News & updates

List of 5 news stories.

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  Summer Sports Roundup

  9/11/2026
  For many Shawnigan student-athletes, sports don’t come to an end when school wraps up in June. Several of them move on to regional, provincial and national teams, attending training camps and competing in tournaments across BC and Canada, and around the world. Our alumni also continue to make us proud in a wide variety of sports.

   

  Rugby

   

  The BC Provincial Regional Championships were loaded with Shawnigan students, playing for several different teams. The Vancouver Island Crimson Tide won both the boys’ and girls’ U19 titles, with alumni Massimo Ruben ’26, Simroy John ’26, Greg Putterill ’26, Easton Sangris ’25, and Cole Mekelberg ’25 suiting up for the boys – who counted Mr. Clay Panga and fellow alumni Ollie Nott ’13 and Ciaran Breen ’19 among their coaches – and Amelia Handysides ’26, Sophie Hayes ’26, Gwenlili Jones ’26, and current student Briar T. playing for the girls.

   
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  University Highlights and AP Record Results

  9/11/2026
  As students return to campus this week, members of the Class of 2026 are beginning their post-secondary journeys, and it’s also a good time to look back on AP results from last year.

   

  Shawnigan had 130 students graduate last year, and they have branched out across Canada and around the world for the next steps in their lives. All 130 received university acceptances, and of those who opted to go straight to post-secondary, 43 percent are going into business and commerce, 18 percent to humanities and social sciences, 16 percent to science, 12 percent into health, six percent into art and design, and five percent into engineering. Fifty-seven percent of last year’s graduates are attending universities in Canada, 21 percent are headed to the US, 11 percent are off to the UK, four percent are bound for other countries, and seven percent are taking a gap year.

   

  Our six guidance counsellors helped the 130 students secure 559 offers from 164 different universities, and a total of $5.26 million in scholarship offers.

   
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  Grade 8 Musical: School of Rock!

  6/22/2026
  “I can’t believe they’re only in Grade 8!”

   

  That phrase could be heard uttered again and again following the performances of this year’s Grade 8 musical, School of Rock. The performers and stage crew – many of whom had never been involved in a musical or any other kind of stage production before ­– blew the audience away in back-to-back standing-room-only shows in the Wilkinson Theatre last Friday.

   

  “The vast majority of them had never done any performing before, and all of a sudden we’re telling them they’ve got to perform two sold-out shows in front of the whole School and their parents and siblings,” director Mr. Vince Hale pointed out. “At the end of the first show, they went crazy and they needed a pep talk reminding them that they had one more show to do – they brought it even more the second time.”

   

  School of Rock is based on the 2003 movie starring Jack Black as Dewey Finn, a wannabe rock star who poses as a substitute teacher and turns his students into a rock group that enters a Battle of the Bands. Full of Jack Black’s manic energy and the spirit of rock and roll, the show asks a lot of the cast and crew, and the Grade 8s delivered.

   
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  Beyond the Gates: Week Without Walls

  6/19/2026
  For the second year in a row, almost all of Shawnigan’s Grade 9 students ventured off campus for several days at the end of the year to learn more about the natural environment of Vancouver Island – and about themselves. And the School set an unofficial West Coast Trail record in the process

   

  It is the Week Without Walls, the capstone of Shawnigan’s Beyond the Gates program, one of the School’s foundational experiential learning programs. Beyond the Gates was launched with a small group of Grade 9s in 2021, but has grown exponentially. In 2025, the capstone experience expanded to include every student in that age group, with most venturing into the Vancouver Island backcountry and a smaller group staying closer to home. A total of 77 Grade 9 students – almost the entire class – took part in the Week Without Walls.

   

  Two groups of about 10 students each hiked the entire West Coast Trail that covers 75 kilometres on the rugged outer edge of Vancouver Island, and another two groups hiked half of that trail. Two more groups of 10 apiece kayaked the Broken Group Islands. The remaining 16 students spent four days at Camp Pringle, a short distance away from the School on the west shore of Shawnigan Lake, and one additional day engaging in activities on campus.

   
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  Ahoy! It's the Grade 9 Boat Race

  6/18/2026
  Spectators at the docks on Shawnigan Lake could hear tape being ripped off a roll as time ticked down to the beginning of the 10th annual Grade 9 boat race last Thursday.

   

  The Grade 9s were putting the finishing touches on their watercraft as they prepared for the race, which sees the hopeful sailors create a boat from (mostly) recycled material, then attempt to manoeuvre it from the shore, around a buoy at the end of the dock and back.

   

  It’s noisy and wet, and great fun for the participants and spectators. But it’s also a valuable learning experience: students are encouraged to be curious, support their community, find courage, and develop compassion; and it is an opportunity for discovery, team building, expression, and communication.

   
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