School Prospectus

PROSPECTUS

LET US ENTER INTO GOD’S PLAN FOR US; LET US BE WHAT GOD WANTS US TO BE. B L E SS E D M A R I E A N N E B LO N D I N

PROSPECTUS

PRINCIPAL’S WELCOME

Since 1927, Little Flower Academy has been a pioneering force in the pursuit of delivering exceptional Catholic education for young women in Vancouver.

We are sincerely proud of our academic record and reputation, but that in itself is not what makes Little Flower special. What makes an LFA experience outstanding starts with our Catholic faith. It is the foundation on which we build everything and is the element that is our “more”.

It is this that defines us and makes us who and what we are.

Our focus is to foster a sense of self-confidence in every girl. As a faith-based, girls’ school, we are uniquely positioned to do this. We capitalize on all that we know about the way girls learn. We concentrate on providing positive role models, abundant opportunities, personal practice and real-life experience. We invest and enrich as widely as possible, knowing valuable life lessons are as likely to be learned in the classroom or the science lab as they are on the playing field or the stage. It is our aim that every graduating student is prepared for the next chapter of her life, with a sense of service to others, compassion, tolerance and an informed global perspective.

More than 90 years of educating young women has taught us that the best outcomes are achieved when we work as a community for our students. Knowing this, we seek a relationship with every family. From application to graduation, our students are successful because their family and their school work as a team, with a clarity of purpose: fully committed to women of strength, learning and growing in their faith.

Diane (Oddy) Little ‘88 Principal

THE BLESSING OF FAITH-BASED EDUCATION

Little Flower Academy is synonymous with distinctive, girls’, Roman Catholic education in our community. In fact, we are the only Catholic, all-girls school in British Columbia. Our Catholic identity and core values are firmly embedded in Little Flower’s mission. We offer more than simply the delivery of a faith-based curriculum: our faith informs everything we do at the school.

The LFA religious studies curriculum is the same as other Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.

The curriculum, and how we deliver it, provides an education that fosters faith development in our students. Religious studies course work is required for all five years. In addition to the religious curriculum, we have a vibrant campus ministry that includes regular Masses, morning prayer, and countless value-based, service-oriented clubs. Student retreats also offer our girls the opportunity to strengthen bonds with classmates and make new discoveries that guide them in their faith journey and personal growth.

With retreats in every grade, anticipation grows for those in Grade 11 and 12, which give students multi-day experiences.

The Grade 12 retreat goes over several days at a dedicated retreat centre, exploring faith and relationships, free from the distractions of busy high school schedules.

Our motto, Ad Lucem, means “to the light.” By encouraging the spirituality of our students and focusing on instilling the values of integrity, respect, service, excellence and simplicity, we strive to be Christ’s Light in society.

PUTTING GIRLS FIRST

Little Flower has been nurturing girls’ talents for more than 90 years. We provide high-quality teaching in an environment that is safe and where girls can be themselves.

Every day we see how this setting encourages discovery, removes barriers, and gives joy in their formative years.

There are 480 girls at LFA. Little Flower is an incredible mosaic of cultural diversity: the varied backgrounds and different experiences are central to our school culture.

Yet our school is still a local school, drawing almost entirely from communities in the Lower Mainland. With tuition among the lowest of any local independent school and a generous bursary program, our community’s wide economic background is also unique among British Columbia’s leading independent schools. This blend of local communities and our cultural and economic diversity contributes to understanding, respect and a balanced perspective that will serve our students for a lifetime.

The outcomes speak for themselves. Our outstanding examination results and typical 100% post-secondary placement is thanks to a dedicated teaching staff and a challenging, coherent curriculum. However, we believe that academic qualifications represent only part of an inclusive, fulfilling education. We deliberately and actively strive for a well-balanced experience that includes intellectual, athletic, creative, cultural, and faith interests. Clubs and extra-curricular activities play a key role in this balance and we maintain upwards of 40 clubs, competitive and recreational sports teams, and a wealth of fine and performing arts opportunities.

In practical terms, what does all girls look like? It’s a culture that simultaneously allows the silliness and laughter of 480 young women in pajamas for a “cozy day” and results in our girls being 7x more likely than girls elsewhere in our province to take senior level, high school physics. It’s a place where every student leader is a girl and you are as likely to find your passion in the Library or the STEAM Lab as you are on the court or on the stage.

KEEPING ACADEMIC STANDARDS HIGH

Our goal is to imbue intellectually curious, self-motivated, enthusiastic young women with an enduring love of learning. This commitment to the highest academic standards is, in some ways, what Little Flower is best known for. By measured outcomes, this reputation is well earned and we maintain a sense of pride in the opportunities and accomplishments that academic success affords our students when they graduate.

Our faculty is highly qualified and demonstrate a deep enthusiasm for their subject areas. More than two thirds of our staff have—or are working on—their graduate degrees.

We have an enviable staff retention, which fosters the amazing culture that pervades our community and means our faculty know the students extremely well.

In the early years, girls are building the foundation of broad academic subject knowledge and given the opportunity to explore limited elective courses as they begin to expand their educational experience. In Grades 11 and 12, our students can choose many subject combinations, creating a highly personalized timetable that reflects their passions and life goals. Course selection and planning is never done alone: in addition to curriculum and in-class programs designed especially for academic and career planning, we have experienced academic counselling support that is always available. Parents are actively engaged in the process with information evenings and workshops.

We deliver more than simply a Dogwood Diploma and knowing the ambitions of our students, enrichment takes many forms. Modern technology, trips, excursions and co-curricular activities bring the curriculum alive, helping to fire the imagination and connect thoughts and ideas.

Some will seek accelerated courses through our Advanced Placement (AP) and Pre-AP programs. What’s certain is that our graduates are well prepared for a future of promise and possibility, whatever path they choose to take.

INSPIRED LEARNING

Coming from elementary school, the exposure to an advanced curriculum is exciting and can be life-changing for many of the girls. Our well-designed and immaculate facilities are the tools to spark the revelation of discovery and excitement for learning.

SCIENCE: In an environment that promotes challenging

oneself, our girls explore the traditional sciences in overwhelming numbers. Students develop key research and observation skills and learn how to present data effectively through interactive teaching and practical experiments.

All lessons are taught by subject specialists, who are able to take advantage of our well-resourced Physics, Biology, and Chemistry specific laboratories.

STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM). Recognizing the curiosity and ambition of our students, we were among the first Vancouver schools to fully develop a high tech, dedicated STEAM Lab which was expanded again in 2019. From its opening, it has been more than simply an extraordinary tool for teaching and design. It has given our girls new ways to explore and understand the curriculum across a broad range of subjects, clubs and activities.

LIBRARY: Our students love to read. LFA’s Library is one of

the most beautiful places on our campus and among the busiest high school libraries in the Lower Mainland. With books flying off the shelves, it’s a hub of school activity.

A range of student clubs, including the Globe & Halo student newspaper and the Book Club, call the Library home. Students regularly use the Library during class time, as well as a place to retreat to do homework or simply to curl up with a book. Major renovations that expanded the reading area and modernized the learning commons were completed in 2019, solidifying the Library as one of LFA’s most popular student destinations.

NURTURING CREATIVITY

We encourage every girl at Little Flower to express herself creatively and learn to work collaboratively. This is not only enjoyable, stimulating and rewarding in itself, but also helps to develop essential skills and self-confidence.

CHOIR: Our Choral Department, and music generally, plays

a significant role in school life. More than a third of our student body participates in one of our choirs. Taught by an enthusiastic and accomplished Choral Director, students of diverse musical abilities come together to create inspiring music. They lead our singing at Mass and regularly perform in our school and wider community.

Our auditioned Chamber Choir is renowned. With another level of commitment and practice involved, the beauty of their performance continually awes those who have the privilege of seeing them. The Chamber Choir wins the highest honours at Choral Festivals across North America and is regularly the sole Canadian high school choir at the Heritage Festival’s Carnegie Hall performance in New York City.

DRAMA: There are exciting opportunities for girls of every

age to explore the dramatic arts. Girls hone expertise in all the roles relating to the dramatic arts: from centre stage to backstage and from traditional performance settings to film and television opportunities.

FINE ARTS: With one of the finest Art Studios you will see at any school, creativity has a home in LFA. Girls can explore the visual arts across a range of media throughout their years at Little Flower.

SPORT AND WELLBEING

Team work, respect, commitment and a healthy, balanced lifestyle are universal values reinforced in every sport and activity. We balance competitive sport and active participation with a fantastically diverse athletics program.

Our teams compete in local high school leagues as well as invitational tournaments and regional and provincial championships. We will even occasionally take a team on an international tour. While our teams will regularly compete at the highest high school levels, the greatest accomplishment of our athletics program is the life lessons it teaches, and we are committed to providing a meaningful and memorable experience for all of our student athletes.

One of the amazing blessings for our student athletes is the quality of Little Flower’s coaching staff, many of whom have played or coached at elite levels in their chosen sports, including for national and professional teams.

Little Flower Academy boasts excellent facilities. We have one of the finest high school gymnasiums in the Lower Mainland, with an additional secondary gym, allowing LFA to regularly host volleyball, basketball and badminton tournaments. The students also have access to a fitness center that has been designed around a teaching pedagogy that promotes life-long participation in physical activity. The field teams use an immaculately maintained grass field for training, while playing games largely on synthetic turf around the Lower Mainland. Our tennis team takes advantage of our own tennis courts. The swim team uses a nearby public swimming pool.

We run a full slate of sports teams for a small school.

Fall sports include Cross Country, Field Hockey, Swimming, and Volleyball. Through the winter, we switch to Basketball.

In the spring we offer Badminton, Soccer, Tennis, Track & Field, and Ultimate.

EXPANDING HORIZONS

Talent and potential lie within each one of us. Little Flower Academy is committed to its role in both discovering and nurturing these gifts. Our extensive extra-curricular programs give the girls the opportunity to experience new activities and refine skills of all kinds in clubs and activities as varied as Public Speaking, Math Challengers, Reverence for Life Club, Environment Club, the student newspaper, or Philanthropy Club.

We firmly believe that education is a connected process that is vastly enriched through learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Skills are transferable, and finding a niche in which a student can excel not only enhances girls’ self-confidence, but gives them an outlet for enjoyment and self-expression.

MODEL UN: One of our most high-profile clubs is our Model United Nations Club. With a vision to empower students through deep and active engagement with complex global issues, our girls excel and are regularly singled out for awards and accolades at Model UN conferences around the world. There are certainly local conferences and recently LFA has embarked on hosting its very own Model UN Conference. Nevertheless, one of the great opportunities for those who get involved with the Model UN program is the opportunity to travel with a clear and dedicated purpose. China, Belgium, Japan and Australia, as well as New York and Hawaii are just some of the recent international trips enjoyed by Model UN participants.

SERVICE TO OTHERS

The value of service is core to who we are. It impacts nearly everything we do. From classroom initiatives to our campus ministry to our clubs and activities, service to others is consciously at the forefront of our planning and thinking.

Student-led service initiatives take place throughout the year. At Christmas, Student Council and our Campus Ministry have undertaken several different projects over the years, including Christmas hampers for families in need, care packages specifically for women through Mary’s Place, and school supply efforts that benefited both Covenant House and children in Africa. During the Lenten season, we will tyically take on a project benefitting children and education around the world. In the spring, students organize their annual Angel’s Run for the Cure.

REVERENCE FOR LIFE CLUB: Our Reverence for

Life Club is, far and away, the biggest club in the school and, while a great many of our clubs are focused on service to others, none do more than Reverence for Life.

The club actively feeds and clothes people in the Downtown Eastside, volunteers at Ronald McDonald House, raises funds to support vulnerable people globally and helps organize and participate in social justice conferences like Voices of Hope and One World One Heart.

LIFELONG COMMUNITY

One of the special things about joining Little Flower Academy is that you are not just coming to a school; rather, you are joining a community. In doing so, students discover a sense of ownership that roots itself and lasts a lifetime. This culture of service means that our current students have their experience greatly enriched by those women who have come before them.

The blessing of our alumnae community on the current generation of LFA students cannot be overstated. Alumnae volunteers can be seen around the school on a near daily basis. Alumnae help coach our athletic teams. Alumnae regularly come back and participate in choir activities and at our visual arts events. We run a Careers Day where alumnae come and speak with students and answer questions about their career journeys. It’s also common to see alumnae taking part in our Campus Ministry events, including help with leadership on retreats.

Alumnae also come back to simply be a part of Little Flower. You’ll see alumnae at our school Masses, at graduation, at choir concerts, coming back to cheer on a team, taking part in our Parents’ Auxiliary events, or just visiting with their former teachers. There are also dedicated alumnae events throughout the year, which include the Christmas celebration, Home for the Holidays, an annual wine tasting event called The Grape Escape and amazingly creative spring events that have ranged from curling bonspiels to a celebrity chef cooking class.

Given their commitment to our community, it is unsurprising that they also play a significant role in enriching the student experience through their generous philanthropic giving. We are particularly grateful for the alumnae role in ensuring widespread accessibility through their gifts to our financial aid program.

A CULTURE OF GIVING

Little Flower Academy is the only school of its kind in British Columbia. We uniquely offer an extraordinary education that is Catholic and all girls. We have a beautiful campus. Our academic and extra-curricular programming is remarkable. We are also completely independent. Little Flower has emerged as one of the very best Catholic schools in Canada because our community of parents, alumnae, grandparents, staff, and friends give generously to make every facet of the student experience special.

PROGRAM ENRICHMENT: The cost of delivering the education you are considering for your daughter far exceeds the tuition revenue and government grants we receive. The school does not receive any financial support from the Catholic Church, the Archdiocese, Project Advance, or local parishes. Knowing that the first barrier to accessibility (regardless of the financial aid we offer) is tuition, we purposefully keep tuition as low as possible, running an operating loss on tuition that we make up through our yearly Annual Fund appeal. Some families can cover the gap for their child; others are unable, but give what they can; while some are able to generously give much more.

VISIONARY GIVING: Where annual giving covers the day-today program enrichment, it takes something special to realize big projects. Recent transformational projects have included the introduction of a STEAM Lab, computers and technology in every classroom, large-scale Library upgrades, a fitness room, seismic upgrading, and classroom refurbishment. Every one of these significant investments was made possible solely through giving to the school. As we move forward with our Campus Master Planning, we will continue to seek those who have a heart for philanthropy to help make exceptional learning spaces available for the next generations of young women.

We’ve also seen the school’s endowment fund grow exponentially, establishing a permanent trust, managed by the Little Flower Academy Foundation, that will benefit girls’, Catholic education in perpetuity.

APPLY

We hope this prospectus gives you a glimpse of life at Little Flower. We encourage you to speak with those who know us best: students, staff, and alumnae are always eager to share their experience and you will instantly have insight into our amazing community spirit. If you feel like LFA is a fit for your family, know that we eagerly seek applications from socially responsible, enthusiastic students, capable of succeeding in the school’s challenging academic environment.

APPLYING FOR GRADE 8: An application for Grade 8 includes both the student application and having taken the entrance exam. Applications are completed online and students will sit the entrance exam in December. Successful applicants are notified in January.

For more detailed information and to apply for Little Flower Academy, please visit www.lfabc.org/apply

WWW.LFABC.ORG/APPLY