Surrey Academy of Innovative Learning - Surrey, British Columbia

Rick

The idea of self paced and distributed learning is very intriguing, however Sail Academy does not provide student's with what they need to succeed. There is no live lectures of any kind, only pre recorded videos that are extremely brief and don't provide enough information to allow for student's to grasp the course content. Additionally, the practice given after each video features content not in the video itself, on top of being quite difficult for even adult learners. Examinations are much more difficult than those for in person classes. Furthermore, the work load itself is higher than in person classes. The combination of needlessly increased difficulty, flawed lectures and required self teaching sets students up to not find success.

Vikram Sandhu

SAIL has helped me in many ways. When I first joined SAIL, I cross-enrolled so that I can fulfill my desire to work a year ahead in math. However, I was fascinated at how SAIL perfectly executed online learning.

-I learned at my own pace, which was something I was unable to achieve in traditional school, and I learned various important skills including time-management and self-motivation.

-Assignments, quizzes, and projects have been given thought when planning, most notably, opportunities for real-life applications for the subject.

-The exams test critical thinking and proper (written) communication skills.

-Teachers are there to help you whenever you ask.

-The learning platform is layed out in a very professional manner, which supports learning.

Due to the many benefits I have experienced studying with SAIL, I have decided to become a full-time student. Once again, I thank SAIL for all that they have helped me.

Jasmine Daisy C

After searching for an online school that actually TEACHES students & doesn’t simply hand them a stack of online courses & essentially have them teach themselves, we are thrilled to have finally found 1 & it IS NOT Sail Academy.
•No structure to adequately set students up for success.
•No easily accessible teachers as there is NO actual teaching.
•There is no accountability for students whatsoever.
•No proper deadlines.
•Teachers do not properly address legitimate parent or student questions & concerns.
•STUDENTS TEACH THEMSELVES.

Muskaan Jaiswal

As a SteamX student, I would recommend anyone who has the opportunity to go and apply(especially SteamX, since you can drop out next year and still skip a year)
The teachers there are very nice and supportive, and since this program has less kids, you are able to have a better student-teacher relationship. Also, since there is less kids, the budget can be used for stuff like a 3 day camping trip!
The course are great, and I would say that the ability to work and up out textbooks at home is such an added bonus
On the topic of at home learning, every friday, you can choose to go work at school or at your home. First, this is a great option since if you really don't like waking up early, then you don't have to. And second, it makes it feel less like a highschool and more so like university(I wouldn't know, just assuming). The atmosphere of working in a school that's pretty empty is honestly really nice.
Another thing that is only for SteamX is Inquiry. Inquiry are these big project(that count for most of your grade) for each term(so in total, three). As someone who prefer project based learning over standardized tests and stuff like that, this is a huge advantage. Also, these projects really do make you a better critical thinker. Also, these kinds of skills are great for when you are doing projects in university or when you are working.
Lastly, the opportunities to do stuff are always be given. For example, in debate, I was able to get the opportunity to go to provincial. Another example is that for our second Inquiry, its creating a innovation for a big event called "Innovation fair", which could even get you to a regional or national level.

Tl;dr : SteamX is worth doing due to how wonderful of a program it is

Little Drowsy

The stay at home aspects of this school is inviting, personally being bullied throughout schooling it was a comfort to move into a more personal work space, after finding out I had to start working at the beginning of covid I informed the school I’d be trying my best but I’m 16 and only have so much time in my life.
They assumed that I would pay attention to them switching out my science and English teachers consistently for the first 2-4 months which made it hard to keep any communication or even know what was really happening (I emailed an old teacher still thinking they were my teacher) It feels like they barely know what sorting files is and whenever I have emailed it’s taken almost a week for any responses - (Their VP doesn’t do much) if you have a lot of time and money to put into this it’s worth it to not go to public - but spending my lunch breaks at work to figure out if my teacher is still my teacher is a hassle and to re explain living situations to new people all the time is embarrassing and tiring- these people need to learn how to communicate and instead of steeling khan academy videos maybe get a teacher to teach for once. This is disgusting- it would be better to throw a book at your kid and got them to figure it out. At least they wouldn’t have to chase the “adults” down.
This is just very unprofessional and I feel like I’m dealing with a daycare instead of a highscool ?

Power Ranger

This is the worst school I have ever attended. The Course formate is so confusing. Teachers are not helpful at all. It is a joke of a school.

Local Guy

Great concept, but poorly executed. I attempted to study through SAIL a few years ago but found the inconsistencies and errors within the courses, in addition to the slow communication with teachers, to greatly impede being able to work at my own pace. The lessons are full of dead links, old content, semantic and grammatical errors, and errors in lesson continuity.

Recently I signed up for a course, thinking things may have improved, but I was unfortunately wrong. Once again, this (different) course reads like it was written by an ESL student or someone that just cut and pasted a bunch of stuff and never proof read any of it. Besides that, some of the content in quizzes, exercises, and review materials isn't even in the lessons themselves, or is in lessons that are in the NEXT chapter, like it's out of order. Sometimes you'll be given different answers for the same question, which brings me to another thing; Learning guide questions were also not proofread. There are cases where you are asked the same question multiple times in the same exercise or page. There are questions or exercises that even have triple negatives in the way they are written, so you spend twenty minutes messing with mental gymnastics just to answer something simple. I also just did a quiz and it didn't even record my answers. There are so many inconsistencies and ambiguities in the content that I am CONSTANTLY having to take screenshots and send emails to the teacher pointing them out in order to understand the content. I am a student, and I should not have to do this. I am not paid for this work that I shouldn't have to do. Then there is also the issue where you have to wait anywhere between a few days to over a week to hear back. This isn't self-paced. It's a disaster that will bottleneck your efficiency and ability to learn. If you have the time, I would recommend in-person education more than this. Someone needs to audit this thing, or they should at least be hiring people to do the courses in order to correct all this nonsense before they publish them.

Ethan Larsen

Great school and great environment! Teachers are great and nice and they are there 5 days a week. Recommended! Mr. Lepin is the best teacher there.

I do think though that the Compass kids need a little more space so we can access the teachers without having to walk a longer way... we are situated in the computer lab area just across the common area for steam x and steam kids, on the second floor. Would be appreciated if taken into consideration:)

Edit:
I don't know why people are negative towards this school. This is like a university in the sense that the teachers aren't going to baby you through the whole way. If you aren't emailing your teachers or asking for help, its not the schools fault. Currently in grade 12 right now and will be attending KPU next school year.