A strange place indeed.
An all girls "independent" school -designed exclusively for the rich inhabitants of its surrounding neighborhood- which produces an odd, semi-prepared breed of young lady.
Sending your daughter(s) to a financially -and sexually- segregated school from jk to grade 12 at a cost of about 400,000k a head (obviously according to over 99 percent of the inhabitants of our planet) is an exclusively wasteful experience.
More importantly than the loss through financial cost, is the lack in of freedom / choice.
Choice to want more than to be a businesswoman is definately a (hopefully hidden) thought in every girls head. No interaction with boys & men during their ENTIRE YOUTHFUL EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE (other than the occasional male teacher or custodian) obviously leaves these tender minds at a serious disadvantage... especially once they leave this luxury stay in said pampered nest and enter the real world. Obviously, postsecondary education (elsewhere) will eventually -as hopefully- straighten out all these limitations, but from what I've seen, Branksome's final product are witty, touchy, lazy, helpless, self-absorbed, overeducated, underexperienced, undriven, forced prodigies.
"All that, and 14 straight years of cute kilts too" yay! what an odd and sick tradition, true and in parallel to the aforementioned conformity limitations.
Placing this level of expectation on our kids is close kin to that rare blend of selfishness and human controlling power that we are all too familiar with... at least hopefully aware of.... The kind of power that most of the parents of these unsuspecting tikes are completely -if not witlessly- made of and have been hatched from.
Most of the kids that go here that I have personally conversed with eventually yearn to leave, and move on to more standard pasture grounds.... at least once they start to develop free thought and access to and knowledge of options.
Trips:
I dont think that class trips to distant, segregated, backward countries as South Africa and the like are the type of ventures most regular kids would ever want, but its the order of the day there at Bank$ome. No youth I have EVER met has ever yearned to fly to South Korea.
Florida, Japan, Hawaii, Paris, California, heck, the rest of Canada, a distant family members home, yes.... but not these places.
The kind of normal that I have discovered in my life does not jive with the lifestyle that this school tries to produce. However, it is "exclusive" and "special" in many ways. It is a developing, tidy, safe, modern (while its campus still contains some older immaculate wards/wings) atmosphere and that is why it solidly -as a buisiness- deserves its 3 star rating. Posessing teachers that care is another of its imperative attributes. I must say that the most free spirited, artistic, and caring of my teachers in my 20 years of schooling are responsible for the majority of the valued end of my knowledge and skillset.
There are no bandsaws, metal shops, mixed social clubs, football fields, parking lots, or school dances here, folks.
Well, there ARE school dances there, but very unusual to me (and most humans since we stood upright) that the girl would not only have do the invitation to her date, but if she choses a male as per overwhelmingly historically popular, he would have to come from another institution.
These are the things everyone I grew up with got to experience, and expected as normal.
I think it'd be a great place to send a kid for a few years just to get it on her resume if she (or the parent$) envision an ivy league future, but not worthy of the full 14 year subscription.
Again, a strange place, but i'll leave it up to you, and hopefully your considerate thought.