By Brennan Phillips
Special to the Western News
A local elementary school is on the shortlist for the B.C. and Yukon region for a chance to win $20,000 from Staples in partnership with Earth Day Canada.
West Bench Elementary is one of 10 schools in the British Columbia and Yukon region that was shortlisted. The winner will be chosen based on their commitment to the environment, through teaching and other programs.
At 94 students, the school is the smallest in the district, though that wouldn’t be clear from their efforts. West Bench Elementary boasts an extensive set of environmentally active programs, despite its small size.
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One of the two leading the drive to be more environmentally and physically active at the school, Tanya Thacker, runs an outdoor Kindergarten class. The class pushes for kids to get outside on a daily basis, beyond their usual recess and lunch and other physical programs. The typical topics, such as math or literacy skills, are taught outside in the open environment. There are efforts to expand the program to the rest of the grades covered by the school.
“What we’re realizing, are the benefits of the outdoor Kindergarten. The kids are ready to go outside, rain or shine. They’re eager to go outside, it’s part of their daily life. And one thing we want to encourage, our next step is how to encourage that in our Kindergarten to (Grade) 5.”
For the last few years, West Bench Elementary has been focusing on outdoor initiatives. Their efforts have been driven in large part by teachers Thacker and Michelle Tom. Entering into the Staples Superpower Your School contest was the next logical step, in order to bring both more attention to the school’s efforts, and to potentially earn some money to expand their programs.
“It’s the honour of the work that our teachers here are being recognized for,” said principal Darryl Tenisci. “We’re happy to be finalists. If we win that is great, but even just being shortlisted reaffirms the great work that everyone’s doing in the school.”
This year, the school wide push for greater integration with the outside environment led to students selecting a couple native species and learning about them, their habitat, and some of the threats to them. Tom is behind the co-ordination between West Bench Elementary and UBCO in a program to track the migratory patterns of the Yellow Breasted Chat. After learning about some of the invasive species that have entered into the bird’s habitat, the teachers led a schoolwide harvest, weeding out some of the invasive plants, as well as further clean up during some of their daily hikes.
The students run a school garden, which they helped build and plant last year. During the summer, students and parents maintain the garden for the community. Other initiatives by the school and students include inquiries in West Bench about erosion and water samples by Grade 5 students, two wildlife cameras were rented and set up in the hills to help teach the kids about the various wildlife in the area, the whole school goes on hikes every Friday and three times a week there were cross country ski expeditions.
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If the school wins, they plan to purchase their own wildlife cameras. They also want to acquire some outdoor ready iPads or Chromebooks. Tenisci said the hope is to be able to expand their work with UBCO in tracking the Yellow Breasted Chat, tracking particular birds as they migrate and having students communicate with other students along the path the bird takes with the new electronics.