Why Third Academy?

Click Here For a PDF Brochure: Third Academy Brochure for Recruitment

Third Academy: It’s Special Needs Education, Your Child’s Way

We create a well-balanced, individualized, integrated, and intensive program for each student, designed to prepare them for re-entry into their community school as quickly as possible.

Students with special needs require an Individualized Program Plan (IPP) that builds upon their strengths while remediating or compensating for their learning disorder. Lesson content responds to the needs of each student while adhering to the Alberta Education program of studies.

Central to The Third Academy’s programming is an emphasis on Personal Development. Personal Development looks to ‘heal the heart’. That is to say, deal with underlying emotional issues that stop the student from learning. By changing the way a student ‘thinks’ and ‘feels’ about themselves, we are able to change the way they ‘act’.

There are many teaching strategies/methodologies that have a positive impact on student learning. The choice of which strategies/methodologies to use is dependant upon what works best for the individual learner. In that way, the program is customized. The teacher determines- in partnership with the student and parents- which strategies/methodologies to use. Then, the teacher does ‘whatever it takes’ to meet the student’s needs. With excellent teachers, our students get the instruction they deserve. This is why we say: ‘Ultimately, the teacher is the program’.

Our Students

Our program serves students 5-19 years of age who fit the Alberta Education criterion of special needs. Specifically, our students have been assessed as having mild, moderate, or severe disabilities or disorders. These could be learning disabilities, socio-emotional difficulties, or both.

They are of average to above average intelligence, achieve significantly below their grade level, and have the potential to improve their academic performance. Our students typically may exhibit one or more of the following characteristics:

• Reading, Writing, Spelling and/or Mathematics problems.
• Lack of organizational, time-management, and planning skills.
• Lack of study skills resulting in incomplete assignments and poor exam performance.
• Unable to stay on task due to attention deficit and/or hyperactivity disorders.
• Low self-esteem and confidence.
• Inappropriate behaviours due to frustrations caused by an inability to succeed in an educational environment where traditional approaches are used.
• Labeled as lazy or unmotivated.
• May be diagnosed with or exhibit characteristics associated with learning disabilities such as Tourette’s Syndrome, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Asperger’s Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Autism, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Depression, Anxieties, and others.
• Behavioural patterns caused by physical, emotional and other abuse.