Recently, word has been passed that David Thomson GOLD Program and Prince of Wales GOLD Program could consider students for intake who have home addresses outside the boundaries of Vancouver.
I believe that this sort of application would be the exception, and that all in-District students interested in placement in a GOLD program would need to have been cleared from the wait-list. In addition, the host school (DT or PW) would need to be able to create a timetable for the student.
Creating a timetable for a student is a complicated process, and requires a delicate dance with class size and class composition rules set out by Bill 33 and the teacher's collective agreement.
An opportunity to fill a vacant spot at Grade 9 recently arose in one of the GOLD programs. A student living in a southern municipality seemed to be an appropriate fit for the program. His current educational situation is going very poorly. All educators, adults and the student agreed that the GOLD placement might be the perfect fit--however the school discovered that they would not be able to create a workable timetable without forcing overages in several classes.
Given that the student was applying for admission three weeks into the school year, was applying from outside the VSB, and carried the "Q" (Learning Disability) designation, the school just wasn't able to accommodate the student.
Although this particular attempt didn't pan out, the fact that the application was not rejected out of hand because it came from a non-Vancouver family, should be kept in mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment