School type Public Elementary Website stcharles.lbpsb.qc.ca Province Québec | Language English and French Phone +1 514-626-0480 Founded 1965 | |
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Administrator Pauline Sciortino, 2006–2007 Principal Marie-Josée Coiteux, 2008– Grades Kindergarten, grades 1 to 6 Address 4331 Saint-Anne St, Pierrefonds, QC H9H 4G7, Canada District Lester B. Pearson School Board School board Lester B. Pearson School Board | ||
École St-Charles School is a non-denominational, early immersion, French and English speaking educational facility located in Montreal, (formerly Pierrefonds), Quebec, Canada with an enrollment of approximately 430 students, in grades kindergarten through grade 6. It operates within the Lester B. Pearson School Board and has functioned as an elementary school since it opened its doors to students in 1965.
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History
St-Charles began as an English speaking, Catholic school under the auspice of the Baldwin-Cartier School Commission, built to accommodate West Island population expansion at the beginning of the 1960s. Prior to opening, other established schools like École Sainte-Geneviève (formerly Saint Anne School), located in Sainte-Geneviève, Quebec, served the needs of the English-speaking community. At the time, the school offered both kindergarten and grades 1 through 7, and was the only building in the immediate area, surrounded entirely by farmland until St. Thomas à Becket Parish Church was constructed next door. Indeed, the school offered Sunday services to English speaking parishioners until the church was completed in 1969. In 1968, the school initiated its "Cycle" program, where students rotated classrooms, to prepare students for the eventual Secondary school curriculum that followed.
Architecture
by Papineau Gérin-Lajoie Le blanc architectes.
St-Charles was built as a simple box-design over a two-story "reflected plan" — meaning that one side mirrored the other — along an axial core. Constructed entirely in concrete, it featured a large gymnasium at the center, a cafeteria that overlooked it from an enclosed gallery and administrative offices situated below. It employed conventional classrooms that faced SE and NW, and was sheathed in a unique array of pre-fabricated window louvers that covered the entire façades of both exposures. Stylistically it was considered radical for any structure located on the West Island at the time. Built on a high ridge overlooking the town of Sainte-Geneviève located to the north, it was easily visible from the nearby region, particularly because it was painted entirely white and stood out vividly from the picturesque, sparsely-treed landscape that surrounded it. In 2002, the school received a retrofit when the louvers on the south side of the building were replaced with conventional windows.
St-Charles School
At present the school boasts a full, early immersion program for all graders, and rotates the curriculum from one cycle to the next.
CYCLE 1
Students enrolled in kindergarten, and grades 1 and 2 receive estimated instructions of 85% in French and 15% in English.
Cycles 2 and 3
Students enrolled in grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 receive estimated instruction of 43% in French and 57% in English
The school also offers a comprehensive music and physical education program, and day care services.