Enrichment · Grades 1 to 12
Enrichment that goes deeper, not just faster.
If your child is ahead, curious or bored, more of the same won’t help. We find where they really are, close any gaps their speed has hidden, then give them harder problems, a real audience and work worth their time.
- Grades 1 to 12
- One mentor
- Mapped to the Ontario curriculum
- Coming soon to Ottawa
Who it’s for
Ahead, curious or bored? Each one is a reason to go deeper.
Situations parents often describe. Any one of them is worth a conversation.
Finishes the worksheet first, then waits.
The speed is real, but waiting teaches a child that school isn’t for them. They need work that asks more, not more of the same.
“It’s boring.”
Sometimes the work is too easy. Sometimes boredom hides a gap they’d rather not show. The diagnostic tells the two apart.
Asks questions the class has no time for.
Curiosity deserves somewhere to go: a project, a hard problem, a question worth researching.
Top marks, but never stuck.
A child who has never had to struggle hasn’t learned what to do when something is hard. Enrichment gives them problems worth being stuck on.
Wants to try a math contest, a debate or a science fair.
We help them prepare from the skills up, not by memorizing answers.
Quick in math, slower to explain why.
Fast answers can sit on shaky reasoning. Depth means they can explain it, prove it and use it.
Recognize your child here? A diagnostic assessment is the first step, and it will be free for founding families. See how Hikmah approaches it
How we approach it
Depth before speed, then room to go further.
The same six steps as every Hikmah program, set for a child who is ready for more.
The diagnostic
Where they really are
A diagnostic assessment finds how far ahead your child is, subject by subject, and how they think when a problem is new.
The root
Gaps speed has hidden
Fast workers can skip steps and still get answers. We check the foundations underneath and close any gap before building higher.
The plan
A written learning plan that goes deeper
Mapped to the Ontario curriculum for their grade and beyond it: harder problems, a contest or a project, chosen with your child.
One mentor
A mentor who stretches them
One mentor who knows your child by name, asks the next hard question and lets them work through being stuck.
Mastery checks
Move on once it’s mastered
Mastery-based pacing: when a mastery check shows a skill is secure, your child moves on, not when the calendar says. We come back to it weeks later.
Updates and the +
A monthly update, and the +
What they mastered and what’s next, every month. The + is the point: contests, debate, writing for a real audience and real projects.
A session · Enrichment · Mei, Grade 6
- Warm-up puzzleOne problem, several ways in.
- Why it worksDividing fractions, drawn and explained.
- Hard problemsNew problems: stuck, then unstuck.
- Mastery checkFresh questions, one explained.
- The +: her proposalHer chess club survey results.
Contests, debate and projects
Places to take it further, prepared from the skills up.
Outside challenges a mentor can help your child prepare for. Hikmah doesn’t run any of them; your child enters through their school or the organizer.
Math
Math contests
Many schools take part in math contests, usually written at school, and some welcome keen students from lower grades. Ask your child’s teacher which ones their school offers and who can enter.
At Hikmah
- Contest-style problems, once the grade’s skills are secure
- Full solutions written out, so every step can be followed
- Every miss traced to the skill underneath
Computing
Computing contests
Some schools also offer computing contests. Some introduce computer science through puzzles that need only the math your child already knows; others ask for working programs.
At Hikmah
- Logic puzzles and step-by-step thinking first
- Programs your child writes and can explain line by line
- Bugs traced like math errors, back to the idea underneath
Grades 1 to 12 · Writing and speaking
Writing and speaking for a real audience
Work with a real reader or listener: a letter to a city councillor, an article for the school paper, a talk for families.
At Hikmah
- A plan before the draft, then revision with feedback
- Practice runs in front of a small audience first
- Help preparing for a writing or speaking contest your child chooses
Thinking and leadership · Debate
Debate
A debate asks your child to build a case, back it with evidence and answer the other side, live. If their school has a debate club, that’s a fine place to use it.
At Hikmah
- Claim, reason and evidence, one argument at a time
- Stating the other side fairly before answering it
- Debates in front of families, in the Thinking and leadership program
Science and engineering
Science fairs
Many schools hold a science fair, and strong projects can go on to regional and national fairs. Students present their projects to judges and answer their questions.
At Hikmah
- A real question your child chooses, and a fair test to answer it
- A logbook, data and a display that explains them
- Practice answering a judge’s questions
Grades 1 to 12 · The +
Real projects, and Thinking and leadership
Every Hikmah plan has a project for a real audience, from a family recipe book to a pitch to local business owners. For a child who wants more, the Thinking and leadership program adds logic, debate, ethics, entrepreneurship and AI literacy.
At Hikmah
- A project chosen with your child, for a real audience
- AI used as a tool your child directs, and checks
- On its own or alongside any program
Hikmah doesn’t run any contest or fair. Grades, dates and rules change each year, so check with your child’s school or the organizer.
How it’s different
Faster keeps them busy. Deeper keeps them thinking.
Two ways to stretch a child who is ahead: moving faster through the next chapter, or going deeper first.
| Faster | Tutoring+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Starts with | The next chapter | A diagnostic that checks the foundations too |
| Goes further by | Doing more, faster | Going deeper: proof, harder problems, a real audience |
| Moves on when | The worksheet is done | A mastery check shows the skill is secure |
| Earlier skills | Assumed to be secure | Checked, and any gap closed first |
| Beyond this week | More advanced material | Contests, debate, writing and projects |
Illustrative example. Session plans and lengths will be shared with founding families before we open.
What you receive
You’ll see how far they’ve gone, and how deep.
Plain words, from the person who knows your child’s work.
- After the diagnostic
- How far ahead your child is in each subject, how they handle a new problem and any gaps underneath.
- A written learning plan
- Depth first, then pace, mapped to the Ontario curriculum, with the contest, debate or project your child chose.
- A progress update every month
- Skills mastered, the project’s next step and one thing to try at home.
- A mentor to talk to
- The same person every time, who knows how your child thinks.
The research
What the research says about depth and pace.
Hikmah hasn’t opened, so we have no results of our own yet. Here is what other researchers found, in their own terms. An effect size shows how big a difference is in a way studies can share: by a common rule of thumb, 0.2 is small, 0.5 moderate and 0.8 large.
Mastery before moving on
Across 108 controlled evaluations, 91 of them college courses, mastery learning programs improved final exam scores by an average effect size of 0.52, a moderate gain: the typical student in a mastery class scored higher than about 70% of students in the comparison classes. On standardized tests the effects were much smaller.
At Hikmah: The study didn’t look at children who are ahead. We apply the same rule both ways: no moving on over a hidden gap, and no waiting once a mastery check shows a skill is secure.
Moving ahead
A synthesis of earlier meta-analyses, covering about a century of research, found that, in three overlapping meta-analyses, accelerated students outperformed non-accelerated students of the same age by an effect size of g = 0.70, a fairly large gain, and did about as well as older non-accelerated students (g = 0.09, close to no difference and not statistically significant). Three other meta-analyses found a moderate overall benefit (g = 0.42). These studies looked at acceleration in school, not at tutoring.
At Hikmah: Grade placement is a decision for your child’s school. What we will do is let your child move through material at the pace their mastery checks show, and tell you plainly where they are.
Debate, then writing
In one middle school, students who argued social questions with classmates over three years, mostly in online chats, then wrote, produced essays that weighed both sides more often than a comparison group that wrote more essays. The study was small (48 and 23 students).
At Hikmah: In the Thinking and leadership program, children argue a question with others, then write about it.
Questions from parents
What parents ask about enrichment.
My child is bored at school. Does that mean they need enrichment?
Sometimes. Boredom can mean the work is too easy, and it can also hide a gap a child would rather not show. The diagnostic tells the two apart, and the plan follows from what it finds.
Will you teach my child next year’s material?
When a skill is secure, yes: your child moves on, with a mastery check at each step. But we go deeper before we go faster, so harder problems, proof and real use come first.
Is enrichment only for older children?
No. For younger children it’s mostly depth: puzzles, problems with more than one answer, reading and writing that go further, and small projects.
Can you help my child prepare for a math contest?
Yes, as part of their learning plan. Contests are run by their organizers, and many are written at school, so ask your child’s teacher which ones their school takes part in. Hikmah doesn’t run any contest.
Does my child need to be identified as gifted?
No. Enrichment at Hikmah is for any child who is ready for more in a subject, with or without a formal identification. If your child has an IEP or has been identified by their school, share it with us and we’ll plan around it.
Is enrichment available in French?
Hikmah will be bilingual from the day it opens, and sessions will be in English or French. How sessions in French will run will be shared with founding families before we open. If your child wants to write a contest in French, check with the organizer which languages it’s offered in.
Can it be combined with another program?
Yes. Enrichment can be part of any Hikmah program, and the Thinking and leadership program works on its own or alongside Elementary, Middle years or High school.
Where to go next