A report about my visit to Iona Catholic Secondary School, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

This long essay is a report on Iona Catholic Secondary School, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada during the first two weeks of March 2006. It highlights important aspects of this school’s administration and management, where such experience is evaluated in the light of educational theories. The first two chapters provide overviews of the educational system in Canada and of Iona Catholic Secondary School respectively. The organisational and managerial aspects of the school are tackled in the third chapter, where strategic planning, decision-making and distribution of responsibility and authority, as well as professional development and appraisal of teachers are analysed. Chapter 4 deals with communications and relationships within and outside school, especially with the school administration and the other staff, parents and outsiders. The fifth chapter shows various aspects of curriculum, whilst assessment, evaluation and record keeping are tackled in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 deals with other aspects of the school’s work and life, mainly, the pastoral provisions, discipline, extracurricular activities and health and safety. The last chapter relates the visit’s relevance to the local school situation, where it identifies various recommendations that could be adopted by Maltese schools so as to be more effective, for the benefit of all those in the educational sector, especially the children.