Thoughts from the Chatsworth Primary Hallway

In the coming weeks our teachers will be working towards creating class lists for the 2018-2019 school year. In creating class lists, the teachers always have the students’ best interest driving their decision making. In preparing for the creation of the class lists, we spoke about the fact that we, as teachers, need to be more explicit with the children in terms of gathering their insights on whom they would like share their classroom. In the past, students were asked to list friends that they would like to be their classmates for the following year. I will ask our Year 1 - 6 teachers to discuss with the children that the names they note on their lists should include children with whom they work well, in addition to having a strong friendship. The teachers understand that putting students together solely based on friendships is not always best for student learning. As our K1 and K2 students are very young, those classroom teachers will work together to create the class lists for our K2 and Year 1 classrooms.

The teachers and students spend a vast amount of time together throughout the year. Children and teachers in the primary will spend well over 1000 hours together in a school year. Because of this, the teachers are aware of the relationships between students and are cognizant of individual learning styles, personalities and group dynamics. The classroom teachers also receive input from the specialist teachers and members of the Student Support Team (SST) consisting of the primary counselor, special learning needs and the English as additional language teachers. For these reasons, I trust the classroom teachers to place the children where they believe each student will experience the most success. The final decision to where students are placed lies with the classroom teacher and the Head of Primary.

We encourage parents to provide information that they feel would help us to place their child in the best possible learning environment. We do not acknowledge requests for specific teachers. However, if there is a particular teaching style that you feel matches well with your child, please inform the classroom teacher or me via email or in person. We also welcome any other pertinent information you feel that we need to know.

As a reminder, the online registration for the PTSC’s will go live on Monday, March 5 at 12:00pm. Should you have questions leading up to the registration, please do not hesitate to contact the Primary Office.


Dr. Michael Berry
Head of Primary