Grade 9 and Grade 10 at Al Manarat High School
Note: This blog is a continuation of the themes discussed in an earlier blog post (A Vision Turned to Reality, published on 15th Nov). If you haven’t read our previous blog yet, we’d recommend that you proceed to read that one first and then come back to this one, to get a better understanding of our overall journey and vision.
We can all agree that high school is an exceptional time in our teenage children’s lives. It is around this time in their lives that they undergo puberty and go through hundreds of changes in their bodies: physically, mentally, and emotionally. In other words, it is when they begin their one-way transition from being young boys and girls to becoming adult men and women. It is also around this time that they are bursting with endless energy to never miss out on anything. They are full of innocent enthusiasm to quickly grow up and experience adulthood or are simply optimistic and a tad bit anxious of learning what the future holds for them. With so much happening, it wouldn’t be wrong then, to say, that it is one of the most important phases of their lives.
At Al Manarat High School, we deeply understand the complex intricacies of this phase of our students’ lives and commit ourselves to play the role of a ‘guiding light’ for them. As a premier Islamic school in Mississauga, we aim to fulfil our commitment to our students through our exceptionally sculpted OSSD curriculum that is deeply infused with Islam and its ever-relevant teachings. Over the course of 4 years at Al Manarat High School, our students will go through highly pertinent and up-to-date education on all the core subjects (required to earn the OSSD). The unique element here is that they will go through some of this educational material with an Islamic lens.
In its first year of existence (2021), Grade 9 has commenced with the following course offering: English, Math, Science, Geography, French, Physical Education, Food and Nutrition, Information and Communication Technology in Business, and Sacred Arabic. The primary goal of this course offering is to garner an appreciation for a wide array of subjects that are all considered essential to the students’ higher educational foundations. In other words, students will engage in building essential knowledge in the fields of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), and learn how to lead healthier lives through understanding the importance of food, nutrition, and physical education. While they accumulate all this wealth of knowledge and information, we also want them to be able to articulate well and express themselves artfully. That’s where our language courses come into play. We want our students to communicate flawlessly in both English and French and use their Sacred Arabic skills to learn and understand the message of the Holy Quran in its original language. Overall, these languages will play a significant role in their lives and enable them to become productive contributors in their communities. It is no surprise that almost all the highly successful people both today, and in the past, have had extraordinary communication skills, including our blessed Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
InshaAllah in its first year of existence (2022), Grade 10 will continue to build upon all the earlier mentioned foundational concepts learnt in Grade 9. Based on our approach of ‘Beyond AP (Advanced Placements)’ we believe that our students will have a reasonable amount of spare time interspersed throughout their academic year to learn important life-skills. These skills will be taught to them through the concepts of entrepreneurial education. It will allow the students to approach and learn skills required in the real-world, beginning with personal finances: earning, spending, saving, and investing. As an integral part of the curriculum, we will have our students build entrepreneurial ventures, which they will learn to operate successfully as well as learn about exit-strategies. Our Grade 10 students will also tap into their creativity by learning about the principles of media production and good design. They will use these principles for creating marketing collateral for their entrepreneurial ventures. Other life-skills such as good kitchen skills, meal planning, personal safety, staying fit mentally and physically, as well as taking more responsibility of themselves, and their families, shall be taught to our students throughout the year. By the end of Grade 10, we believe that our students will be more than capable to take on the challenges of Grades 11 and 12, followed by university education.
Being an Islamic school, 100% of the educational activities imparted will revolve around an Islamic backdrop that will keep our students grounded in the realities of this temporary world and the permanent Hereafter. Just as they will navigate through their days at school gaining worldly knowledge, they will also start their days with the remembrance of Allah (SWT) (azkaars) in the morning assembly. They will fortunately find themselves praying the afternoon (duhr) prayers with their friends and colleagues in congregation (jama’a) every day, which is not possible in a public school or a catholic school. The religion of Islam will be a part-and-parcel of everything the students will do at school and the Islamic lenses with which they will interact with the world will allow them to appreciate everything much intentionally.
Through the writing of this blog, an attempt was made to present our vision and objectives for our high school in some details, but it is just that, an attempt. If our blog has piqued your interest and you find yourself curious to learn more about our grades 9 and 10, or would like to provide constructive feedback, we’d be delighted to have a conversation with you. Please get in touch with us through any of our several communication channels (Facebook, Instagram, Website, Phone, and Email).