St. John’s Academy is a British Columbian high school. This means that we offer a program that leads to the much-desired Dogwood Diploma. Currently, there are three graduation programs active in the Province of British Columbia:
2004 Graduation Program:
This program is being phased out and no student who started high school after September 2018 is left in this program. This program’s requirement includes the old English 12 provincial examination, which is no longer administered. Therefore, only those who have already finished English 12 may still graduate from this graduation program.
Required Courses for students on the 2004 Graduation Program (52 credits)
- Planning 10 (4 credits)
- Graduation Transition (4 credits)
- a Language Arts 10 (4 credits)
- a Language Arts 11 (4 credits)
- a Language Arts 12 (4 credits)
- a Mathematics 10 (4 credits)
- a Mathematics 11 or 12 (4 credits)
- a Fine Arts and/or Applied Skills 10, 11 or 12 (4 credits)
- a Social Studies 10 (4 credits)
- a Social Studies 11
- a Science 10 (4 credits)
- a Science 11 or 12 (4 credits)
- Physical Education 10 (4 credits)
Elective Courses for students on the 2004 Graduation Program (28 credits)
Credits from elective courses were counted from Grades 10 to 12. At least 16 overall credits (4 full-credit courses) had to be at the Grade 12 level.
2018 Graduation Program:
This is the current graduation program for all BC’s high school students. This program has three required provincial exams: Literacy Assessment 10, Literacy Assessment 12, Numeracy Assessment 10. Of these three, only Literacy 10 and Numeracy 10 are needed until September 2020.
Required Courses for 2018 Graduation Program (52 credits)
- 2 Language Arts 10 (2 credits each for a total of 4 credits)
- A Language Arts 11 (4 credits)
- A Language Arts 12 (4 credits)
- A Social Studies 10 (4 credits)
- A Social Studies 11 or 12 (4 credits)
- A Mathematics 10 (4 credits)
- A Mathematics 11 or 12 (4 credits)
- A Science 10 (4 credits)
- A Science 11 or 12 (4 credits)
- Physical and Health Education 10 (4 credits)
- An Arts Education and/or an Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies 10, 11, or 12 (4 credits)
- Career Life Education (4 credits)
- Career Life Connections (4 credits)
Elective Course for 2018 Graduation Program (28 credits)
Students must complete a minimum of 28 elective credits. These 28 credits may be from Ministry-authorized (MEA) or Board/Authority Authorized (BAA) courses, post-secondary courses or external credentials, but not Locally Developed courses. Once the credits for required courses have been met, additional courses in that subject area count as elective credits.
Students must complete a minimum of 16 credits at the Grade 12 level, 12 credits in addition to a required Language Arts 12 course. These twelve Grade 12 credits may be for required courses, electives, Independent Directed Study, External Credentials, or dual credit post-secondary courses (see the Earning Credit through Equivalency, Challenge, External Credentials, Post-Secondary Credit and Independent Directed Studies Policy for additional information).
Provincial Graduation Assessments
Students must write a provincial Graduation Numeracy Assessment (NME10) and a provincial Graduation Literacy Assessment (LTE10 and eventually 12) in order to graduate.
Adult Graduation Program:
This program is not offered at St. John’s Academy as you have to be an adult its requirements are often not satisfactory for target post-secondary institutions.Note to students and parents regarding St. John’s Academy’s program. Please note that while the minimum high school graduation credential requirement is 80 credits, entering high-ranking universities often require a minimum of 88 credits. Which would be the minimum 80 + 8 credits in grade 12 subjects. Since St. John’s Academy is a university preparatory school, we will by default plan students for 88 credit-graduation rather than 80 unless requested otherwise by parents.
