If the church provides the community with an opportunity for spiritual self-determination and the preservation of religious traditions, then the Russian-speaking school for immigrant children has become a way to nurture love for their native language, history, and culture. "The people we work with strive to maintain their group and ethnic identity, as well as everything they brought with them," says Tatyana Kruglikova, director of the Saturday Russian school "Gramota." Almost 20 years ago, a graduate of the philological faculty of Moscow State University founded the first educational institution in Canada focused on the basic Russian curriculum. Today, more than 500 children study at the school. "On the American continent, the desire for one's roots is expressed more strongly than among immigrants in Europe. Therefore, they want their child to receive a solid Russian education in mathematics, Russian language, literature, history of Russia and the world, geography, and musical culture, in addition to local education," she explains.

The school has 30 classes, including early development groups, two preparatory levels, all elementary grades, 6 classes of middle and high school, a Russian speech class, and a college preparation class. Children study using modern Russian textbooks and special didactic materials for Russian schools abroad, and the teaching staff could make some universities envious. The school also offers painting clubs, Russian folk crafts, dance, choir, and theater studios, as well as a karate section.

Parents with Soviet or Russian education are often dissatisfied with the Canadian high school curriculum, which falls short in almost all subjects, especially mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Therefore, in the Russian school, students study not only language and literature but also the exact sciences. As a result, French and English teachers in high schools and colleges note that Russian students are very strong in mathematics. Children complain that they are hardly taught world history in Canada, but year after year they study the history of their provinces. This gap is filled in the Russian school.