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Choosing a private high school in Markham is one of those decisions that feels heavier the longer you sit with it. You are not just picking a building or a uniform. You are deciding where your teenager will spend four of the most formative years of their life, and you are doing it with limited information, a lot of glossy brochures, and probably a deadline.
We work in this field, so we see the same worry from families every year. Parents come in having toured three or four private schools in Markham and they tell us the same thing: everyone sounded good, and now they cannot tell the difference between them.
That is a fair reaction. Most private secondary schools describe themselves in nearly identical language. Small class sizes. Personalized learning. University preparation. Those phrases are not untrue, but they do not help you compare.
What follows is the list we would give a friend. These are the things that genuinely differ between private high schools in Ontario, and the questions that will tell you the most in the least amount of time. Some of them are questions we would rather families did not ask us, which is exactly why they are worth asking.
1. Can the school actually grant OSSD credits?
If you read nothing else, read this section. It is the most important thing on the list and the most commonly assumed.
In Ontario, any private school can open its doors by notifying the Ministry of Education each year. That notification is a formality. It is not an endorsement, it is not a quality review, and it does not give the school the authority to issue credits toward the Ontario Secondary School Diploma.
Only private schools that have passed a Ministry inspection may grant OSSD credits. Inspected schools are assigned a BSID, a Board or School Identification Number, and they appear on the Ministry’s published list of private schools in Ontario.
How to verify a school’s credit-granting status
Ask the school for its BSID directly. Then look it up yourself on the Ministry’s private school list rather than trusting the number printed on a website. It takes about two minutes.
We say this plainly because we have met families who found out too late. A student completes Grade 11 at a school that cannot grant credits, and the coursework does not count toward the diploma. Discovering that in Grade 12, with university applications underway, is a genuinely painful conversation. It is entirely avoidable.
2. Ask who will actually be teaching your child
Here is something most parents do not know: private school teachers in Ontario are not required to be certified by the Ontario College of Teachers. That is true even at Ministry-inspected schools that grant OSSD credits. Inspections review course outlines, lesson plans, classroom instruction and student work. They do not review hiring.
So certification varies enormously between private high schools, and a school can be entirely compliant either way. This means OCT status is a useful question, but it is not a pass-or-fail test.
Plenty of strong private schools deliberately bring in subject specialists. A practising scientist teaching senior chemistry. A native French speaker teaching French. Their expertise is real, even though their route into the classroom was not through a faculty of education. Equally, an OCT designation on its own does not guarantee someone teaches your child well.
Better questions to ask
- Who specifically would teach the courses my child needs next year?
- What is their background in that subject?
- How long have they been at the school?
That last question is quietly revealing. A department where teachers have stayed three or four years tells you far more about a school than any credential list.
3. Look closely at the school calendar
The academic calendar shapes your teenager’s daily life more than almost anything else on a tour, and it is the factor families think about least.
Ontario private high schools generally run one of three models:
- Traditional semesters. Four courses at a time, two semesters a year. Familiar, and closest to the public system your child may be coming from.
- Quad semesters. Two courses at a time across four shorter terms. Far fewer subjects to juggle at once, and faster completion, though there is less room to fall behind and recover.
- Continuous intake. Students begin when they enrol rather than in September. Flexible for mid-year transfers, but it depends heavily on how well the school supports students working at different points in the same classroom.
None of these is better in the abstract. A student who struggles to divide attention across five subjects often thrives in a quad model. A student who needs time to sit with difficult material may do better across a full semester. Ask which model the school runs, ask why they chose it, and then think honestly about which one suits your own teenager.
4. Small classes matter, but only if the school does something with them
Every private school in Markham advertises small class sizes. The number itself is close to meaningless. What matters is what the school builds around it.
Try these instead:
- How quickly are assessments returned, and what kind of feedback comes with them?
- Is there scheduled time for extra help, or is it informal and left to the student to seek out?
- When a student starts slipping, who notices, and how soon do I hear about it?
A class of eight with no follow-up system is not better than a class of twenty with a teacher who emails you in week three. Small classes create the opportunity for attention. They do not create the attention.
5. Ask how transcripts and university applications are handled
Credits earned at a Ministry-inspected private school are recorded on the Ontario Student Transcript and treated exactly like credits from a publicly funded school. Canadian universities do not discount them. That is the correct answer, and you should hear a school say it without hesitating.
Then go one step further. Ask how the school submits marks to the Ontario Universities’ Application Centre, who manages that process, and what the timeline looks like. If your child is applying to university in Grade 12, quiet administrative competence matters enormously — and it is completely invisible on a tour.
If there is any chance your child will apply outside Canada, ask whether the school has sent transcripts internationally before, and where to.
6. Get the full cost of private high school in writing
Published tuition is rarely the whole picture. Ask for a written breakdown that includes:
- Application and registration fees
- Textbooks, materials and technology charges
- Per-credit pricing, if courses are billed individually
- Fees for repeating or upgrading a course
- Charges specific to international students, if that applies to your family
- The refund policy if your child withdraws partway through a term
The refund policy is the one almost everyone skips. Read it before you sign, not after. A school that puts all of this in writing without being pushed is telling you something good about how it operates generally.
7. Questions worth asking on your school tour
Tours are designed to impress, and a good tour genuinely should. But a few specific questions cut through the polish quickly:
- May I see your BSID and hear about your most recent inspection?
- How many students graduated last year, and where did they go?
- Could I speak with a current parent who does not work here?
- What happens when a student is failing at midterm?
- How many students are enrolled in the specific grade my child would join?
Press gently on that last one. A school can have healthy overall enrolment and still have very thin numbers in a particular grade, which affects course availability, timetabling and your child’s social life considerably.
Frequently asked questions about private high schools in Markham
Do private high schools in Ontario follow the Ontario curriculum?
Any private school granting credits toward the OSSD must teach the Ontario curriculum in those credit courses and meet the same requirements for credit integrity, assessment and reporting as publicly funded schools. Non-inspected private schools have far more latitude, but their coursework does not earn OSSD credits.
Are private school credits accepted by Canadian universities?
Yes, provided the school is Ministry-inspected. Credits appear on the Ontario Student Transcript and are treated identically to public school credits by Canadian universities.
What is a BSID number?
A BSID is the Board or School Identification Number the Ministry of Education assigns to a registered private school. Only schools that have also passed inspection may grant OSSD credits, so ask about both.
How much does private high school cost in Markham?
Tuition varies widely across private schools in York Region depending on whether the school charges per credit or per year, whether students are domestic or international, and what is bundled into the base fee. Rather than comparing headline numbers, ask each school for the full written breakdown described above.
Can my child transfer to a private high school mid-year?
Often, yes. Schools running quad semesters or continuous intake are usually better equipped for mid-year transfers than those on a traditional two-semester calendar. Ask how previously earned credits will be recognized and whether your child will lose time in the transition.
Where Upper Crescent Academy fits
We run a private secondary school in Markham, so this article is not neutral, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. We have tried to write it so that it is genuinely useful to you even if you choose somewhere else, because we think that is how this decision should be made.
For the record: Upper Crescent Academy is a Ministry-inspected private secondary school in Markham, BSID #669453, serving students from Markham, Unionville, Thornhill, Richmond Hill and across York Region, along with international students. We run a quad-semester calendar with a summer term. Our teaching staff includes both Ontario Certified Teachers and subject specialists, and we are happy to tell you exactly who would be teaching your child and what their background is.
A final thought
Verify the BSID yourself. Ask who teaches. Match the calendar to your child rather than to the marketing. Get every cost in writing, including the refund policy. And ask each school what happens when something goes wrong, because that answer will tell you more than anything else you see that day.
If you are weighing options for your teenager and would like to talk it through, we are glad to have that conversation — no pitch attached. You are welcome to book a visit, or simply call and ask us the hardest question on this list.
