The Giles School · Since 1989
Our Story
The Giles School started in 1989 with a handful of students, one basement, and six ideas about what education should be.
A Founder Ahead of His Time
Harry Giles, CM, QC
The Giles School was founded by Mr. Harry Giles, a pioneer of modern education in Canada. Before starting Giles, he founded the Toronto French School in 1962, played a key role in bringing the International Baccalaureate program to Canada, and established the country's first GCE Ordinary and Advanced Examination Centre. He also created the Chemistry and Physics Olympiads, prestigious pre-university competitions still recognized today.
That approach was already distinctive decades before The Giles School existed. One Giles School family, both of whom studied under Mr. Giles at Toronto French School in the late 1960s, still remembers a school unlike anything else in the city at the time: classes held in church and synagogue basements, young teachers brought in directly from France, and classes small enough to be genuinely unusual for 1969.
Formerly known as The Markham School for Human Development, the school Mr. Giles built from that church basement was shaped by six founding principles: early academic intervention, bilingualism, third languages, small classes, the highest international standards, and love.
Harry Giles, honoured for his contributions to education, including the Order of Canada
Aude et Audi
Dare, and listen — what our six founding pillars have meant since 1989.
How We Grew
Three Decades, One Idea
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1989
Founded by Harry Giles, with dual English and French immersion, plus a third-language choice of Mandarin or Japanese.
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1994
A second branch opens at Donway Covenant United Church for older students.
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1995
Mandarin becomes a dedicated third-language curriculum, by popular demand.
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2008
The school relocates to North York, evolving into a well-rounded multilingual, multicultural institution.
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2010s
The French Immersion Program expands from Pre-K onward; the Giles Parents Association is founded.
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2018
The Giles Student Leadership Program launches for Grades 4 to 8, built on service-learning.
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2019
Coding and Robotics join the curriculum.
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Today
Financial Literacy and Investment courses for Grades 4 to 8, and Matatalab Coding for Grade 1, continue that same founding commitment to staying ahead of what students will need next.
What We Still Believe
Every family who visits hears some version of the same idea: a Giles education is meant to build lifelong learners and responsible global citizens, students of character who are prepared to make a genuine difference in the world around them. That commitment shows up as it always has, in small classes, in multiple languages taught from an early age, and in teachers who take the time to know a child well enough to teach them properly.
“The Giles School combines traditional values with an innovative educational approach, creating a nurturing environment where students thrive.”
— Tamar, Giles School parent
Read Tamar's full story →It also shows up in something harder to put on a curriculum, which is why one Giles parent, an educator himself who visited more than a hundred schools before choosing Giles, described it this way:
“We came for the academics… but we're staying because of the culture of love.”
— Craig Kielburger, Giles School parent
Watch Craig's story →
The Story Continues
Some families find their way back to Giles more than once. One current Giles parent, Jessica, enrolled her son Yanni at Pre-K2, following the same path her own younger brother took as a Giles student more than twenty years earlier. In her video testimonial, she describes his transition as joyful from the start, learning French within weeks and growing steadily more independent, curious, and kind.
Watching her son follow the same path her brother took twenty years ago wasn't something Jessica had to think twice about. It was, in her words, an easy decision.
As shared by Jessica, Giles School parent
Watch her video testimonial →More than three decades after Mr. Giles started this school in a church basement, the six pillars he built it on, early intervention, bilingualism, third languages, small classes, international standards, and love, are still what a Giles education is built from. The school has grown a great deal since 1989. The idea behind it hasn't moved at all.
Caroline Bernaba, Principal, with founder Harry Giles
A Legacy in Good Hands
Still Leading, Still Listening
Caroline Bernaba joined The Giles School as a teacher in May 1992, just three years after Mr. Giles founded it. She spent two decades in the classroom before becoming Vice Principal and Academic Supervisor in 2013, and was named Principal in 2020. More than three decades after she first arrived, she's still there, carrying that legacy forward for a new generation of students.
She doesn't carry it alone. Many of Giles's teachers have built the same kind of long relationships with students and families, some staying for years, a few for decades of their own, the kind of continuity that's hard to manufacture and easy to feel the moment you walk into a classroom.
A few of her own answers, in her own words:
Why did you want to become a teacher?
My love for children draws me to this profession, and my passion is making a difference in their lives.
How many languages do you speak?
Three: French, English, and Arabic.
What's the best thing about being a teacher?
The potential of transforming lives. There's never a dull moment in my classroom.
It's a philosophy she's held onto for years:
The best classroom management strategy is to like your students. It's not a feeling. It's a choice.
— Caroline Bernaba, Principal
Focus on the journey, not the destination.
— Caroline Bernaba, Principal
Aude et Audi.
Dare, and listen. Since 1989.