Healthy Schools Stories

Nanaimo-Ladysmith SD 68 partnered with First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), Naturally Healthy Clinic, and Dr. Sherilene M. Chycoski from Learning Alternatives on a district-wide initiative to reduce the use of non-medicinal tobacco and vape pens among their students. With additional assistance from their Elders, and a workshop from FNHA, students worked on their own personal […]

Gitanyow Independent School used a Healthy Schools BC First Nations School Grant to provide more opportunities for students to learn and connect with Gitxsan foods and food traditions through three activities: The school incorporated more traditional meats into their lunch program. Community members donated locally caught salmon and moose meat over the winter and the […]

Gitsegukla Elementary School used a Healthy Schools BC First Nations School Grant for students to get out on the land and learn about traditional food and medicine gathering techniques. Elders from the Gitsegukla community taught students how to identify, harvest, and prepare plants, mushrooms, and medicines. Elders used the Gitxsan language when they spoke to […]

In the early months of 2020, the Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) Cultural Immersion School piloted their Traditional Food Preservation program. The school hosted two separate hands-on sessions where students and parents learned the traditional techniques of making deer meat jerky. They hoped to have additional sessions in the spring to teach canning techniques, but gathering […]

Fort Babine Community School utilized a Healthy Schools BC First Nations School Grant to host a drum making workshop. The activity complimented their daily Carrier Language and Culture Program where they are taught about personal family clans and house crests. Over three sessions, a visiting artist, along with school support staff, taught students how to […]

I became interested in increasing the fitness and activity levels of students after noticing that many students in my grade 4 class were not able to comfortably go for a moderately long hike on the beach dyke adjacent to our school without experiencing extreme fatigue. After returning to school, they were even less able to engage in the learning process due to this lack of overall fitness. This was surprising because I had originally thought that the fresh air and exercise should have made them more able to engage in learning...

After successfully building a school garden, Greenwood Elementary School decided to make the focus of the next year using the garden to build connections between students, families and the community, while simultaneously promoting healthy eating. They used a Healthy Schools BC Grant to purchase a variety of vegetable seeds, and garden tools, including gloves, trowels, and a rake...

Kitwanga is a small Northern community that has faced extreme economic difficulties in the past with saw mills closing and unemployment rates up to 90% in recent years. As a result, Kitwanga Elementary School has made building students’ resiliency the schools primary focus. One teacher started a cross-grade puppet theatre program as a way of further strengthening students’ social and emotional skills...

A teacher at Beach Grove Elementary used a Healthy Schools BC grant to redesign the physical environment within their classroom. Rather than traditional, individual desks, the classroom was modelled to have several “small living room areas”, with a variety of seating options including couches, rugs, tables, Hokki stools, exercise balls, sensory cushions, and large bean bag chairs...

Students from Ucluelet Secondary School used a Healthy Schools BC Grant to prepare a traditional feast during their Nuu-chah-nulth studies class. Students researched foods that local First Nations would have eaten and the different roles that members of the community would take on during a traditional feast. Students were responsible for procuring food for the feast, which included sockeye salmon, clams, mussels, oysters, prawns and bannock...

It all began when Lucerne Elementary School asked the question, “How will the experience of a forest walk once a week in a multi-age grouping help the overall wellbeing of elementary school students?” This project did not require a grant but merely a commitment from the grade K/1 and grade 4/5/6 classes to spend a few hours every Tuesday walking through the woods...