By Tom Mark

Outdoor Learning For Students In Salmon Arm

Dec 20, 2017 | 12:05 PM

The North Okanagan-Shuswap School District could have an outdoor learning program next fall.

Official trustee Mike McKay has approved a program for kindergarten to grade six.

“We know that kids when they are connected to nature have tremendous opportunities to learn. Lots of kids learn better when they’re connected with activity, physical activity, nature and putting the academic context into more natural settings.”

South Canoe School would be reopened to manage the program and that could help alleviate some overcrowding issues.

“Costing for that versus the costing for portables which would be needed in some of our very crowded salmon Arm schools and if we could mitigate the population of some of those schools by opening up South Canoer we’re going to save some portable costs.”

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South Canoe is located in a rural setting within walking distance of ponds, a city park and a large trail system.

“The physical and natural surroundings very close to the school are pretty fabulous. We also see it as being a hub and an outdoor centre for the district so we see other kids and other classes and other teachers coming and participating as well.”

Reopening the school requires the permission of the Agricultural Land Reserve, but McKay doesn’t expect a problem with that and has asked that that move be expedited.

McKay did express some caution, noting that the district cannot offer transportation to the program.

He says with any program of choice, transportation would be up to parents.

Director of Instruction Carl Cooper put together a comprehensive report on the program.

Cooper explained teacher and principal feedback indicated continued and growing interest in outdoor learning programs, and that more capacity is desired in this area in regard to programs, professional development, and allocation of resources.

He noted parent interest was also very strong with over 1,000 filling in an online survey stating they were interested in an outdoor learning program, 552 parents indicated an interest in enrolling their child in an outdoor learning program of choice.

Further to this, 125 parents attended a parent interest meeting, and 119 submitted ‘intent to register’ forms.

Teachers in existing school-based and district-wide Outdoor Learning programs report a high level of student engagement.

The complete outdoor learning report is available on the district’s website at http://bit.ly/2yYKMAX

by Tom Mark