Brighton School

Brighton is the leading private school in Toronto intentionally designed for elementary and secondary students with learning challenges. The profile of a typical Brighton student is one who learns best in a small group; may have an uneven academic profile; or may experience difficulty with attention, anxiety, memory, language, motivation, or social skills. They may lack confidence or have low self-esteem due to lack of success in a traditional education environment.

Our students are first assessed and then assigned to small learning groups averaging six or fewer students, for a focus on succeeding in core subjects. Students are taught by caring, qualified, trained and experienced Special Ed teachers, who work as a team to support students and integrate their learning between subjects.

Brighton continues to set the standard for specialized education in Toronto by using best practices, evidence-based teaching methods, and specialized remedial programs in the areas of reading decoding, reading comprehension, math and writing remediation, social competency development and organizational skills.

Technology enhances and supports student learning with iPads provided to Primary students and Chromebooks provided to Junior, Intermediate and Secondary students. All students have email accounts with access to G Suite for Education, including Google Classroom, which is used to help students manage assignments and communicate with parents. The Read & Write Assistive Technology program is provided to all students who require assistance with spelling, word prediction or speech to text features.

Brighton is a warm, vibrant and personal school that offers all the additional elements that make for a rich educational experience – after school programming in sports, arts, music, science and technology; parent involvement; on-site tutoring; annual concerts and music nights; picnics and Spirit Days; and before and after school care.

Our Elementary program has both small homerooms and even smaller learning groups, averaging 6 or fewer students for each core subject. Students may be placed in curriculum-based learning groups, with some individual modifications or accomodations; or may be placed in specialty remedial groups for intensive focus in an area of need such as decoding or comprehension, math skills, or writing. Because our students may have uneven learning profiles, each subject is assessed and placement is customized to the specific needs of each student. Continuous monitoring and assessment, as well as communication with parents ensures that students are progressing. Students may be moved to different groups through the year as their progress and needs dictate.

Brighton’s innovative Secondary program is designed to address the needs of students who would have difficulties meeting the demands of a typical high school program and social environment. Smaller class sizes and fewer transitions supports students who may have challenges with social skills, self-regulation or work habits. Our individualized programming provides accommodations and learning strategies throughout classes.

Our students start each day in Homeroom classes of between approximately 8 – 12 students. Our Primary homeroom includes grades 1, 2 & 3; our Junior homerooms are for grades 4, 5 & 6; our Intermediate homerooms are for grades 7 & 8.

Learning Groups – Teaching of our core subjects in the elementary school is done in small Learning Groups of between three and six students. Students are assessed and assigned to their groups according to their ability levels in each subject. This allows students with uneven learning profiles to have their needs met in all subject areas, whether they are above grade level, at grade level, or lower than grade level.

Individualized Instruction – Students are assessed upon entry to Brighton and a personal learning plan is prepared for them, with goals and methods described. Each student is monitored throughout the day through ongoing faculty and staff discussions so that problems can be identified and adjustments made quickly.

Differentiated Instruction – Learning goals are adjusted to the abilities of each student. The teacher will vary the content (what the students learn), the process (how they learn, or the activities they do) and the products (what the student is required to produce to demonstrate mastery of the concept). Differentiated instruction allows students of different abilities to participate in class study at different levels.

Balanced Day Schedule – Our ‘Balanced Day’ timetable is a change from the traditional hour-long lunch with two short recesses in the morning and afternoon. Instead, our day is divided into three 90 minute learning blocks, separated by two 45 minute breaks. The two extended nutritional and exercise/play breaks mean that students get a chance to eat their snack or lunch and still have substantial time left to play and burn off energy before coming back to focus on lessons in the classroom.

Brighton’s innovative Secondary program is designed to address the needs of students who would have difficulties meeting the demands of a typical high school program and social environment. We offer Ontario Ministry of Education credit courses, as well as “alternative” pre-credit and non-credit courses. Students may enroll in all credit, all non-credit, or a mixture of both credit and non-credit courses.

All students at Brighton have the option of following an Individual Education Plan (IEP), and all teachers are Ontario Certified Teachers (OCT) with additional Special Education qualifications.