News & updates

List of 5 news stories.

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  Grassroots Sports Are Thriving

  10/17/2025
  Shawnigan continues to train future coaches among our own students while fostering a love of sport among children from the local community through the Grassroots Service 360 program.

   

  Shawnigan students teach rugby and squash to local youth in the program that has grown massively. Now in its fourth year of existence, it is bigger than ever, with 35 kids under the age of eight taking part.

  “The energy and excitement on the field each week have been remarkable, a true reflection of the positive environment our coaches are creating,” says Mr. Clay Panga, who started the program when he joined the staff in 2022. “This initiative was designed to grow rugby at the grassroots level by fostering a love of the game among young athletes, building fundamental skills, and strengthening community connections through sport. We’re proud of the momentum the program has built and look forward to continuing to develop the next generation of rugby players.”
  
  
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  Japan Super Science Fair Profile: Angus and John

  10/17/2025
  Shawnigan has a long-standing relationship with the Japan Super Science Fair, hosted by Ritsumeikan Junior and Senior High School in Nagaokakyo City, Kyoto. The School has participated in the highly regarded student science fair for the last 11 years, a streak that no other Canadian school can match. Six students and one staff member will be travelling to Japan this year for the fair that runs from October 31 to November 6, joining their peers from 55 schools in 20 countries.

   

  Angus W. and John P.’s project, “Spectrophotometric analysis of the effects of a TiO₂ photocatalyst on various organic compounds,” tested to see if a titanium oxide photocatalyst can eliminate organic pollutants from water.

   

  A photocatalyst such as titanium oxide is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction when exposed to light, usually without being consumed or changed itself in the process. Angus and John admitted they didn’t know much about photocatalysts before they started this project.

   
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  Capturing the Supermoon

  10/9/2025
  While preparing to share their love of the cosmos with some of their peers, Shawnigan students in the Astronomy Imaging and Outreach 360 took advantage of the conditions to create some stunning images of Monday’s supermoon.

   

  The students were setting up field telescopes outside the observatory when they pulled out their cell phones, painstakingly aligned them with the telescope eyepieces, and took photos of the dazzling Moon. They used filters on their phones to bump up the contrast and make the images more compelling. Viewed from Earth, the features of the Moon don’t stand out the way they do in the filtered photos. But Bryce T., Owen V. and Berkley W. knew some tricks to make them pop, and shared their knowledge with Ethan F. and Mateo T.

   

  “It’s a pretty dramatic result from a pretty simple technique,” said Mr. Nigel Mayes, who oversees the Astronomy 360.

   
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  Order Up! Stag Café Goes Live

  10/9/2025
  What most students saw when the Stag Café opened on Tuesday evening was just the tip of the iceberg considering what goes into making the eatery a reality.

   

  It takes weeks of preparation to get Entrepreneurship 12 students from the first day of class to the opening day of Stag, notably a lengthy and rigorous interview process that helps determine what roles the students will fill as part of the organization, from CEOs to kitchen workers. As many as 10 adults – including education and administration staff, interns, and a visiting business major from the UK with previous kitchen management experience – were part of the panel that grilled the potential grillers.

   

  There are 50 students between the two Entrepreneurship 12 classes, a bigger number than usual, which necessitated a total of four CEOs – two in each class – who will have to collaborate because the Stag functions as one business with a separate shift for each of the two classes. The two junior entrepreneurship classes will also be involved in the café at some point as the year progresses.

   
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  Moving Toward a Sustainable Future

  10/3/2025
  For three days last week, more than 100 delegates gathered on campus to discuss a range of issues related to Indigenous knowledge, regenerative leadership, and sustainable systems at the Regenerative Futures Conference presented by Shawnigan Lake School, the University of British Columbia, the University of Cambridge, and Sustainable Education.

   

  The delegates heard from 22 different presenters from diverse backgrounds, including five Indigenous speakers. They comprised politicians, community organizers, authors, poets and activists, as well as individuals from the realms of business, academia, forestry, fire management, and sport.

   

  To host a huge event like this while school is in session was a risk, said Ms. Emily Coolidge, Shawnigan’s Heimbecker Inspiration Chair for Experiential Education and conference organizer, but it paid off.

   

  “It was overwhelmingly positive,” Ms. Coolidge commented. “I felt really good about it, and I felt really good about Shawnigan as the host school.”

   
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