About Our School Name
The Northern Lights form above the magnetic poles in the Northern (aurora borealis) and Southern (aurora australis) hemispheres, leading to a display of vibrant colours. Some Indigenous peoples believed that the lights indicated the location of manabai’wok (giants) who were the spirits of great hunters and fishermen. Some believed the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted; while others believed they were the spirits of their people.
Vision and Mission
Our Vision is a school community where all children feel loved, respected and encouraged to develop to their fullest potential.
Our Mission is to provide high-quality learning experiences in a respectful, collaborative environment that builds the skills and mindset for life-long learning, independence, and resilience. Learning will be explored through the lenses of Peace Education, Environmental Education, and Design Thinking.
We will aim to provide the safe, welcoming and inclusive atmosphere required to create a sense of belonging where all children from diverse family and cultural backgrounds are acknowledged and respected. Our vision and mission statements will act as a guiding north star as we aim to make decisions that live up to these statements and help our students become bright, dancing lights like those of the aurora.
Why Peace Education?
Peace Education:
- promotes positive relationship building across the school population
- allows student leaders to support school initiatives
- includes a variety of citizenship-building activities and opportunities to support others locally, nationally and globally in the future
- helps students to extend the acceptance of all by all - to ensure this doesn't become a 'story of childhood' but rather an enduring life experience
- helps children understand they are always capable of accepting, honouring and valuing the existence of all humans - including themselves
- leverages the natural innocence and acceptance of children into expansive, shared experiences where learning frames connections rather than divisive distinctions between people
- fosters dialogue, exchange of ideas and promote empathy for all
- helps children understand all humans must have love, attention, care and connection to survive - without each other, no one can live and grow. We are a dependent species - we need each other and we need the best of each other to thrive and grow successfully
- provides a consistent language of positive conflict resolution where our problems challenge us to think differently, exercise empathy and seek the best possible resolutions for everyone, not just a privileged few
- helps children learn to share their ideas and experiences comfortably and to accept, listen to and honour the ideas and experiences being shared with them as well
- teaches children to honour all cultures and communities and share the essential skills, strategies and resources needed to live successfully side-by-side in a world that can successfully sustain all human life (regardless of where we were born, our culture, gender, age, occupation, education or ability
