Looking Back at Three Years of Lions Bay School

Friday, 25 June 2010 17:00 Written by Pieter Dorsman

After three years at the helm of the Lions Bay School PAC (Parent Advisory Council) it is time for me to move on and say goodbye to a job I not only enjoyed, but which opened me up to a new set of experiences that in the end were deeply meaningful. There are a few things I want to highlight and that I want to leave with the Lions Bay community before I move on. I hope it will inspire all residents, parents or not, to continue to support our great school in the years ahead.

Anything and Everything.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about our school is the never-ending process of learning, which of course includes the usual reading, math and science menu, but more importantly anything and everything beyond that. The range of activities and people visiting the school to help a new generation on its way is breathtaking, and here is a small selection of what I saw over the past three years:

Musicals, pioneer projects, tennis, badminton, salmon hatching, owls, field trips, cultural events, Olympians, musicians, talent shows, visiting MPs, Terry Fox runs, Jump Rope for Heart, sport days, beach days, walk-to-school challenges, drawing and painting everything from Pablo Picasso to Vincent van Gogh to Jesse Reno, fairy tale projects, indoor hockey, mountain bikers, visits to Gleneagles, the planetarium, hikes, Paralympic events, school site clean-ups: you name it, it was all offered by the school and its enthusiastic and committed staff. And if some extra money was required to make it happen, the PAC somehow found it.

All of this contributes to a level of excitement and energy that you can sense walking up on Bayview Road every morning well before the school bell rings. It is creating a group of children that is so well-prepared and so well-grounded that when they line up for that bus to take them to Grade 4 at Gleneagles, you know they will do well in the bigger world.

Not Typical 
And so, located in the forest with a nice playground, a low student to teacher ratio, a very supportive parent community and healthy snacks and hot lunches twice a week, Lions Bay School is, as we say, ‘not typical’. After a walk with my daughters through downtown Vancouver a few years ago I realized we had to expose our children to the other side of life here in BC and that somehow is easily missed if you live in Lions Bay. So, the PAC initiated an outreach program that seeks to connect our students with less privileged situations around us. Strongly supported by the school staff and parents we have now established a long-term relationship with Quest Food Exchange. Quest focuses in particular on recycling food that would otherwise go to waste and collect and redistribute these foods to hungry and less fortunate people in the Lower Mainland. Our key objective was to do something our children could connect with and learn from while at the same helping out in a way that is more meaningful than just writing a cheque.

Next school year we will see a formal launch of this unique relationship (we are, proudly, the first school in BC to team up with Quest), monthly activities tied to the school’s curriculum as well as a visit to Quest’s facility in Vancouver.

The Future 
We are part of the West Vancouver School District, one of the few districts in BC that has managed to keep its books in decent shape and horror stories of school closures and drastic cutbacks do not really apply to our district. However, changing budgets and spending priorities at the provincial level do force us to creatively plan for the future and private initiatives will increasingly play a part in building and maintaining learning facilities. Here the parents and the Lions Bay community can play a significant part in finding new and untested solutions to finance and support our school. The way the funding for our new playground came together in 2007-08 is a key example of that.

As part of the community centre initiatives an extension to the school gym is considered, the school will go wireless and start using laptops for students and we will see a level of population growth in the Sea-to-Sky corridor that may enlarge the school’s enrolment or even the size and grade levels offered at the school altogether. This is all very exciting and by being pro-active we can shape the many changes that will roll through our village and school in the years ahead.

Our School, Our Lifeblood 
Above all what I found is that the school is Lions Bay’s lifeblood. It brings in new and young families who in turn contribute and enrich village life. And absent a village square and a pub, we socialize, catch up on the latest gossip, do business and make new friends at and around the school. Yes, the school is one of the more important hubs of our life in the village.

The truth is that we only have a very short window to be part of this unique experience, so close to home. After grade three our children are off to West Vancouver’s schools and that may be the reason why we pack all our excitement and commitment in those few years at Lions Bay School.

All in all it brings me to that one thing that is often said about Lions Bay School, ‘it is the best school in the world’. I have lived it for three years and tested it, and yes, I cannot conceive of a K to 3 educational experience that is any better than what we have here in Lions Bay.

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