Mission Statement:
It is our mission at Balmoral to strive to engage all students in meaningful, creative and explorative learning experiences, which will develop every individual’s social, emotional, physical and intellectual capabilities, enabling them to become productive and responsible citizens.

Value Statements:
• At Balmoral, we value student diversity and provide opportunities for students to creatively express themselves and realize their potential.
• At Balmoral, we encourage the support of parents, teachers, and community in sharing the responsibility for student success.
• At Balmoral, we are committed to providing a safe and supportive atmosphere that allows for the healthy emotional, intellectual, social and physical growth of our students.
• At Balmoral, we reinforce that respect for our peers, our school community and ourselves is an integral part of successful learning and teaching.
• At Balmoral, we strive to inspire students to become lifelong learners in a rapidly changing world. We encourage the exploration of a variety of learning tools in our high-tech society.
• At Balmoral, we are dedicated to providing challenges which empower our students to become independent, self-motivated and confident learners. We all learn best in an atmosphere of sharing, creating, laughing, questioning, risk taking and growing.
• At Balmoral, we strive to plan we—rounded programs providing for: strong academics, varied options, choices of learning activities, leadership and service, diverse expression of achievement, active learning, and a wide variety of extracurricular opportunities.
• At Balmoral, we promote positive learner-teacher relationships so that learning can flourish.

Program Description
Balmoral Junior High School values each of the fine arts as disciplines worthy of study in their own right, and the specialty areas provide students with opportunities to pursue interests in Visual art, dance, drama and music. In the Creative Learning program, we recognize that the arts are also complex symbol systems that people use in order to make sense of their world and their own place in the scheme of things. Creative uses of various technologies also enable learners to represent their learning in ways that are meaningful to them. By weaving opportunities for aesthetic impressions and expressions into the regular program in math, science and the humanities, we hope to provide students with varied “inroads” to successful mastery of required curriculum.

Student Eligibility
Students residing in the communities of Crescent Heights, Mount Pleasant, Tuxedo / Coventry Hills and Panorama Hills are pre-designated to attend Balmoral according to CBE boundary guidelines. Students who reside in communities outside of our catchment boundaries are welcome to apply for enrollment at Balmoral School.

What is the difference between a Fine Arts school and a Creative Learning School?
A Fine Arts school tends to emphasize education in the arts in order to develop particular skills in music, dance, drama or art. Often these programs select students on the basis of their specific talents and encourage those students to develop their skills in a particular field of the arts. While fine arts schools serve some students well, we believe that interdisciplinary approaches are more appropriate to our work at Balmoral. In a Creative Learning school, the focus is on learning and teaching using the arts and technology as a means to understand the world. Students are given opportunities to learn and present information and experiences in multiple ways. They are encouraged to find ways of learning that help them understand concepts, analyze experiences and develop attitudes that value the rigour that the arts and technologies require. “Talent” is not the issue in creative learning; rather, the emphasis is on learning processes that encourage inquiry, exploration, experimentation and reflection. The prescribed Alberta Curriculum serves as the starting point for our work, but we believe students here have opportunities to achieve far beyond the basic curricular expectations.

What are the hours of operation?
Classes begin for all grades at 8:00 a.m. and finish at 2:41 p.m. The CBE is contemplating the possibility of a later start and end time beginning this fall, 2004.

What are the clothing requirements for physical education?
All Balmoral students wear gym strip for physical education (black t-shirt,
dark shorts, runners)

What extra-curricular activities are there in the school?
Normally, students at Balmoral can participate in sports activities such as cross country, volleyball, basketball, badminton and track and field, as well as in special interest clubs such as yearbook and computer clubs. Students also have the opportunity to participate in band, dance and drama outside class time.

How are the lockers assigned to students?
Each student shares a locker with a partner.

Is there a lunchroom at Balmoral?
Yes. Students who wish to do so my purchase their lunches from the school lunchroom, which provides an excellent variety of menu choices at very reasonable prices. Students may also bring their own bagged lunches from home. We try to offer a variety of activities for students to participate in during our short 45 minute lunch break (intramurals, Computer room, library, clubs). There is really no need for students to go off-campus, however we do not have the personnel to monitor who might be leaving our school grounds. If parents do not wish their child to go off-campus, that will have to be an understanding that they come to with their child.

Can my child take the bus to school?
Students who live in other areas of Calgary that are distant from the school must arrange for their own transportation to and from Balmoral. Balmoral’s central location is served well by Calgary City Transit routes and some families have arranged their own car-pooling.

What fees will we incur if we send our child to Balmoral?
Regular school fees are levied and are comparable with those at other CBE schools.

Is there a “dress code” at Balmoral?
We, at Balmoral Junior High School, request students to maintain standards of dress suitable for a school environment that promote us as a place of learning and not a location of less formal activities. We are aware of the many fashion statements on the market today, many of which are more of a casual nature than to be considered appropriate for school. We believe modeling, image, and perception are important to the integrity and functioning of our school environment. Modeling is how we do things within the school, image is what we project outside the school and perception is how others see us. To promote our expectations, we request your support and understanding of appropriate dress norms. To ensure that teachers are not wasting valuable teaching time monitoring, debating, or sending students out of classes for inappropriate dress, we ask that the following list be seen as a guideline for judging inappropriate attire:
• No halter tops
• No tank tops
• No shorty tops that expose midriffs
• No tops that leave undergarments exposed e.g. spaghetti straps
• No outer clothing worn to class (coats, lumber jackets, etc)
• No torn or graphically patched jeans
• No hats or visors worn in the school
• No accessory paraphernalia, such as chains, sunglasses, bandanas
• No jewelry that causes a safety hazard
• No shirts with inappropriate/offensive sayings or pictures
• No unhemmed shorts
• No shorts shorter than mid-thigh

There is no end to the debate, the opinions, or levels of individual preference and choice when discussing different standards of fashion or dress. We, as a school, however, need to define a standard that is representative of our beliefs.

How does a student apply to attend Balmoral Junior High School?
Application forms are available at Balmoral. Please remember to include a recent report card including written comments from his or her class teachers. If a student has special learning/behavioral needs, please include a copy of the most recent IPP (Individual Program Plan) so that we can determine how we might best serve these needs.