Shawnigan Lake School | News & updates

STAR Fest and Night of Dance

5/9/2025

A delegation of talented students from Shawnigan’s Theatre Company and Musical Theatre Company programs attended STAR Fest West at Douglas College in Vancouver, coming away with a host of honours, including three perfect scores and the Perfect Score Ribbon for Ivana W.

“Our students had the opportunity to perform both musical numbers and dramatic scenes, and to be adjudicated by a panel of professionals and instructors from Vancouver,” theatre teacher Mr. Sal Interlandi explained. “These experiences not only challenged and stretched our students artistically but also allowed them to connect with a broader community of performers and creators.”

STAR Fest gives performing arts students a chance to perform in front of their peers, test their skills against an adjudication board with the opportunity to receive recognition, take part in workshops, and interact with their peers from across Western Canada.

Taking Stock of Our Lake

5/9/2025

Shawnigan’s long-running study of Shawnigan Lake’s fish species and the surrounding ecosystem continued recently with new additions that benefitted the fish being studied as they were captured and other animals after the study was complete.

Science teacher Ms. Alexandra Ballantyne, who organized the study for Environmental Science 11 classes, invited a registered professional biologist to supervise the going-in and ensure the ethics and handling of lethal capture. Once the fish had been captured, killed, identified and dissected, their carcasses were donated to be used as food at The Raptors, a birds of prey rehabilitation and education facility near Duncan, which the students will visit at the end of the year.

By and large, the study followed the same methods that it has since 1997. Students placed gillnets in the water in two locations: one net close to the shore near the campus and another floating net farther out. The nets were left in the water for 24 hours, and the fish captured were identified by species, weighed, measured, and dissected, with the results carefully documented, as they have been for three decades, to be shared with the BC Ministry of Environment and Parks and the local Shawnigan Lake community.

Inter-House Art Gets a Reboot

5/2/2025

A reimagined inter-House art event last Friday got the entire student body involved – and earned rave reviews from the participants.

Under the previous format, Houses submitted artwork by students for judging by a panel of esteemed staff members who determined the winners. This year featured a complete overhaul, with three parts to the event, all completed in the course of a single evening.

“The old format had its heyday,” Head of Fine Art Mr. Aren Goodman commented. “It was time for a reboot, to make it feel like a real Shawnigan inter-House event.”

It started with the idea for a paint night, and grew from there.

May Sports Update

5/2/2025

Spring sports are in full swing at Shawnigan, and teams are in full gear this month, with their sights set on qualifying for Island and provincial tournament berths, or in some cases, reaching the podium at national championships. Our campus has been especially busy preparing for the Stadium Series rugby event on May 2 and the Shawnigan Lake School Regatta on May 9-11.

Rugby

All of Shawnigan’s rugby teams have been busy over the last few weeks, leading up to the Stadium Series games at the School this Friday, and playoffs and provincials later this month.

Both Colts teams played against St. George’s last Saturday (April 26). The A team lost a physical match 35-21, but showed a lot of good things, especially their refusal to quit, as they scored the last two tries to keep things close. The “Killer B’s” won their own high-energy game. The A’s responded by calling a team meeting on Monday – the players’ idea – followed by a short late-night practice. They went on to defeat Claremont 35-21 on Tuesday. Earlier in the month, the Colts attended the Tropical Sevens tournament in Tampa, Florida.

A Visit from the Past

4/25/2025

Being a Grade 8 student at Shawnigan includes learning about the School’s history, now at 109 years and counting. A big part of that is the annual trip to the School museum. This week, the current crop of Grade 8s heard directly from a Shawnigan alumnus about what it was like to attend the School in the 1960s.

Don Manning (Copeman’s) graduated from Shawnigan in 1964, having started in Grade 7. He returned to the School this week to share some stories and context from his six years as a student. A lot of things have changed in the 60-plus years since he left.

“When you drive in through the gates, it has the feel of the School, but it’s not the same School,” he said.

The School was “harsh” and “not a caring environment” when Mr. Manning attended, and the student-to-faculty ratio was much higher than it is now. The senior boys – it was an all-boys’ school at the time – had more influence and control over the juniors, who often had to act as their personal servants. As things changed gradually, Shawnigan was a “marvellous place to be” in his later years at the School.