Royal Vale launches EMSB’s Open House season with a rush of visitors

By Kristin McNeill

Families flowed in the minute the doors opened at 6 pm on September 5 for Royal Vale School’s open house in NDG. Taking place on one of the earliest dates on EMSB’s open house calendar, the NDG school welcomed prospective students to tour both its elementary school and high school.

There was even a robot helping out.

The younger students and their parents were treated to tour the elementary side of the school by a group of some 20 enthusiastic Grade 6 students. Each guide took a small group with them to show them their classrooms, lockers and specialty rooms. One student introduced this visitor to all her teachers by name and explained what she did in each class. 

Royal Vale offers French immersion, as well as PELO and an enriched science program.

Kindergarten admission comes on a first come, first served basis with applications taking place at the end of January. (The exact date is to be announced soon.)

On the high school side, a whopping number of 70 Grade 11 students signed up as tour guides to proudly show off their school. They led groups of about a dozen people to all levels of the schools to look in on classrooms, watch demonstrations, visit specialty rooms and resource rooms, walk around the two gymnasiums and fitness centre, cafeteria and rest for a moment in the auditorium to listen to a performance by the school band. 

The lobby was busy.

Several fun demonstrations were underway, including one in the beautiful top-floor dance studio and in the lower-level robotics lab and the rock-climbing wall to give prospective families a sense of the possibilities offered through the school’s concentration programs. These include performing arts, music, sports and technology. And students coming to Royal Vale can dive right into one of these concentrations without having previous experience.

The student tour guides described all the different academic programs, everything from Royal Vale’s French program - which offers both Français, programme Flex and Français, programme enrichi, one of EMSB’s top immersion programs – to the special courses that are offered in Secondary 5 such as law, psychology, physics, chemistry and fine arts – and everything in between. Parents were very interested to learn more about the diverse extracurricular activities offered by Royal Vale.

One tour guide described science, referencing specifically environmental science, as a “big thing at this school.” She found her school offered “a sense of family” and loved participating on sports teams throughout all her high school years.

Learning about some of the courses.

Senior administration members mingled amongst the scores of visitors, answering questions and explaining the philosophy behind the school.

Royal Vale School continued its tradition of holding its the entrance exam for entry into high school on the Saturday morning after the open house. Parents who had questions about the test could speak directly with a teacher who was on hand to answer questions and greet the visitors. 

Checking out some pedagogical material.

The number of visitors at Royal Vale’s open house has increased over the past few years along with the number of students taking the entrance exam, explained principal Mauro Zampini.

Royal Vale is located at 5851 Somerled Avenue. The phone number is 514-481-2463. Log on to http://www.royalvale.emsb.qc.ca/