Waterloo Catholic District School Board (WCDSB)

The Waterloo Catholic District School Board is offering a wide variety of education programs to international students. Virtually all programs offered to our day students are available to our international visa students. We are very proud of our reputation for excellence in education and innovation and our community’s reputation as a safe, clean, prosperous and multi-cultural environment to learn and live. As a Faith-based institution, we offer a wide variety of academic and co-curricular programs in our schools with a highly qualified, expert staff and we embrace international students within our school communities.

Our goal is to offer quality, comprehensive, and individualized education plans that meet the needs of our international visa students – education plans that guide them to reach their potential, and that prepare them for both their post-secondary career paths and their role as global citizens. International visa student education plans will be established with a thorough assessment of each student’s academic and English language capacity and will consider both academic and social needs of individual students. Our school system has the capacity to offer programs with full English-Second-Language support, partial English-Second-Language support and total immersion.

In addition to our five Secondary schools, mature students can achieve their Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) credits, including English-Second-Language credits at Saint Louis, our Adult Learning Centres. Students that achieve their OSSD through Saint Louis are well prepared to apply to any English-speaking university or college.

Our school board has a formal relationship with post-Secondary institutions, including the University of Waterloo, St. Jerome’s University, Wilfrid Laurier University and Conestoga College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning. Our successful international students have preferred admission status at all these universities and the college.

Our Secondary schools offer the highest quality cooperative education credit courses in Canada and these courses are available to international visa students. Students can explore business or industry careers or take credit courses at the post-Secondary institutes. The result is Secondary school credits toward a Secondary School Diploma and an all-important letter of reference for students that will apply to universities or colleges.