The WISDOM Home Schooling community began in 1995 when two home educating couples saw the need for parents to be supported with maximum freedom over their own schooling at home, deciding what is taught to their children, as well as how and when it is taught.
As a result of the founders' promise to uphold parents as primary educators, all decisions and policies are developed with the intent of supporting parents as they educate their children. Because the members of our facilitating team, our office staff and our Parent Advisory Council are home schooling parents or were home educated themselves, their responses and service reflect this insight and commitment. We support all teaching methods from highly structured to unschooling, classical to eclectic to world-schooling.
We are Christian, serving families with a wide variety of religious beliefs, as well as families who do not profess any particular faith. Our mandate is to build culture through supporting home education and family life, whatever that looks like for you. We serve home schooling families everywhere in the province of Alberta, Canada.
Looking for more information? Attend an Open House event.
WHAT IS REQUIRED
To home educate with WISDOM, a family must:
- Notify us of your intent to home educate with the WISDOM Home Schooling department of The Gilbertine Academy.
- A parent must conduct an evaluation of the progress of the student at regular intervals and maintain a record of the methods and dates of those evaluations, and must maintain dated samples of student work and a general record of the student’s activities, (Alberta Home Education Regulation 4(1)(a))
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meet for two facilitator evaluations each year, either in their home or in a mutually agreeable location.
We work with individual issues and extenuating circumstances as best we can. Every situation is unique, and we desire to serve our families at their individual needs.
Note: when a family does NOT meet minimum requirements above despite best efforts, The Gilbertine Academy is unable to meet the minimum requirements of Alberta Education. In this case, we would not consider enrolment for the following year, and may make a note in the student file recommending a program with higher levels of accountability. This policy protects the freedom of all home educators.
WHERE ARE WE?
- The Gilbertine Institute operates an associate private school, The Gilbertine Academy, supervising and supporting home education programs under the banner of WISDOM Home Schooling. Our society board, in-school and home education administration and staff are wholly supportive of home education. The Gilbertine Institute and Gilbertine Academy campus program are based in Calgary.
- WISDOM is made up of home schooling families all across Alberta, so in that sense, WISDOM is "everywhere"! Some of our families, while Alberta residents, are living temporarily (military, travel or ministry) all over the globe. Our magazine has subscribers from all around the world as well.
- You can find the WISDOM office staff working out of the home education office near the small town of Derwent, Alberta.
- Your facilitator probably lives somewhere reasonably near you, as we do try to keep them closer to their home (and their own home schooling family). Our facilitators live all over Alberta. They visit your home twice a year, and are also available via phone and email at all times.
- Our in-person events span the province, wherever there is enough interest and a suitable location.
- Our Mediated Learning Program holds workshops province-wide as well as in 3-session online modules.
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