The PA System

John Smallwood has been a writer and teacher for VHS since its creation in 1997. He brings over three decades of high school experiences to the teaching of his online English courses. He also currently is teaching English at the University of Western Ontario making him intimately aware of the need to prepare high school students properly for the rigours of the university academic experience.

More important than his credentials as a highly competent English teacher, Mr. Smallwood’s also consistently exceeds student expectations in his feedback on their assignments. Students and their parents are constantly communicating to the VHS office, that his detailed feedback on assignments is extremely helpful in transforming students with respect to their writing capabilities. For example, the VHS office just received this from one of Mr. Smallwood’s students:

“Firstly, I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed this course. The projects were all interesting and the required readings were great. I also wanted to comment on the teaching. Mr. Smallwood’s feedback for everything I did was outstanding. I learned a tremendous amount in this course and my writing has definitely improved due to Mr. Smallwood’s help. That being said, this course has helped me to succeed in other courses that involve writing. All my teachers have commented on my writing style and how it has recently improved, and I am convinced it has been because of this course.”

In addition to his knowledge of his subject matter and the effective practicing of his profession of teaching, Mr. Smallwood also cares deeply about his students. While VHS must charge tuition in order to stay in business, Mr. Smallwood has graciously donated a significant amount of his own money and time to establish this new John Smallwood Bursary Program in order to help students who have financial needs take advantage of the quality education that can be obtained from online courses.

About the John Smallwood Bursary Program

The goal of the John Smallwood Bursary Program is to provide enrollment subsidies to economically disadvantaged Canadian students in order that they may access high quality online education helping them to achieve their academic goals. These subsidies come from Mr. Smallwood and the rest of the VHS staff. Students granted a bursary will receive $250 to cover half the tuition cost of one VHS full-credit course, normally costing $499. This Bursary Program goes beyond simply helping a student with their tuition fees but actually engages with the student and their family regularly throughout the time that the students are enrolled in Virtual High School in order to promote success.