News & updates

List of 5 news stories.

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  A Salute to Strength and Sacrifice

  6/13/2025
  Following the completion of their AP Art projects, 19 Shawnigan students jumped straight into an ambitious and meaningful endeavour, designing and painting murals for the nearby Malahat Branch 134 of the Royal Canadian Legion. The project began on May 2 and became a month-long collaborative journey that pushed the participating students creatively, physically, and emotionally.

   

  The students formed small teams, each responsible for different aspects of the project, from lead designers and painters to brush washers, a liaison officer to ensure things were accurate, and even doughnut suppliers. This collaborative structure allowed every student to play a vital role. Many evenings saw students working sometimes until 9 p.m., committed to completing the murals with care and excellence.

   

  The two murals now adorn the outside of the Legion hall, along with two others painted by students from Frances Kelsey Secondary School. One of the Shawnigan murals features a Canadian Army soldier with a bomb detector, while the other is of an RCMP officer with a service dog set against a Canadian backdrop.

   
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  Arts Roundup

  6/13/2025
  The arts have taken centre stage in the final weeks of the school year at Shawnigan.

   

  From theatre performances to the annual 360 fair, students in various arts and activities – both curricular and co-curricular – have had several opportunities recently to share their work with their peers.

   

  Last Wednesday, the 360 Fair took place in front of the Bruce-Lockhart Centre for Creativity, the same day that 360 awards and colours were handed out. Organized by the 360 instructors, 360 Prefect Daniel S. and the 360 Council, the event featured displays of visual art and other things the 360 programs have been working on.

   

  “Our focus this year was to make it interactive,” Daniel explained. “The Council and I went to all of the 360 instructors and asked them to come up with one interactive activity that students could participate in.”

   
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  The Sorting Hat Speaks

  6/13/2025
  All Grade 8 students start their Shawnigan Journeys with a year in Samuel House, but after that nurturing introduction to the School, they move on to join one of the “big” Houses for the next four years.

   

  This year’s Grade 8s – the first cohort to spend their entire Grade 8 year in Samuel House, which opened midway through the 2023-24 school year – found out last Saturday which House will be their home on campus for the rest of their time at Shawnigan during the highly anticipated annual Sorting Hat Ceremony.

   

  Boarding houses are a fundamental aspect of the Shawnigan experience, and special homes away from home for our students. The peers they live with and the House staff become family for them during their time at the School. For each student, their House automatically becomes “the best House on campus.”

   
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  The Versatility of Cedar

  6/13/2025
  The cedar tree holds a significant place in the culture of the Coast Salish First Nations, including the Cowichan and Malahat people whose traditional territories are the location of Shawnigan Lake School. In recent weeks, students in Environmental Science 11 and the First Nations Language and Knowledge Sharing 360 program have been learning first-hand about cedar trees and their meaning to the local First Nations.

   

  Environmental Science 11 students learned about the Indigenous practice of harvesting cedar bark (also known as cedar stripping) from Coast Salish artist Beau Wagner. Mr. Wagner, who has been carving for more than 30 years, used trees on the Shawnigan campus to demonstrate how local First Nations use centuries of wisdom to remove strips of bark from cedar trees for use in a range of items, while doing minimal damage to the trees. Culturally modified trees typically go on to live normal lives; the oldest living documented culturally modified tree in British Columbia dates to the 12th century.

   
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  From the Hatchery to Nature

  6/6/2025
  After raising them from eggs, Shawnigan students headed to the creeks that cross our campus last week to release tiny coho salmon fry into the wild.

   

  While it marks the beginning of a journey for the little fish, it also marks the end of several months of care the Shawnigan students in Science 9 and Environmental Science 11 and 12 have put into raising them in the Mark Hobson Hatchery.

   

  That began last fall, when salmon from Hartl Creek were used as broodstock: eggs were harvested from the females and fertilized with semen from the males. Those eggs hatched into alevin, then grew into fry in March, at which point they were transferred into larger tanks of water and cared for until they were ready for release into Hartl and Shawnigan creeks.

   
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