Admissions Process
Join Our School Community
Paul Penna Downtown Jewish Day School welcomes all inquiries at all grade levels. If you would like to learn more about our school or discuss admissions, please contact admissions@djds.ca. We recommend to prospective parents that you submit your child(ren)'s application as much in advance as possible. Thank you for your interest in joining our community. We look forward to hearing from you!
A detailed overview of the Admissions Process follows:
Application Documents and Registration Fee
We require prospective parents to provide the following documents, submitted via our online portal, along with a non-refundable application fee of $500.00:
- Inquiry Form
- Past school records (if applicable)
- Copies of past assessments (if applicable)
Intake Meeting
The admissions process begins in September and October of the year prior to the student’s academic start year. Following application submission, parents complete a 25-minute virtual intake session with our Admissions team (parents only).
Admissions Observations and Assessments
Junior Kindergarten (JK): Formal observations are not conducted during the JK admissions cycle. Instead, incoming JK students and their families attend a mandatory spring orientation prior to the start of their school year.
Senior Kindergarten to Grade 8 (SK–Gr. 8): Applicants participate in a trial day and complete an academic assessment as part of the evaluation process.
Letter of Acceptance
One of the main goals of our admissions process is to ensure Paul Penna DJDS is the right match for your child, balancing their best interests with our school’s values, philosophy, and resources.
As an admissions-based school, once parent intake meetings and any required student assessments are complete, we formally send out Letters of Acceptance. For incoming Junior Kindergarten (JK) applicants specifically, offers are issued at the end of October. Families are given a one-week deadline from the date of the offer to confirm and accept their spot.
Should a grade reach capacity, applicants may be placed in a waitpool. In these instances, we communicate closely with families and actively work to offer spots as spaces become available.
Enrollment Fee
Upon acceptance, the previously submitted $500 application fee will be applied toward the tuition fee for the year of entry. Our enrollment process begins in February for the school year beginning the following September, and families are asked to provide an additional deposit of $1,000 to be applied to tuition fees as part of the official enrollment process.
Please note that the school extends priority consideration to applicants who are either siblings of current students, or students of the MNjcc Thomas & Marjorie Schwartz Preschool. Applicants will be accepted at the discretion of Paul Penna DJDS. Applicants who do not receive an initial offer of acceptance will be placed in a waitpool for consideration as soon as a grade level spot becomes available.