy skills, and then as they get older, have their own passions and their own interests. We also have students who join us partway through. They might come in grade four, they might come in grade seven. It's always fantastic to see their journey as well, because maybe they were in a public school, maybe they were being homeschooled, maybe they were coming from somewhere far away. Their journey wasn't working for them in their previous environment, and then seeing things switch and seeing them feeling a sense of encouragement and accomplishment.

  • Being inclusive is really one of the main things that we're striving for at the school. We have students from all walks of life, different ethnicities, different religions, lots of different academic profiles, and learning profiles. We're catering to lots of different students who might not fit the mold in other places. We're a super inclusive school. We have students who don't always excel in other places because they might need a little bit more help or they might need something to be done in a more independent way. With small class sizes, well-trained teachers, and the philosophy that we're working on the individual skills and strengths of each child, we're able to tailor things more towards those different students.

  • Parents are always welcome to come and chat with me, chat with any members of the admin team, and speak with the teachers. The teachers do an amazing job communicating with parents. We use a learning management system wherein every Friday, all of the teachers communicate with their parents and share, 'This is what we did this week. This is what's coming up next week. Here's where your child is at.' There is constant communication.

  • We use a couple of philosophies or tools. One of them is CPS, Collaborative and Proactive Solutions, a program developed by Dr. Ross Greene in the States. Collaborative and Proactive Solutions basically means that we're going to be working with the students who might be having difficulty, and we are going to come up with a solution together.

  • We also use a self-reg approach that comes from Stuart Shanker in the Merit Center, Peterborough, where we look at student behaviour as stress responses. Their behaviour is a result of certain stressors, and we work with students, our faculty, and the community to support students.

  • We have access to some wonderful space in and around Junior Academy. Across the street from us is the Canadian Film Centre, and they have lovely grounds there, a beautiful field area that enters into a forest tract and river system. We run a full outdoor education program using those grounds and the ravine and river system. We're really close to an arena just down the street from us, so we can organize skating lessons at the arena. We're in the heart of Toronto, close to tons of different things, which means taking field trips to the science centre, the Royal Ontario Museum, or the BrickWorks.

  • When the school was started in 1988 by Dianne Johnson, that was part of her goal: to create a school that felt different, with a strong community and family feel. Even though she's retired, members of her family are still involved in the school, working there every day. I'm lucky enough to be able to carry on her legacy and tradition in the school, and I feel that the school still has those same qualities that she started with back in 1988. It's a super inclusive culture where we have students with lots of different backgrounds and learning profiles who all get along and interact with each other.