Department Overview
About Us:
We are grateful to be working and learning on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw and St'át'y'emc Nations. We acknowledge historical and current events that have impacted and continue to impact Indigenous communities. We are committed to engaging in learning and work that supports truth and reconciliation.
We support children and families from birth to eight years of age. We provide rich, authentic, and holistic learning experiences that foster the development of the whole child.
Department Vision:
We work to ensure children experience joy and feel a sense of belonging at school. We help children develop social-emotional skills and positive relationships with others. We believe that all children are capable and have gifts to share. We build on children's strengths and allow children to learn and grow at their own unique pace. We acknowledge children's innate sense of wonder and curiosity and find creative ways to engage children in play and inquiry through multimodal, meaningful, and collaborative learning opportunities. We build capacity for self-reflection, critical thinking, and problem-solving. We empower children to take responsibility for their thinking, learning, and actions and we encourage children to be active participants and contributors in their classroom and school communities.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Personalization:
In alignment with our Education Plan, we believe that safe, purposeful, and powerful learning environments are built on the enduring understandings that inclusion is a right, diversity is a strength, and personalization is the way forward.
We value all children and families. We nurture inclusive communities and spaces. We work to ensure that all children have equal opportunities at school. We are committed to engaging children with personally relevant and flexible learning, empowering them to acquire the competencies vital for success in their future. We help children deepen their connection to self, family, community, land, culture, and broader perspectives.
We acknowledge and celebrate diversity in our classrooms. Children in diverse classrooms live, learn, work, and play together. In diverse environments, children are both supported by and supportive of one another. We help children acknowledge and consider different perspectives to build critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
We design thoughtful and purposeful learning opportunities for all children through a strength-based approach. This helps children learn about themselves and grow over time. Through self-reflective practices, children develop their voice and leadership capacity and become authors of their learning journey.
Prosocial and Multi-Age Learning Environments:
Research has shown that learning environments impact children's social emotional competence. Our classrooms are prosocial environments where multi-age children work together to think critically, create, collaborate, contribute and learn, all while enhancing the social emotional skills that benefit children in multiple ways.