Riverside Christian Academy Update
September 28, 2023
Thank you for your continued interest and support as we pursue to establish a Christian School at Riverside Calvary Chapel. We wanted to provide you with an update on the process to keep you informed and ask that you would join us in praying through this process.
At the end of August, the Riverside Education Society submitted the Expression of Interest to the Ministry of Education to launch a Group 3 Independent School at Riverside. We are excited to report that as of early September we have now been invited to proceed with the application process.
What is a Group 3 Independent School?
There are 4 groupings of Independent Schools in British Columbia. Most commonly, an independent school in BC holds a group 1 or 2 classification. These classifications allow the schools to receive government funding. In return, schools are required to employ BC-certified teachers, have educational programs consistent with ministerial orders and provide programs that meet the provincial learning outcomes. We feel that these outcomes have increasingly become too political, are misaligned with our Biblical worldview and have taken authority away from a child’s first teacher, the parent.
At Riverside, our goal is to provide education that is centred on the Word of God, rather than on the current BC curriculum. Group 3 Independent Schools do not receive funding and therefore are not required to employ BC-certified teachers or have educational programs consistent with ministerial orders. We feel this will allow us to structure a program that will align with the heart of Riverside Calvary Chapel and an accurate Biblical worldview by providing Bible-centred education across curricular areas without the requirement to align with BC curriculum.
There is still a lot of work ahead and at this point, we are unable to provide you with concrete answers to questions you may have. Our intention is to try to keep you informed during the process. As you think of questions for us, please make a note of them so that we can address them at a later date. We are hoping to invite you to an information session early in the new year.
A few things we can communicate:
We are aiming to launch in September 2024.
The campus will be located at Riverside Calvary Chapel in Langley.
We are preparing to provide education for grades K-7.
We are planning to offer education from a Biblical worldview using the Classical Christian education model.
As we prepare our application, one of the items the Ministry of Education asks us to forecast is the number of students we expect. Although we are currently unable to forecast tuition costs, in the weeks to come, we will reach out once again with some more information. At that time, we will request for you to share with us a reasonable expression of your commitment to enrol your child(ren). At that point, it is not a firm commitment as the primary objective of the request is forecasting enrolment for the application to the ministry.
We look forward to having you join us at a future information session and we will continue to provide updates throughout the process. Please continue to pray for the application process and plan to join us on our Education Prayer Nights on October 12 and November 9.
If you are aware of other families that may be interested in learning more about Riverside Christian Academy, please feel free to pass on this information.
If you have any questions or may want to submit an expression of interest, please email Victoria Hunt at rca@riversidecalvary.com.
Thank you for your prayers and we look forward to meeting with you soon.
Riverside Education Society
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Riverside Calvary Chapel is excited to offer educational ministries for children and has established the Riverside Education Society to oversee and coordinate this area.
The Riverside Education Society is hoping to operate a school in the future, which will focus on Christian classical education. The Bible will be the main priority in curriculum delivery at RCA. Our mission is to have cohesiveness between home, school and church by empowering parents to be the main oversight of their children’s education.
We invite you to join us in prayer as we work out the details over the next year. Regular updates will be shared as they are available in the Riverside Education Group on Church Center.
For information about the Riverside Education Society, please contact Debbie White, the RES Board Chair.
Riverside Christian Academy is a ministry of Riverside Calvary Chapel. For the 2023/2024 school year, we are partnering with parents to support their children’s learning in a limited capacity. This is a great option for students currently in traditional learning settings (public or private schools) as well as for our home learners. We invite you all to consider joining us as pioneers of this start-up initiative. For more information, or to submit an application of interest, please contact Victoria Hunt, our Education Ministry Facilitator, who will reply as soon as possible.
Information for the Fall 2024 program will be announced by March 15, 2024. 
Little Lighthouse is a ministry of Riverside Calvary Chapel also. It is a parent-participation program offered for 0-5 year olds to establish a foundation for discipleship and learning in collaboration with RCA. For additional details , please visit Little Lighthouse or contact Aimee White, our Children’s and Youth Ministry Assistant.