Student Supports

The Grand Erie District School Board recognizes the importance of exemplary homestay services for international students. Although the school district does not provide homestay services, it works closely with MLI Homestay for its high experience level and broad recognition across Canada.

Click on the button below to be transferred to the MLI Homestay Portal to get more information about their homestay services, custodianship services, health insurance assistance, and fees and to apply for these services once you have received an Official Letter of Acceptance from Grand Erie.

MLI Homestay Portal

In secondary schools at the Grand Erie District School Board, a helpful program you can access is called a Link Crew. This program consists of volunteer Grade 11 and 12 students who wish to make themselves available to assist new students in familiarizing themselves with the school facilities, protocols, and social spaces. As a new international student, you will be matched with a volunteer student to help you adapt to your new environment.

In the elementary schools of the Grand Erie District School Board, your classroom teacher will assign you a Canadian buddy upon your arrival and for a period of time to help you become familiar with the school environment.

Guiding principles at both elementary and secondary schools at Grand Erie District School Board are that:

• All students can succeed. Success looks different for different students.
• Education is differentiated for students and provided for students in the whole class, in groups, and rarely on a one-to-one basis.
• Students learn differently and have different educational goals. Educators respond to these differences when planning and delivering programs.
• The goal for all schools is to create environments that consider and include the learning needs of all students.
• Resources are provided to support students to become independent in reaching their educational goals.

Resource Room and Student Success at Secondary Schools

The Resource Room is a quiet workspace accessed before and after school and at lunchtime. A student success/resource teacher is available to help students complete assignments, prepare for tests, and catch up on missed work. The teacher can also assist in improving essential learning skills, including organization, time management, note-taking, writing tests, and reading textbooks. Students seeking help can speak to resources, guidance, or classroom teachers to access this academic resource. 

Academic Counselling (Guidance) at Secondary Schools

Aims:

• To assist students in developing plans to meet personal, educational and career needs.
• To provide students, parents, and teachers with the necessary information about the student’s personal, educational and career needs.
  

To accomplish these aims:

• Students can request appointments with their academic counsellors anytime during the school year.
• Current information on careers, universities, and colleges is available.

Course Selection at Secondary Schools

Students and parents should know that course selection from Grade 9 through Grade 12 will impact the student’s eligibility for post-secondary programs at colleges and universities. Academic counsellors have information about post-secondary programs and entrance requirements that is shared with the students. 

School Orientation

New international students to the Grand Erie District School Board will attend an initial intake appointment with their custodian at the Welcome Centre prior to visiting the assigned school to register.

At this initial appointment at the Welcome Centre, located in the Joseph Brant Learning Centre at 347 Erie Avenue, Brantford, Ontario, international students will present their required entry documents and will undertake an English assessment to determine the level of ESL support that may be needed.

Following this Welcome Centre appointment, the international student will be accompanied by a teacher to meet with an academic counsellor at the school to choose the appropriate courses and receive a school timetable. At this meeting, the academic counsellor will assign a student buddy from the Link Crew Program to help the new international student review the school’s policies and procedures and to tour the school.

It would be helpful if the international student were to review the student handbook prior to meeting with the Link Crew buddy. Below is the specific student handbook for three secondary schools:

• Brantford Collegiate Handbook
• North Park Collegiate Handbook
• Pauline Johnson Collegiate Handbook

Homestay Pre-Arrival and Orientation

MLI Homestay, with whom Grand Erie District School Board will be working closely, will provide the international student with their homestay, custodianship, and health insurance services including pre-arrival information and orientation once the student arrives in Canada.

Multilingual language learner (MLL) is a term used at Grand Erie District School Board to indicate those learners who need specialized support in learning English, such as is usually needed for an international student whose first language is not English. As well, this is often referred to in Ontario as English as a Second Language (ESL) or English Language Learning (ELL).

At Grand Erie, there are two methods of English language learning for an international student:

1. ESL credit courses at secondary school:

   These are full credit courses offered at levels A-E and a student may use up to three ESL credit courses toward the English requirements for graduation with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD). Once a student achieves a more advanced level of ESL, they may transition into a regular English course. It is mandatory for graduation with the OSSD that a student be successful at passing a regular Grade 12 English course at the Academic level or Applied level.

   The two secondary schools that offer ESL credit courses are North Park Collegiate and Pauline Johnson Collegiate, both located in Brantford, Ontario.

    

2. Itinerant MLL (ESL) support at secondary school or elementary school:

This is support given to a student throughout the school year by a qualified ESL teacher who visits the student at their school on a regular basis. The ESL teacher’s role is to assist the student directly, assist the classroom teacher to support the student, conduct periodic assessments of the students’ progress, and to provide appropriate student and classroom resources.

For a more detailed description of the MLL/ESL/ELL process and supports, visit:

English Language Learning (ELL) in Schools | Study in Ontario (oasdi.ca)