Education Physical education is held each day, and as of this fall, gym will be taught in French, giving students a solid hour of French daily

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SAINT JOHN - Max Hooper-Clark was a doodler long before he hit middle school.

While his mom Tandi chats at a child-sized table in a classroom at Touchstone Community School, 13-year-old Max busies himself with a pencil and paper, working on a stylized, graffiti-like rendition of his initials: "MHC."

"Max is a drawer," Hooper-Clark said. "He's a kinetic learner, too. That was a really amazing thing (to learn)."

When Max began at Touchstone as a four-year-old, his teacher noticed that he'd constantly have his pencil going during lessons. Some teachers might have chalked it up to inattention, but his teacher, Angela Prosser, soon realized that he was absorbing everything.

"They discovered that he really was a kinetic learner, where in some situations he might not be allowed to do that - 'Put away your pencils, put away your paper.' "

In Max's 10-student class at Touchstone, she said, Prosser was able to give enough attention to her student to see that that was OK.

Hooper-Clark, a "founding parent" whose younger son Sam still attends Touchstone, stopped by for the Rothesay independent school's open house last week. The open houses are run three times a year, and give parents interested in the school's alternative approach to learning a chance to examine it up-close.

Inside the building, which once housed Branch 58 of the Royal Canadian Legion, the walls have been stripped bare of student art in preparation for a summer paint job. But the arrangement and colours of the furniture still convey a sense of relaxation and playfulness.

There's still some artwork left - some of the hallway ceiling tiles have been painted, one by each of the 20 students who have graduated from the school since it was founded in 1999.

"If you get to walk around the classrooms, there's desks in odd configurations, there's a little board with pillows over here," parent Jeff McAloon said. "I guess it's not what I imagined as a typical classroom growing up, and it really plays into how kids want to learn."

The classrooms mirror the school's mandate: hands-on, project-based learning.

The school and its curriculum were created in 1999 by vanderLinde and a group of interested parents, including Hooper-Clark. After some research, they adapted and modified an American system called Core Knowledge to meet the standards and environment they wanted for their kids' education.

"Art and music was important," Hooper-Clark said. "Smaller class sizes, so kids could get great attention. Hands-on learning, and creative learning. And all of us really wanted to be involved in our kids' education."

Nine years later, Touchstone has grown to 70 kids divided between five classrooms, which are colour-coded according to age instead of using the numerical grade system. Students are accomodated up to the Grade 5 level, at which point they graduate to middle school. Teachers and parents say Touchstone students usually progress with ease to the public school system, and that the emphasis on interaction with others gives them confidence in the classroom.

Having a child at Touchstone means parents are also required to get hands-on at school by volunteering or joining committees, making it just as much a place for families as it is for their children.

Indeed, the school was quite literally built by parents - when Touchstone moved from its old home at the Bill McGuire Renforth Community Club to the legion hall in 2003, a volunteer committee of parents spent their summer rebuilding the inside.

"It's a co-operative," McAloon said. "You don't just send your kids here, drop 'em off and pick 'em up - you're really involved with the school."

Touchstone parents must also be also prepared to pay for their kids' education: a year's tuition is $7,100, plus some additional costs for field trips and books. Financial aid is available up to $2,000 per child per year.

The unique curriculum remains a draw for parents, and the school has steadily accepted 10 to 14 students in its kindergarten class each year. Older students can also apply.

Art and music are each given 50 minutes per week, with additional elements of both worked into the curriculum throughout the week. Physical education is held each day, and as of this fall, gym will be taught in French, giving students a solid hour of French daily.

"(Our French teacher said) if they had French class plus the fun class, with all those action words you use all the time - that way, you're not just using verbs, you're playing ball."

The rigorous French curriculum may not necessarily be a strong draw for parents, who are mostly attracted by overall atmosphere the school has to offer.

"The parents that come here come for the broad range of things that are here - strong art, strong music, strong French, strong phys-ed, drama, oral presentations, everything we have to offer," said principal and founder Tasha vandeLinde. "I think people come here for the bigger picture."