Optimism is in the air in the North Okanagan-Shuswap School District.
The district, which had long struggled with declining enrollment and the looming threat of school closures, has been able to open a new elementary school in South Canoe.
The newly reopened South Canoe Elementary now houses an outdoor learning program.
That means students will spend a significant part of their school hours outdoors throughout the year.
Principal Isabelle Gervais estimates students will spend a quarter to three-quarters of their time at school outside.
“Being outside is a healthy place to be. It’s just a place where kids can be curious; they can ask questions and they can move a lot,” Gervais said.
Gervais said taking kids outdoors brings them into the real natural conditions that teachers in traditional schools often want to recreate in their classrooms.
“If you are taking about a pond, you don’t have to create that aquarium, that pond in your classroom; you actually have the outdoor environment to go study,” Gervais said.
After two days at the outdoor school, Grade 5 student Keegan said he likes the alternative learning style.
“I don’t like just sitting listening to someone talk,” said Keegan. “I like exploring and having fun outside instead of sitting at a desk listening to someone talk.”
North Okanagan-Shuswap School District growing
Opening the new school is a big change for the school district and the local area.
It’s been roughly 15 years since the South Canoe area had its own elementary school.
The district closed South Canoe Elementary as a school in 2003 because of declining enrollment.
Also, it was only a few years ago that the district had a difficult conversations about the possibility of closing other schools in the region. That was something the district was ultimately able to avoid.
However, that history adds significance to the re-opening of South Canoe Elementary this week.
“It’s exciting. It is a lot more fun to open a school and have the energy of opening a school than talk to a community about losing their school,” said the district’s assistant superintendent, Carl Cooper.
Cooper said due in large part to new families moving into the region, the district has added hundreds of additional students in the last few years.
One hundred and one students are already enrolled at South Canoe Elementary, and the district expects it will reach capacity as more children are enrolled.
However, the district is not concerned the new school will cause student levels at other schools to drop to a point where any of the schools are unsustainable.
“In this area, particularly where most of our students came from, we are already pushing the boundaries of space. So what it has actually done is relieve some space challenges at our other schools,” Cooper said.
The district is now able to say it is not entertaining the idea of closing any schools.
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