Collingwood School opened its doors on September 10, 1984. The School was founded by an intrepid group of parents seeking an excellent education for their children. Their vision became a reality through their efforts, and their commitment to excellence prevails to this day throughout the Collingwood community. A Collingwood School education creates infinite opportunities for our students to excel. Our Four Strand approach—academics, athletics, arts, and service— is delivered through university preparatory programs that are collaborative, interdisciplinary, relevant, and pioneering. Our graduates will join the global community as critical thinkers who are resilient, socially conscious, and prepared to make the most of their opportunities.
Knowing our students is integral to understanding them, motivating them, supporting them, and making wise choices while working with them. Every Collingwood student is known well by several adults at the School — not just their names, but importantly, their nature. These significant connections enable our faculty and staff to teach with more precision, counsel with more confidence, empathize with more insight, and direct with more meaning. Hundreds of times a year, teachers meet with their students with no other agenda than discussing their welfare and progress. Through considerable cross-referencing based on firsthand knowledge, we put rational plans in place for each student's success. These plans work because we know our students very well.
Once we accept students into the School, we accept the responsibility to care unconditionally for them as if they were our children. This commitment to care is centered around teachers but extends to every member of the faculty, support staff, and administration. We have a tacit yet steadfast contract with our parents: ensure that the young people entrusted to our care are safe, valued, respected, surrounded by good role models, and given every possibility to succeed solely through their merit. Simply put, we are not just about how Amin and Ava are doing in math but also how they are doing in life.
We know a school is only as good as its professional teaching faculty. We pour significant resources in recruiting, retaining, and refreshing our teachers. We look for teachers who are captivating technicians in the classroom and passionate advocates for their subject. Importantly, we also search for teachers who buy into a culture that says their influence and duty does not end at 3:15 p.m. Collingwood teachers embrace the long hours and the unglamorous parts of the job because they like the intrinsic thrill of changing young lives. Once we have the right teachers, we safeguard these incredible assets by ensuring they are adequately paid, celebrated often, and given exciting and relevant opportunities to grow professionally.
We are in a vital collaboration with our parents. Like all moms and dads, we want the best — in the broadest sense — for the children entrusted to us for six or seven hours a day. This association is symbiotic and symbolic, and children need to know that home and school are on the same team. Fundamentally, Collingwood needs parental support to be active, and parents need Collingwood communication to be supportive. There can be no surprises and no confusing messages when it comes to home and school dialogue. It all comes down to timely, honest communication — most of which pivots around a reliable guidance and counseling system at Collingwood.
What we do as educators are neither minor nor easy. School is only one factor in a child's development, but we know we can have a profound effect on children, and we choose to do it without fanfare or pretension. We openly concede we do not have all the answers in dealing with young people and retain faculty and staff who embrace the inherent peaks and valleys in dealing with kids. Our faculty and staff genuinely enjoy working with young people, because it is fulfilling, fun, often unpredictable, and at times noble.
All children have an equal right to be valued and nurtured as individuals. As educators, our mission is to provide a secure environment that fosters children's natural curiosities and encourages them to become independent learners. Through a negotiated curriculum and in close collaboration with parents, we celebrate each child's unique contributions.
The early years of a child's education are foundational in developing a love of learning, care, and compassion for others and an open and creative mind. Our dynamic early childhood educators provide many opportunities for children to construct their identities socially and emotionally while also building a strong classroom community that reinforces a child's sense of belonging. The environment is designed for the free flow of activities to spark children's imaginations and take their enthusiasm for learning to new levels. We value play, creative expression, exploring and interacting with nature, and have many opportunities to take part in excursions beyond the classroom. Our early primary program evolves through a project-based, inquiry approach that varies according to the children's interests. We realize the importance of providing a nurturing, inspiring environment, rich with opportunities for discovery for the youngest members of our school community.
Students learn in a secure, vibrant, and enriching atmosphere where a strong school spirit, a sense of belonging, and pride of accomplishment prevail. With a dedicated faculty, all students participate in Academics, Arts, Athletics, and Service — our Four Strands — which are essential to a good education and a well-rounded citizen.
Ranked as one of the top five university preparatory schools in British Columbia, Collingwood retains a national reputation for speech and debate, the performing arts, outdoor education, local and global service projects, and a fully developed Advanced Placement program.
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