Strategic Plan
Welcome to Project Future
In spring 2020, amid an emerging global pandemic, we established and shared our ‘Strategic Guiding Principles’ to help us navigate uncharted waters and guide decision-making. With these principles in place, Shawnigan has met the challenges of COVID-19 with resilience, imagination and courage.
Through efforts to formulate a new Shawnigan strategic plan, we had previously consulted our community and commissioned three reports, “OurShawnigan Strategic Consultation”, “The Bernstein Review of Experiential Learning” and “The Shawnigan Alumni Survey”, which all demonstrated a clear strategic path forward for our School.
With these reports as a foundation, our original intent was to establish a 10-year strategic plan to steer Shawnigan through to 2030. However, in the face of a global pandemic, we have instead established immediate strategic priorities for the crucial next two years. These priorities will safeguard the School, allow us to be nimble and innovative in uncertain and disruptive times, and serve as a springboard into the decade ahead.
Shawnigan is using the challenges and opportunities of this time to catalyze progress, accelerate innovation and initiatives, and develop a distinct and unique Shawnigan value proposition. We hope you will join us on the exciting journey ahead.
The Circle of Purpose, Mission and Values
Strategy starts with knowing one's purpose. We have worked with our community of students, staff, parents, alumni, and Governors
to establish exciting new statements of purpose, mission, and values.
to establish exciting new statements of purpose, mission, and values.
The Shawnigan Strategy House
Foundation: Community
This is Shawnigan / Notre Shawnigan: a co-educational boarding school on the West Coast of Canada with a distinct sense of community.
Foundation: Financial Resilience
Invest for Financial Resilience to fund our future.
Ambition:
Ambition:
We will build community support and enrolment demand to ensure we have the financial resources, facilities, infrastructure, staffing, and services to deliver the Shawnigan mission at the highest level and step into the next decade with confidence. We will ensure a financial and operational structure that secures long-term financial sustainability with a model that is economically, environmentally and socially responsible. We will have the ability to explore innovative programming that sets Shawnigan apart and establishes a competitive advantage on a global scale.
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Pillar A: Inspire Academic Excellence
Ambition:We develop a culture of curiosity, collaboration, independence and resilience in our students through educators and peers who inspire our students to embrace a love of learning by challenging them to solve problems critically and creatively.
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Pillar B: Innovate for Co-Curricular Distinction
Ambition:
Through the articulation and delivery of the unique remarkable of “The Shawnigan Co-curricular Journey” and moments that matter, we will develop a reputation and competitive edge on a provincial and global stage.
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Pillar C: Imagine Student Life Unparalleled
Ambition:Develop a reputation, competitive edge and differentiation to be internationally recognised for the delivery of a distinct, unparalleled and bold boarding school experience as a British Columbian boarding school.
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Final Word from the Head and Chair
In a world that has to deal with pandemics, financial crises and widespread unemployment, today’s teenager must develop resilience, innovation and agility to thrive both personally and professionally. Shawnigan will deliver this combination of skills to our students.
As stated in the conclusion of the “OurShawnigan Strategic Consultation”:
Shawnigan has a multitude of advantages in its drive to determine its next strategic steps, and not least amongst these is a clearly dedicated and passionate community, committed to helping the School evolve and so preparing the students for the world that lies before them.
The decisions we take will shape the world of Shawnigan for years to come. It is imperative that the Shawnigan stag is nimble and agile in the months and years ahead and is able to adapt and take advantage of opportunities that arise.
This has undoubtedly been a period of innovation and acceleration for Shawnigan. One Governor wrote:
I am amazed how you all have turned this pandemic into one of the most creative periods in the School’s history.
And so we have.
We have now established a short- to mid-term plan that is nimble and responsive to the greatest crisis of our lifetime – and, at the same time, anticipates a world into which our students will graduate. Our three strategic pillars of Academic Excellence, Co-Curricular Distinction and Student Life Unparalleled will resonate, differentiate and inspire. Our action plan will make the strategic objectives a reality for Shawnigan students.
It is important that we teach our students to test themselves in order that they acquire the skills necessary to navigate through life. In a prayer by explorer Sir Francis Drake (an inspirational figure for our founder, CW Lonsdale), he guides us that, “where losing sight of land, / We shall find the stars.” Here, at Shawnigan, we aim not just to teach our students the names of the stars, but how to read and navigate by them. We invite our students to be map-makers, to sound the waters, to voyage out away from the trade routes and discover new frontiers – equipped with a moral compass, a logbook of experience and a pioneering sense of adventure.
We encourage you to dream of the world we would like to inhabit, and then engage with Project Future to ensure that your School will flourish in this new and dramatically changed world.
Project Future is an invitation to us all as members of the Shawnigan community, in the words of Drake’s Prayer, “to push back / the horizons of our hopes”, “to push into the future” and “to dare more boldly”.
Palmam qui meruit ferat.
 Richard 'Larry' Lamont, Head of School |
 Fiona Macfarlane, Chair of the Board |
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We acknowledge with respect the Coast Salish Peoples on whose traditional lands and waterways we live, learn and play. We are grateful for the opportunity to share in this beautiful region, and we aspire to healthy and respectful relationships with those who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia.
Shawnigan Lake School is an independent co-educational boarding school for ages 13 –18 on Canada’s beautiful West Coast. Our diverse, interdisciplinary and innovative programming helps shape the next generation of global leaders.
