Your Strong Start to High School
Earn your first credits, build confident study habits, and settle into high school with flexible online learning.
Ministry-Inspected | Ontario Curriculum | Start Anytime
Start High School With a Strong Foundation
Grade 9 sets the tone for the next four years.
Whether you need to:
Earn your first high school credits
Get a head start before September
Build stronger math or English skills
Transition from homeschooling or a new school system
How Grade 9 works at OES
A Simple Path to Earning Your Final Credits
Step 1
Register for your course
Step 2
Access lessons immediately
Step 3
Submit assignments with teacher feedback
Step 4
Complete your final evaluation online
Write your proctored online exam from anywhere.
Step 5
Receive official Ontario credit
Credits are recorded on your Ontario Student Transcript (OST).
How your final mark in calculated
OES tracks attendance through your weekly online activity, and participation is assessed through reflections. Final exams are proctored online through OES at no extra cost.
Grades 9 & 10
How the final mark is calculated from September 2026
65%
Coursework
25%
Final eval.
15%
Attend.
65% Coursework
20% Mandatory final evaluation
15% Attendance & participation
Most popular grade 9 university prerequisites
These courses are commonly required for university programs. All courses are self-paced and available year-round.
Proven Results for
Grade 9 Students
98%
of our students
find OES teachers to be responsive and supportive
10,000+
students
served since 2017
85%
of our students
earn honour roll marks
In 2026 Our Students Have Been Accepted By
Hear From Our Students
Thousands of students have successfully earned credits through OES.
Alumni Review from Alina Chowdhury
Watch an alum review by Alina Chowdhury, a former Ontario eSecondary School (OES) student. Alina appreciated the self-paced, flexible learning environment that OES provided
Alumni Review from Bilal Bacchus
Watch Bilal Bacchus, an alum of Ontario eSecondary School, share his experience. He appreciated the regular teacher check-ins and quick response times, which differed from his previous school.
Alumni Review from Mignon Conradie
Watch Mignon Conradie, an alum of Ontario eSecondary School, share her experiences and insights about the school.
Flexible Learning, Real Results
Real students, real success—see how OES’s flexible learning and expert support helped them achieve their goals.
Learning at my own pace gave me the opportunity to achieve my goal.
Kennedy Schneider
I had a great experience with Ontario eSecondary School. Having the ability to learn at my own pace gave me the opportunity to achieve my goal while focusing on other responsibilities. Highly recommend if you are considering on upgrading your grades.
OES helped me complete this course with an outstanding grade.
Colin Poole
I needed to obtain a credit in grade 12 chemistry in order to pursue my dream career in the military and the Ontario eSecondary school helped me successfully complete this course with an outstanding grade.
My teacher gave me my final grade in time for the deadline.
Ella Molstad
I was able to get the credits I needed for my program at my own pace, and by the end of it, my teacher was able to grade it all super quickly and give me my final grade in time for the deadline!
Not sure which course you need?
Our guidance counsellors can help you:
- Choose the right courses
- Understand graduation requirements
- Plan your university pathway
- Upgrade your admission average
Still Have Questions?
Supported by Ontario Certified Teachers
Ontario Grade 9 core courses are de-streamed — there is no longer a choice between academic and applied; every student takes the same course, marked with a W, as in MTH1W (Mathematics), SNC1W (Science) and ENL1W (English). Streaming decisions begin in Grade 10 instead. That makes Grade 9 selection straightforward: the compulsory subjects plus options, with no pathway commitment yet.
The core Grade 9 year is English (ENL1W), de-streamed Mathematics (MTH1W), Science (SNC1W), Canadian Geography (CGC1W) and French (FSF1O or FSF1D), typically alongside options such as arts, family studies, or business. Students who started Grade 9 in 2024 or later also need a Grade 9 or 10 Technological Education credit as a compulsory graduation requirement — OES offers TGJ2O Communication Technology for this. All of these are available online at OES.
Starting with the 2026–27 school year, Grade 9 marks in English, math and science are built from 65% coursework, a mandatory written final exam worth 20%, and 15% for attendance and participation; other subjects split the final-evaluation portion between an exam and a project. For many Grade 9 students this is their first formal written exam. OES courses have always ended in a proctored final exam, so students here practise the format from their first credit — and attendance is met with a simple weekly login, with participation set out in each course outline.
It depends on the student, and the structure helps more than most parents expect. Each course has a clear lesson sequence, an assigned Ontario Certified Teacher giving feedback within days, unlimited 24/7 tutoring through Paper Tutoring, and a recommended rhythm of two to three logins per week, with at least one weekly login recorded as attendance. Many families start with a single course alongside regular school to test the fit before committing further.
Yes. Ontario allows capable Grade 8 students to “reach ahead” into secondary credits, and OES has a dedicated pathway for this. It suits students working above grade level, since no timetable forces them to wait for a September cohort. Placement is confirmed through assessment, and the credit counts toward the OSSD when the student formally enters Grade 9.
Yes. Students who started Grade 9 in the 2020–21 school year or later need at least two online learning credits for the OSSD, and credits earned at a Ministry-inspected online school like OES qualify. Taking them in Grade 9 clears the requirement early, before the heavier senior years.
Ontario course codes encode subject, grade and pathway. The first three letters identify the subject (ENL for English, MTH for Mathematics), the fourth character is the grade — 1 for Grade 9 through 4 for Grade 12 — and the final letter is the stream: W for de-streamed Grade 9, D for academic, P for applied, then U, C, M and O in senior years. So MTH1W is Grade 9 de-streamed Mathematics.