École Peter Greer Elementary School
École Peter Greer Elementary School, situated at 10300 Sherman Drive in East Winfield, opened in November 1992. The official opening took place on January 28, 1993.
The school, built to accommodate 550 pupils, consists of eighteen classrooms. The Award-Winning Design of this school utilizes the "Project Area" concept and offers built-in flexibility in order to maximize educational delivery and opportunities.
This school is built like a series of cubes around the central foyer and each classroom opens to a shared project area. This school has interconnected rooms and conventional hallways in various shapes. The design provides for natural light to all major spaces in the building by the use of bay windows, clerestories and skylights.
École Peter Greer Elementary School offers students a dual track system of English and French Immersion. The school is fully prepared for the new educational challenges of the future. The school logo is an eagle, and the school motto is “Soaring for Excellence.”
École Peter Greer Elementary School is named after a longtime member of the Lake Country community. He was appointed Principal of Springvalley Secondary School in 1975 and retired from teaching in 1981. He was elected to the Board of Trustees, School District #23 (Central Okanagan) in 1983 and served as Chairman of the Building and Maintenance Committee and Chairman of the Board of Trustees until 1990.
In recent years, École Peter Greer has been working on our ongoing committment to take action towards truth and reconciliation with our Indigenous community. PGE is located in the unceded, traditional, and ancestral territory of the Syilx Okanagan People and part of our cathcment area includes Okanagan Indian Band territory (Duck Lake Reserve). It is important for our staff and students to maintain a positive relationship with these community members.
In March 2023, PGE admin presented the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) with an idea to collaborate with Syilx artist, David Wilson Sookinakin, to reimagine the clipart eagle image that dons the school gym, the uniforms and all the branded material—a reminder of the colonial present. Together they collaborated to apply for a grant from the Artist in the Classroom Program and were successfully awarded $8,000 for the project.
The project is a collaborative effort between teachers, our Indigenous Advocate Rose Alexis, and our PAC. We hope that by weaving together art and story, students will come to gain a deeper appreciation not only about this space and place but also the importance of eagle. The deliberate scaffolding of the project will help students to work towards co-created projects and an opportunity to display their work in the school—a reminder of the student’s and school’s commitment to reconciliation.
Working with David, and local storytellers, we would like to introduce students to captikʷł, a collection of teachings about Syilx Okanagan laws, customs, values, governance structures and principles that, together, define and inform Syilx Okanagan rights and responsibilities to the land. David will provide experiences that support students as they navigate the ideation process, providing technical instruction to realize their works. Students will also collaborate with peers, creating a cohesive body of work that intersects with the learnings from the captikʷł. The students and artist will also co-create a piece of artwork that can be displayed at the school. Students will also have opportunities to hear stories about eagles from our Librarian, engage with provocations boxes and loose parts to explore their own understanding about eagle and their habitat. There will also be an exhibition where student artists will have the opportunity to speak about their work.
A big thanks to the PAC for their support with this grant! PGE was also the recipient of the Partnership Recognition and Exploration Fund from UBC in the amount of $1,500 to bridge small resource gaps, enabling community partners to forge reciprocal relationships with the university. Funds from the Partnership Recognition and Exploration Fund will be used to support the Co-Creating a New Understanding of Eagles.
In June 2024, our team met to discuss a continuation of our work in this area. A new theme was chosen, and this year's school-wide inquiry is called 'Welcoming the Salmon." "Welcoming the Salmon” builds off last year's inquiry titled "Change is in the Air." We will again collaborate with and alongside Syilx artists, chefs, and the Syilx community to deepen students' respect and reverence for the waterways and the salmon.
This work is a demonstration of our school's commitment to Truth and Reconciliation, in particular call to action 63. Educators and leaders in education have a moral and legal obligation to take action for truth and reconciliation. This work shows that our students, our staff, and our community, alongside our Indigenous friends can make the call to action come to life, specifically:
· Engaging in learning about residential schools, treaties, and Indigenous Peoples' and their historical and contemporary contributions to Canada.
· Integrating Indigenous knowledge into our instruction and learning.
· Sharing our learning as we are doing together today
· And building cultural competency, empathy, and mutual respect among students.
