École internationale de Montréal

The school usually opens its doors at 7:55, classes begin at 8:15 and end at 15:10. A school day for the students is divided into 5 periods of 75 minutes:

• Period 1: classes for all (from 8:15 to 9:30);
• Period 2: classes for all (from 9:45 to 11:00);
• Period 3: classes for Sec.4-5, lunch for Sec.1-3 (from 11:10 to 12:25);
• Period 4: classes for Sec.1-3, lunch for Sec.4-5 (from 12:30 to 13:45);
• Period 5: classes for all (from 13:55 to 15:10).

The school also offers after school activities (called "Activités parascolaires") such as: guitar classes, improvisation, jewelry making, etc.

Homework and projects are often given by teachers and the students are expected to give them in at the due date. Projects are often related to the IB Program and students are supposed to do the projects while respecting the presentation code presented in the "How to Present a Written Work Guide" ("Guide de présentation des travaux écrits" lit. "Written Assignment Presentation Guide") and developing their profiles from the IB Learner Profile. Teachers in this school love to give as many projects as possible at the same time which causes lots of stress for students

The students are often assessed throughout the school year both in the Ministry of Education (MEES) way and the IB way. At the end of each semester (beginning November, end January and end June) there are several examination days when classes do not take place and students come to school only when sitting examinations. In May there are also two fixed examination days for provincial exams from the Ministry of Education (MEES). But also during the year, teachers love to give exams every week, there is no week without an exam so if you are planning to come to this school, be mentally prepared!

At the end of the year, students get promoted to the next year based on their results from the examinations. For different grades, different achievements are imposed:

• Sec.1: if the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French or Mathematics, he/she will be suggested to take summer classes;
• Sec.2: if the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French or Mathematics, he/she will have to take summer classes. If the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French and Mathematics, he/she will have to leave the school;
• Sec.3: if the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French, Mathematics or English, he/she will have to take summer classes. If the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French and Mathematics or obtains a result inferior to 60% in 4 classes, he/she will have to leave the school;
• Sec.4: if the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French, Mathematics, English, History and Citizenship Education, Sciences and Technology or Environmental Sciences and Technology, he/she will have to take summer classes. If the student obtains a result inferior to 60% in French and Mathematics or obtains a result inferior to 60% in 4 classes, he/she will have to leave the school.

Students at EIMS graduate with up to 3 diplomas.

• Ministry of Education (MEES): The MEES gives the normal High School Diploma (DES). To obtain this diploma, the student has to pass these following classes: French (Sec.5), English (Sec.5 Advanced Program), Mathematics (Sec.4 or 5), Sciences and Technology (Sec.4), History and Citizenship Education (Sec.4), Ethics and Religious Cultures (Sec.5), Physical Education (Sec.5) and Arts (Sec.4 ou 5).
• IB: The IB gives the International Education Certificate. To obtain this diploma, the student has to have done all the hours of community service; based on the IB evaluation criteria, he/she should obtained at least a 3/7 for his/her Personal Project (PP), at least 2/7 in each subject groups and at least 28/49 when the subject groups' results and PP's result are added.
• SEBIQ: The SEBIQ gives the DESI (International Secondary Education Diploma). To obtain this diploma, the student has to get his/her High School Diploma (DES) and International Education Certificate; pass advanced French, advanced English, Spanish, Mathematics SN (Sec.5), Chemistry or Physics (Sec.5), Contemporary World Geography and Actualities and Personal Project (PP).

During the school year, students have many activities too.

The students audition for the year-end show called Big Show around October and the show is often on the second Friday of May in Polyvalente St-Henri's auditorium. The Sec.5 are the ones who organize the audition and sell the tickets.

The school often rents a field where students play soccer, frisbee, inflatable attractions, water dunk tank and eat hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, cookies and popsicles.

Cultural Week is usually a week during February where students taste food from all over the world. There are also shows and students can learn different cultural arts.

Throughout the year, many dances are held in the gymnasium of the school on Friday nights (or nights before a no school day), there are many theme for the dance such as Christmas Dance, Valentine's Day Dance, Spring Dance, End of Year Dance, etc. Because of some problems, those where officially cancelled in 2017.

Green Day (Journée Verte) is often in the beginning of June, there is also no class on that day and students go on trips to La Ronde, cycling roads, aerial forest courses, archery fields, and more. Because of the low inscription rate, this day was cancelled in 2017 and never took place again.

Sports Week is usually in the end of the year. Classes compete with each other in sports such as soccer, track and field, flag football, ping pong, and more. The winning classes (4 classes, 2 in Sec.1-3 and 2 in Sec.4-5) get pizzas and churros. (This didn’t happen in 2018, 2019, nor 2020)

Around mid-December, students elect two representatives and classes compete in the auditorium with a buzzing machine at different games (Jeopardy, The Price Is Right, La Fureur, etc). The winning class gets a pizza lunch.

Thematic Days are days where students are allowed to not wear the uniforms if they match up with the theme. Often, there are other activities on these days too. Some examples of the themes are:

• Anti Discrimination Day: students wear black and white.(This didn’t happen in 2018, 2019, nor 2020 but there is instead the Anti Intimidation day where students are encouraged to wear pink)
• Christmas Day (which is usually the day before Christmas Activities): students wear white, red and green.
• Earth Day: students wear green. In the morning, teachers would be waiting at nearby metro stations and would walk with the students (instead of taking the bus), those who walk get a stamp and can exchange for food and get to participate in a draw for gift cards.
• Fans' Day: students wear clothing related to fandoms they belong to.(This didn’t happen in 2017, 2018, 2019, nor 2020, probably won't happen at all)
• Pyjamas Day: students wear their pyjamas. Student often get hot chocolate and cookies during lunch.
• Valentine's Day: students wear white, red and pink. Sec.5 students often organize a sale for kisses, chocolates and songs a week before. Students can buy those for their friends, loved ones and even teachers; they can also write letters and put it in a box where all the love letters are. On Valentine's Day, some of the Sec.5 students will go from class to class to give the kisses, chocolates, songs and letters.(These were defined as outdated in 2018 and stopped)

Week of French is usually a week in March where classes compete with each other and the teachers on knowledge in French grammar, vocabulary, songs and poetry. The winning classes (4 classes, 2 in Sec.1-3 and 2 in Sec.4-5) get pizzas and churros.

Students get surprises in their lockers (like nice messages written on stars), or for example insect lollipops at the exit of classes by the student supervisors.

White Day (Journée Blanche) is often in the end of February, there is no class on that day and students go on trips with the school to go ski, ice skating, watch movies and more. (In the school year of 2015-2016, this activity was cancelled due to strikes). It was also cancelled on the school year of 2017-2018.

The school often organize trips to take the students outside of Montreal too. For example, Sec.3 students usually go to Tadoussac, Sec.4 students to New York City and Sec.5 students to Chicago. The Sec.1 and Sec.2 also had a trip once to Lac-Mégantic, now they go to the Eastern Townships with their teachers. (In the school year of 2015-2016, all the trips were cancelled due to a lack of education time caused by the strikes.) During summer, every two years, some of the teachers also organize a trip to Italy for all the students. For summer 2016, the destination changed to Paris and Rome. It was cancelled in 2020 because of COVID-19.

EIMS has several sport teams, such as a soccer team, a flag football team, a basketball team and a badminton team; it used to have a cheerleading team. The school also has its own improvisation team.

The school offers these following mandatory classes:

• Arts (class given in Sec.1-4);
• Arts and Multimedia (class given in Sec.5);
• Contemporary World Geography and Actualities (class given in Sec.5);
• English, second language (separated in regular and advanced classes in Sec.1-3 based on placement examination done in sixth grade);
• Enriched English (class given in Sec.4-5);
• Enriched French (class given in Sec.5);
• Environmental Sciences and Technology (class given in Sec.4);
• Ethics and Religious Cultures (class not given in Sec.3);
• French, language of instruction;
• Finances (class given in Sec.5)
• Geography (class given in Sec.1-2);
• History and Citizenship Education (class given in Sec.1-4);
• IB Design (class given in Sec.3);
• Mathematics (choice between SN or CST in Sec.4 and 5);
• Methodology (integrated within all classes);
• Physical Education;
• Sciences and Technology (class given in Sec.1-4);
• Spanish, third language (class given in Sec.1-3, separated in regular and advanced classes based on placement examination done in sixth grade).

• Journalism (class offered in Sec. 4);
• Theatre Arts: Drama (class offered in Sec. 4);
• Spanish Culture (class offered in Sec.4);
• Either Chemistry and Physics classes or History and General sciences classes (sec 5).