The Academy for Gifted Children, known more commonly as P.A.C.E. (Programing for Academic and Creative Excellence)*^[1] is a non-denominational primary school in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada founded by former teachers Dennis Reynolds & Barbara Rosenberg. Entrance is by a competitive examination called the WISC-V, or the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. This exam determines the intelligence quotient (IQ) of a child. The school has been designed to support intellectually gifted children, and it allows children from grades 1 to 12 to enter.

The school makes modifications to the system that Canadian public schools usually use. Rather than simply allowing the students to proceed through grades 1 to 12, P.A.C.E. has merged grades 7 and 8 into one year and added an extra year after grade 12. This allows students to graduate with significantly more credits than those graduating from public school; however, the students graduating from P.A.C.E. still graduate at the same age. Attending students have the option of selecting from a variety of extra-curricular activities the school has to offer outside of regular school hours.

* Some sources claim the acronym stands for Program for Academic and Creative Enrichment. Because P.A.C.E. is such a small school, it is impossible to know which one is right or wrong, considering it has very few sources to write about.

History

The school was founded in 1993 by former Earl Haig Secondary School teachers Dennis Reynolds, Justin Alighanbari, & Barbara Rosenberg. It started off as an elementary school for grades 1-8 with 25 students and has increased in admission since its inception. It currently has 330 students from grades 1 through 12. P.A.C.E. formerly supported grades SK to 12, but now only supports grades 1-8 and 11-12. Along with this, P.A.C.E. also formerly had a more prominent building, but now has changed to a smaller one. P.A.C.E. apparently plans to bring back the old version of the building during 2024 or 2025, although plans have begun as early as 2020 to 2022. Rosenberg remained as the "director" (the term used for the principal) until the end of the 2018–2019 school year, when the vice-principal at the time, Janice Gruchy replaced Rosenberg as the director. Gruchy's role as the vice-principal was replaced by the former science teacher and head teacher, Caroline Corbit. The current school grounds were the former location of the Our Lady of the Annunciation Elementary School which moved to its new location east of Yonge Street in the early 1990s. The school has since been a school for the intellectually gifted, starting from grades 1-8 to 11-12.

Overview

P.A.C.E., as mentioned before, is a non-denominational coed private school in Richmond Hill that supports the intellectually gifted. In fact, it only allows for the intellectually gifted to enter their school grounds. Rosenberg was the original director of the school, but in 2019, Janice Gruchy, a teacher that joined in 1999 and a former student of the school. The average tuition of the school is $18,500 CAD.^[2] However, considering extra costs, the tuition may be as high as $21,500 CAD for new students in their first year. Curriculum may accelerated by up to 3 years because of its 'gifted' status.^[3]

References

External links

• Official website
• OurKids.net school review
• "CASCON High School Programming Competition 2005". Archived from the original on 2007-01-25.
• "National Post ranking of the school as 1st in the province in 98/99". Archived from the original on 2001-09-17.
• Education Cost Winners: 2003