From the moment your child enters Calgary Christian School, we partner with your home and church to form a team that helps your student experience and share God’s love in all of life.
Simply put, we’re following Jesus and helping students practice loving God, neighbour, self and creation. More than a motto, it is our deep hope that God uses a CCS education to help your child Learn, to shape God’s world.
Our structure, daily devotions, Bible classes, small groups or weekly chapels support our number one priority: helping students connect their faith to the Alberta Program of studies! Combining intentional faith connections with strong pedagogy make our historical Christian faith come alive in Christ for our students’ today! We are very grateful for our partnership with the Prairie Centre for Education (PCCE, view here) and the instructional program they developed called Teaching for Transformation (TfT, view here).
Our people, Principals, Director of Faith Formation, and TfT Leads as well as Bible teachers support our staff to use their best creativity and pedagogical tools to create intentional faith connections with the curriculum. As students age, teachers adapt, much like you do at home, to make meaningful, age-appropriate faith connections. In these ways, God transforms education beyond information. Here are some examples:
- In Science 7, your student may share what he learned in class about God’s justice in a unit on food sustainability. One student connected his learning to creation-enjoying too: “We all should respect the earth whether it's because we honour God's creation or, we are living on this land and we should take care of it.”
- In High School, students may come home wanting to process discussions about Residential schools. They may challenge us all to learn and reflect on how God’s grace leads us to repentance as we ask God help us live Jesus’ story better in the future.
At Calgary Christian, we believe that students learn to practice faith connected to curriculum and pray they will continue this for the rest of their lives. Here are a couple of quotes to reinforce this point:
“It is nothing but a pious wish and a grossly unwarranted hope that students trained to be passive and non-creative in school will suddenly, upon graduation, actively contribute to the formation of Christian culture.”
“The primary goal of Christian education is the formation of a peculiar people - a people who desire the kingdom of God and thus undertake their life’s expression of that desire”
Throughout this journey, students are always encouraged to talk to their parents and guardians about their family’s history, beliefs, and church’s doctrines. Until Grade 8, controversial topics are referred home.
Beginning in Grade 9, we start to prepare students for challenging conversations they may encounter both during and after high school by talking about complicated topics in the safe environment of a CCS classroom. We continue to join your home and Church in this, by encouraging students to talk to parents, mentors, youth leaders and pastors about how their faith is alive and connects to Christian tradition. Based on comments from our own students and alumni, as well as published data from organizations like the Barna Group and Fuller Youth Institute, we’ve chosen to engage in controversial topics older students are eager to discuss as a way to help students keep and grow in faith.
We are honored that parents entrust us to provide a positive environment that helps students get out of the boat and live their own faith. Our goal is to nurture each student to see that Jesus' story is the best story to live! We believe our school and faith formation goals meet students where they are at and equip them to choose to live in a complex world with Jesus Christ as their king.
Relational Rooted in God’s Story
Rigorous Respect Diverse Opinions
Relevant Reflect the Image of Christ
We are honoured to partner with you!
