Private school vs public school in Ontario
Most comparisons of this are written by somebody selling one of the two. Here are the differences that are matters of fact rather than opinion, including the ones that do not flatter private schools.
Ontario public schools are funded, regulated and inspected by the province, teach the Ontario curriculum, and employ teachers certified by the Ontario College of Teachers. Private schools do none of those things by requirement.
The five real differences
Curriculum. Public schools teach the Ontario curriculum. Private elementary schools choose their own and are not required to follow it.
Oversight. Public schools are inspected and accountable to a board and the province. Private elementary schools are not inspected at all, and Ontario does not accredit or licence them.
Teacher certification. Public school teachers must be OCT-certified. Private elementary teachers are not required to be.
Class size. Ontario caps public primary classes and averages them across a board. A private school sets its own, which is usually the reason a family is looking in the first place.
Cost. Public is free at the point of use. Private is not, and in Durham that's roughly $8,000 to $17,000 a year at elementary level.
What that means in practice
The freedom and the lack of oversight are the same fact seen from two sides. A private school can teach financial literacy, building things and a day largely outdoors precisely because nothing obliges it to spend those hours otherwise. Nothing obliges it to be good, either.
So the burden of proof sits with the private school, and it should. Ask what it teaches, ask to see it in writing, and ask what happens when you object to something.
What we think
Public schools do something genuinely hard and mostly do it well, on a scale no private school attempts. We're not interested in running them down.
What we offer is different rather than simply better: small groups, a published curriculum you read before it's taught, and subjects most timetables have no room for. Whether that's worth the money is a judgement only you can make about your own child.
Questions about Straight answer
Do private school students do better?
The research is genuinely mixed once family income and parental education are controlled for, and anyone quoting you a clean number is selling something. Judge a specific school, not a category.
Can my child go back to public school afterwards?
Yes. Movement between the two is normal, and at elementary level there are no credits at stake to complicate it.
Join the founding families list
The Academy opens when the founding cohort is full. Families on the list get first places, help set the first year's calendar, and keep the founding rate for as long as their child is enrolled.