Burlington Royal Arts Academy

The Burlington Royal Arts Academy (BRAA) encourages and fosters learning in a creative, supportive and challenging environment. With a focus on developing each student’s passion for the arts while achieving academic excellence, BRAA strives to inspire and educate students, giving them the best tools and preparation for successful post-secondary education.

Our faculty members are a diverse group of educators committed to excellence in teaching, research and community service. All compulsory course teachers are registered with the Ontario College of Teachers. They are well known for their commitment and passion towards teaching. Our arts teachers are industry professionals with strong ties to the arts community. They have been trained in assessment practices for secondary school by our curriculum specialist. This affords students the opportunity to work with the best and brightest to make the most of their educational and arts experience in high school.

The Burlington Royal Arts Academy (BRAA) encourages and fosters learning in a creative, supportive and challenging environment. With a focus on developing each student’s passion for the arts while achieving academic excellence, BRAA strives to inspire and educate students, giving them the best tools and preparation for successful post-secondary education.

Our goal is to become a leader in arts education in the coming years. We are excited to launch arts education programs in Instrumental and Vocal Music, Dance, Drama and Visual Arts. Our philosophy is to work collectively with our students to select a curriculum that challenges them artistically, meets their educational requirements, introduces them to working with master class artists in their field and leads to greater success in auditioning and portfolio development for post-secondary pathways. BRAA is committed to nurturing and advancing the arts through inclusion and equal opportunity across all aspects of our programming.

At The Burlington Royal Arts Academy we offer academic and arts credits. As stated in the OSSD Requirements, to graduate secondary school students must have a combination of compulsory (18) and elective (12) credits to graduate. At BRAA, the academic courses offered are a combination of compulsory and elective courses. The arts credit, with the exception of the first Grade 9 credit are electives that count towards the 30 credit total required to graduate. In a sample Grade 9 schedule, periods 1, 2, 3 are compulsory Grade 9 credits required by all students according to the Ministry of Education. These credits include Math, English, Geography, Science, Language, and Business or Physical Education. Please see our Sample Grade 9 Timetable for more specific timetable information.

The difference between us and many other institutions is that our elective credit pedagogical focus is the ARTS. Rather than offer arts disciplines for 5 months only, at BRAA students can study in their arts ‘major’ all year round. We do this by providing 2 arts classes that are offered in a Day 1/Day 2 Schedule both semesters. Both credits will be obtained simultaneously for a value of 1 credit each acquired in June 2020. Upon completing the registration process, arts students are required to select a major.

Major Credits refer to the students’ focus discipline for artistic training (Visual Arts, Instrumental Music, Vocal Music, Dance, Drama). Students then can select a second arts elective course to either support their major arts focus OR expand their artistic abilities in another area.

Minor Credits refer to the students’ selection of a second arts elective course to either support their major arts focus OR expand their artistic abilities in another area. Some students may wish to pursue only one arts discipline. These students will be required to take an online course in the other block. These courses will be monitored by a staff member as a Supervised Study Period.