About CFIS
More Than a School, It’s a Community
We believe in celebrating the diversity of the world in which we live, and that starts with the families of our students. Our community is enriched by partnerships with our families that help create a rich and dynamic learning environment for our students. With over 30 nationalities represented by CFIS families, our students interact daily with their classmates, and our teachers incorporate learnings from the rich heritage, experience and knowledge in our own community.
French Immersion and Spanish Fluency
Within a curriculum that places the needs of tomorrow’s world top of mind, our students enjoy enriched academic courses, participate in an array of co-curricular programming, graduate bilingual in French and English, and are functionally fluent in Spanish.
At CFIS, students start French immersion as early as junior preschool, allowing for the optimal development of fluency and bilingualism. An early start gives children the ability to learn the French language as its own standalone structure with separate grammar, syntax, and expression, rather than as a translation. Second language learning enhances focus, increases problem-solving skills and creative abilities, helps to build empathy, and encourages understanding of other cultures and ways of life, as well as making it easier for children to learn subsequent languages.
Exceptional Curriculum
Strong academics, combined with immersive language programming, an international focus and development of the whole student, form the foundation of learning at CFIS. Excellence in all academic areas is supported by our vibrant literacy program and enhanced by a wide range of enriched co-curricular clubs and student experiences — from sustainability initiatives to our annual musical production. Our specialist teachers encourage students to expand their interests and deepen their learning in visual arts, music, physical education, travel studies, and speech and debate.
Our teachers and academic leaders place a strong emphasis on individualized learning that is supported by specialized classroom teachers, learning strategists and literacy coaches to ensure students receive the attention required to thrive in all subject areas. As a result of the school’s dynamic learning environment, our students’ average results on Provincial Achievement Tests and Diploma Examinations are well above provincial averages, and in line with other top schools in the province.
International Education
As multilingual learners in a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Associated School, our students lead age-appropriate advocacy and humanitarian work related to their studies in their community and around the world through their engagement in our Travel Studies program, Round Square and through the delivery of the globally-recognized International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum. Global education at CFIS gives our students the opportunity to engage with the world at every grade level, and prepares them to effectively and confidently navigate different cultures.
Graduating Global Citizens
Completing senior high school in a full French immersion environment opens post-secondary options for our students. Our students are well-rounded in their achievements, transition easily into university and embody CFIS’s values as leaders, critical thinkers and ethical, responsible citizens, and our alumni enjoy an exciting range of post-secondary options at French and English universities throughout Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.
