Westmount Charter School
Calgary, Alberta [Canada]

Westmount Charter School, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is a public school for gifted students.  Our goal is to provide each gifted learner with opportunities to optimize his or her own unique potential. In order to fulfill this goal, we respect that gifted learners come with an enormous range of styles and abilities and do not attempt to make everyone “fit” into one narrow understanding of giftedness.

Westmount started as a little school of just over one hundred Kindergarten to Grade Three students in 1996, and has grown to a community of over one thousand Kindergarten to Grade Twelve students today.   As a Charter School, we are publicly funded but are not part of a larger School Board structure.

Our school has developed a strong culture of caring. Volunteerism is encouraged at all grade levels, from our “Vivacious Volunteers” club starting in grade two, to the student Leadership group in grade five, to a Diploma program in High School which recognizes students’ community volunteerism and in-school leadership efforts.  

Mid-school students have the opportunity to engage the world around them through integrated “Project Earth” and “Renaissance Project” programming.  Locally-developed “Human Condition” courses are extremely popular with our High School students, and are accompanied by direct student action to support local and international causes, and an optional humanitarian trip to Ecuador held on odd-numbered years.  We believe that it is important for our graduates to grow as true “world citizens,” in addition to the excellent academic foundation they gain from their time at Westmount.