The Alberta Classical Academy is a public charter school division currently serving grades K-8. Our tuition-free classical education programs provide students with an academically rigorous and traditional liberal arts education, equipping them with the virtues, knowledge, and habits befitting free citizens.  

What is a classical education?

A classical education aims to preserve, transmit, and build upon the wisdom of past generations — not to dismantle or repudiate it. Our approach relies on knowledge-rich curricula and teacher-led classrooms, and is centred on great and beautiful works of art, literature, and philosophy. Through the study of classical works from around the world, students nurture a sense of philosophical wonder. They learn to inhabit different perspectives, think deeply about life’s most fundamental questions, and develop intellectual, moral, and aesthetic discernment.

Although academically rigorous, a true liberal arts education is not limited to making students narrowly useful or equipping them for material success. Recalling Confucius, we hold that “an educated person is not a tool.” Children are not merely future workers; they are future friends, spouses, neighbours, parents, and citizens. They are bearers of souls, which thirst after knowledge of what is true, good, and enduring. A classical education prepares students not only to live, but to live virtuously and with purpose.

Our Difference

  • Knowledge-rich liberal arts curriculum

  • Emphasis on virtue and character development

  • Centred on classic works of art, literature, & philosophy

  • Low-tech, smartphone-free environment

  • Outdoor education programs

  • French, Mandarin, and Latin language options

  • A culture of open inquiry, leisure, and truth-seeking

  • Great Books and Stories

    At the heart of the Alberta Classical Academy program of study is a great books curriculum, which puts learners in direct conversation with enduring works of literature and philosophy from around the world. Students become historically and culturally literate, and learn to think deeply about life’s most fundamental questions.

    See Reading Lists

  • Nurturing Virtue and Wisdom

    Virtue is about much more than rule-following. It consists in the cultivation of character, whereby students develop the habits and intentions of making good moral decisions based upon clear-sighted reasoning and well-managed passions and desires. The life of virtue is key to both happiness and true freedom.

    Our Essential Virtues

  • Why we wear uniforms

    Ours is a distinctive community, bound together by a shared goal of seeking moral and intellectual excellence in a spirit of friendship. Our uniform is a visible expression of this ideal: our students are part of a community of learners, whose purpose transcends differences in socio-economic status, ethnic, or religious background.

    Uniform policy

  • Preparing for the school year

    To help families prepare for the upcoming school year, our faculty have assembled the following grade level overviews. These documents describe what your child should be able to do prior to starting the school year, and also indicate the skills, knowledge and habits that students will continue to develop as the academic year progresses.

    Grade-level overviews

  • We're hiring!

    Our growing school community is always on the lookout for talented and knowledgeable faculty and staff. We encourage you to apply if you are passionate about the liberal arts and classical education tradition, care deeply about supporting students, and if you bring a sense of wonder and delight to your taught subjects.

    Current openings

“There is really only one liberal study that deserves the name — because it makes a person free — and that is the pursuit of wisdom.”

— Seneca

  • "Enrolling my kids at the Classical Academy is the best decision I have made this year....The discipline the school instills in them is second to none. The curriculum is vast and the teachers are very dedicated."

    Ljeoma
    Grades 1 & 3 Parent

  • “The school feels like a providential gift. I honestly didn’t believe that an education of this calibre was within reach, financially or otherwise. My daughter has made enormous strides in math and literacy, and she comes home excited to talk about medieval knights, Roman generals, plant ecology, and moon cycles. I am so relieved to know that I can finally trust a school with my childrens’ education.”

    Jared
    Grade 2 Parent

  • "My daughter is learning, actually learning — thanks to a classroom policy of order, a curriculum that is engaging, and teachers who inspire excellence. Thank you!"

    Beth
    Grade 4 Parent

  • "I am really pleased...The kids are taught how to be responsible, disciplined, and to know there is value in virtue. The teachers are fantastic and very organized, as parents get daily updates about what is happening in the school. I can't wait to see what the coming years will hold."

    Susan
    Grade 2 & 6 Parent

  • "My daughter is learning so much! Even she says so! I am excited to listen to her read and write. Her writing is so beautiful, she comes home loaded with so much information to share with me, and [she] is excited to learn. Thank you!"

    Mary
    Grade 1 Parent

  • "The teachers and admin staff are so passionate about education. It's made me realize how valuable and powerful a genuine education can be, and what an impact it can have. I am really excited to have my daughter educated here."

    Jonathan
    Kindergarten Parent

FAQs

  • Alberta charter schools are public, tuition-free programs with unique philosophical or pedagogical approaches. They operate independently from the central bureaucracy of large district school boards, being governed instead by autonomous non-profit organizations. This allows us to offer exceptional educational experiences to all interested students, regardless of background, postal code, or income level.

    Alberta is currently the only Canadian province with charter schools. Click here for more information on Alberta’s charter schools.

  • We welcome pupils from all socio-economic, religious, and ethnic backgrounds, and offer a community founded on friendship, conversation, respect for human dignity, and a shared love of wisdom.

    Our program is demanding, both academically and in its expectations for student behaviour. It is intended for learners who are committed to seeking moral and intellectual excellence.

  • Alberta Classical Academy schools are tuition-free public charter schools. We do not charge any tuition for program instruction.

    Like other public schools, however, pupils are required to provide a small instructional resource fee. Additional fees may apply for enrichment activities such as field trips and extracurricular programming that are not funded by the Alberta Ministry of Education.

  • Charter schools in Alberta are non-sectarian, and are not affiliated with any particular faith tradition.

    However, we aim to provide an environment that is respectful of children and families’ faith practices, supports students’ moral formation, and orients them toward what is true, good, and enduring.

  • We deliver the Alberta provincial programs of study using a distinct, classical approach and philosophy. For example:

    • Students will study classical works of literature, philosophy (including sciences and mathematics), history, and art. Where possible, they will rely on primary texts and sources of information.

    • The pursuit of truth, beauty, and wisdom informs the approach to curriculum delivery, with an explicit goal of developing pupils’ capacity for clear reasoning and sound moral, intellectual, and aesthetic judgement.

    • The curriculum shall be delivered in accordance with the “trivium” progression, in which the emphasis shifts through the stages of grammar in elementary school, logic/dialectic in middle school, and rhetoric in upper secondary school.

    • To the extent possible, subjects will be highly integrated and coherent both vertically (across grades) and horizontally (across disciplines).

    • In teaching sciences and maths (the classical ‘quadrivium’), we approach these as humane liberal arts, which illuminate the laws and ordering of the cosmos (for a fuller explanation, click here)

    We will also be developing our own, unique programs of study to supplement the Alberta curriculum. To view our K-12 curriculum map, visit our curriculum page.

  • Alberta Classical Academy may open additional schools in cities where there is demonstrated parent interest in the program. We are currently collecting parent declarations for Red Deer (link) and Lethbridge (link)