UPFRONT

KRISTIN SCHNELTEN

Classroom in a Park

Blue Mountain Wild School takes learning outside

It’s 9 a.m. on a mid-December morning, and Blue Mountain Wild School parents are lazily rolling in for dropoff. Traipsing through the trees to morning circle, kids bouncing off one another and teachers following behind, the scene feels less school day and more summer camp—with lots of layers.

At morning circle the entire student body (about 45 children, kindergarten through Grade 6) gathers to ready themselves for the day ahead: warm-up exercises, “O Canada,” class updates, announcements and a gleeful lap from the birthday boy and his class.

Afterward, students break into grades and head to classrooms. Not ready yet to settle into desks, they pause only to gear up for the morning hike: notebooks, pencils, maybe some extra mitts.

Every morning at Wild School starts in the same fashion, no matter the weather: Play for a bit. Gather together. Take a hike. Then back in the classroom to focus on long-term projects. Maybe it’s a unit study on lesser-known Canadians or a comparison of life in the Arctic versus Antarctic.

“At the beginning of every month the teachers sit down with the students and brainstorm, asking, ‘What do you want to learn about?’” says Director of Education Brayden Plummer. “When students are engaged in the topic, they are excited about learning. You still hit the same Ontario curriculum expectations, but they’re taking the lead. We’re going to teach writing, whether we’re writing about penguins or Vikings. Giving them that ownership of the topic is huge.”

“It’s a living curriculum, a new model we call natural education,” says Founder and Executive Director Jeff Barrett. “It’s the path of least resistance; it’s how our brains want to learn. And it’s easier for the teachers to teach children who are engaged. It’s harder in some ways, because they’re having to constantly build curriculum, but we give them extra prep time, and they love the process.”

But academics is only one piece of the puzzle. “You’ve got to focus more on the physicality, the emotional side of it,” adds Barrett. “Moving from indoors to outdoors throughout the day is critical, trying to really connect with nature. Research shows the effects of nature are profound: cognition, brain development, reduction of stress, improvement of happiness.”

Located south of Heathcote on 100 acres of mixed forest and fields connected to conservation lands, the school’s separate pods—a mixture of new buildings and geodesic domes—create what Barrett calls “classrooms in a park,” including outdoor learning spaces with rain and sun protection in warmer weather and kilometres of hiking and ski trails.

“What we’re demonstrating here is a new model of education. And we’re hoping this is going to start to take root, to influence other programs and teachers,” says Barrett.

“It’s just this win-win-win model. Kids are out of their desks, off their screens; they’re healthy, active, engaged. And the result is happy students who are loving learning, and having a ball doing it.” –Kristin Schnelten

Learn more about Blue Mountain Wild School’s educational philosophy and programming at www.wildschool.ca