Admissions

Kempenfelt Bay School is a member of the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools and the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario. Each of these organizations have high standards of accreditation and regular oversight and inspections to ensure their standards are maintained. In addition, they offer regular professional development for both faculty and staff to ensure they are aligned with educational best practices.

At KBS, the Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum guidelines serve as our baseline for academic planning. While we respect developmentally appropriate pacing to ensure deep understanding, our academic expectations consistently exceed provincial standards, allowing us to challenge and enrich our students beyond the core curriculum.

While independent schools are not required to have Ontario Certified Teachers (OCT) for every subject, the vast majority of teachers in independent schools do have teaching certifications and those who do not, often have a specific talent or skill that brings an advantage to their instruction of students.

At KBS we focus on getting the very best teachers, and while teacher certification is one criteria we consider, it is not the most important one. We seek great teachers, not great certificates and we hire specialists in French, the arts and physical education to ensure the highest quality instruction in ALL areas of the curriculum.

A thriving social life is vital to a child’s development, and parents naturally want to ensure their children form strong, lasting friendships. Experience shows that children form deep bonds wherever they spend their meaningful time, regardless of distance.

What matters most is not the geographic location of a friend, but the quality of that friendship. At KBS, our values-driven environment naturally attracts a peer group that inspires positive choices, mutual respect, and academic encouragement. By choosing an independent school, your child builds a diverse network of exceptional friends both at school and within their local neighbourhood, giving them the best of both worlds.

There is a great deal of misinformation and distortion about the demographics of families in the independent school system. Of course, there are families with greater financial resources than others but that is equally true in the public school system.

The demographic of most independent schools, and particularly KBS, is middle-class hard-working professionals and entrepreneurs who understand the value of an excellent education and who want their children to develop good work habits and respectful behaviours.

At KBS, our faculty and administration strive to keep communication clear, simple, and consistent. Many parents connect with teachers daily during morning drop-off and afternoon pickup. Throughout the year, we provide four report cards and two formal family/teacher conferences. Above all, we invite parents to reach out to teachers or administrators the moment a question or concern arises, ensuring we can collaborate and address any issues while they are still small.

KBS currently serves students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 8.

Before Care is available from 7:30 - 8:00 am.

Teachers are in their classes at 8:00 a.m. each day to provide support.

School officially begins each day with assembly at 8:30 am. There is a 30-minute recess break in the morning, and two separate lunch hours and recess breaks for JK-Grade 3 and Grade 4-8.

Classes end at 3:40 pm and optional co-curricular programming runs from 3:45 - 4:30 pm.

After Care is provided from 3:45 until 6:00 pm for an extra fee.

Rather than setting fixed numbers, we take a thoughtful approach to class formation. Each grade is carefully reviewed based on the cohort profile, student age and grade, learning needs, social dynamics, staffing, and available space. This allows us to make informed decisions that best support teaching and learning.

Our promise to families is not a specific number, but a process grounded in best practice, care, and professional judgment.

All KBS students, from JK-Gr. 8 have French instruction daily. Classes are taught by fluent French teaching specialists and the language of instruction in those classes is completely French.

All KBS students, from JK-Gr. 8 have three physical education periods taught by a dedicated physical education teacher.

KBS also participates in inter-school sports with other schools from the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario. We currently field competitive teams for students from Grade 4 and up in cross-country, basketball, volleyball, and track and field.

Finally, there are regular club activities which go on after school on Mondays through Thursdays, many which offer physical activities for students at various grade levels.

All KBS students, from JK-Grade 8, take Art and Music with subject specialists each week. The music program has vocal instruction taught once per week for JK-Gr. 8. Instrumental music begins in Gr. 1 with the recorder, and band instruments begin in Grade 3. There is a jazz and concert band as part of co-curricular clubs and there are choirs in the primary, junior and intermediate divisions, as well as a performance choir.

The art program has a wide range of drawing, painting, sculpting and animation activities and the art room is generally one of the busiest spots at lunch hours! Both music and art have well equipped and separate teaching areas.

While we have carts of laptops for classroom use and a number of tablets for student use, technology is viewed very much as a “tool” for young students. We tend to emphasize the importance of developing a skill without technology first, then using technology to enhance the speed and or quality of the work done.

To that end, our students learn to write well before they begin using word processing for writing. They learn their math facts (including multiplication tables) before they use calculators to solve more complex problems. They learn to speak well and understand effective presentations before they begin completing slideshows or movie presentations. However, with personal skills developed, students quickly adapt to the use of technology for many of their research projects and presentations.

Because Kempenfelt Bay School provides a foundational JK to Grade 8 journey, our graduates transition directly into secondary education as exceptionally well-prepared, confident leaders.

A KBS education is designed to offer the ultimate choice. When our students graduate from Grade 8, they possess the academic excellence, strong work habits, and personal resilience required to thrive in any secondary environment they choose. Our alumni successfully transition into:

• Top Independent Day High Schools: Many of our graduates choose to continue their independent school journey, enrolling in prestigious secondary schools in Newmarket and Aurora.
• Top Independent Boarding High Schools: Several of our graduates have continued their education north of Innisfil in Rosseau and west of Toronto in St. Catharines.
• Local Secondary Schools: Our grads seamlessly transition into regional public and Catholic high schools.

Future-Ready for Higher Education and Beyond

By instilling our core values of Competence, Confidence, Character, and Community we ensure that a student’s time at KBS sets up a lifetime of achievement. Whether our alumni eventually choose to attend top-tier universities, pursue community colleges, start their own business ventures, or travel the world, they do so with a solid academic foundation and the self-advocacy skills needed to succeed.

KBS grads don't just move on to the next grade; they step forward as thoughtful, capable global citizens ready to make a meaningful impact on the high school communities they join.

KBS was founded in 1999 by four families who wished to create an independent educational environment with small classes and high expectations. The school moved 576 Bryne Dr. in 2001 and to its current site at 2145 Innisfil Beach Road in the summer of 2017.

The mission of Kempenfelt Bay School is clear: “Kempenfelt Bay School is committed to providing an exemplary education that empowers students to embrace their personal potential as productive and responsible global citizens.” This means we equip our students with a strong foundation in core academic competencies and essential study habits. Our graduates leave KBS with the skills and confidence needed to seamlessly integrate into their next phase of education.

The shared objective of our school and our families is to give students a launching pad that keeps every future option wide open. This foundational growth empowers them to step forward, advocate for themselves, and begin actively shaping their unique place in the world.

This question is probably best answered by the alumni themselves, who consistently reinforce, both through their words and their success beyond KBS, that the greatest benefits of their education at KBS were their learned work habits and their balanced education of academic, artistic and athletic interests.

Too often differences between the independent school system and public school system are stated in terms of “better or worse.” That perspective is not appropriate until you look at the needs of individual students. In other words, no school system is the best fit for every individual thus differing school options offer qualities that may better meet the needs of an individual.

KBS is a great school, where every student matters, is known and where the opportunities for personal growth are magnified by the attention they can get in small classes across a balanced program of academics, arts, and athletics. Expectations are high and well supported, both in work habits and character and KBS students thrive on challenge and display high levels of respectful behaviour and community service.

Perhaps the greatest difference between public schools and independent schools is that every family who walks through our doors does so because they trust that every decision we make is rooted entirely in the best interests of their child.