Shawnigan in the Summer

Shawnigan hits different in the summer.

 

As a school, it only makes sense that Shawnigan is busiest between September and June. And being a boarding school, it is especially busy during those months as hundreds of students and dozens of staff members and their families live on campus full-time, keeping the buildings and grounds occupied and bustling nearly 24/7.

 

It’s quieter here during the summer, but it’s far from a ghost town. For the months of July and August – when you can expect lows around 12 and highs around 24 degrees C, with lots of sunshine – many staff members are still on campus, working and living here, while our athletic and classroom facilities and boarding houses are in near-constant use by a wide variety of summer camps.

 

Beyond the live-in staff members who make the boarding houses their homes all year, most of the education staff is away from campus during the summer. Most of the administration staff are still around, and the operations team actually bolsters its ranks with student summer workers. The kitchen staff are as busy as ever, catering to the appetites of young campers, and the grounds crew keeps the campus in phenomenal condition. The grounds are immaculate year-round, but they are arguably at their most beautiful in June and July, when the flowers are in full bloom and the trees are resplendent with green leaves. The campus teems with wildlife, from seasonal presences like fingernail-size tree frogs and their plump tadpoles in Kaye’s Pond to year-round residents like robins, ravens and raccoons.

 

The summer camps hosted by Shawnigan draw young people from across Vancouver Island and British Columbia, and even other parts of Canada and around the world. The School runs sports camps with our own world-class instructors, as well as elite coaches from outside Shawnigan, and serves as a venue for top-level international programs.

 

The School offers sport camps for children ages 8 to 17, depending on the sport, with day or overnight options, also depending on the sport. Taking advantage of our wide range of athletic facilities, such as the Charlie Purdey Arena, Canada Field rugby turf, and Sportsplex with six squash courts and two gymnasiums, offerings this year and in recent years have included basketball, volleyball, ice hockey, rugby, squash, rowing, and multi-sport camps.

 

For the last two summers, we have been honoured to host two camps presented by other organizations. L&E (Learn and Experience) World Camps has been running programs in the UK for years, and expanded to Canada in 2024, selecting Shawnigan as its location. L&E offers multi-activity programs for young people around the world, who mix with native English speakers, allowing them to experience each other’s cultures and learn valuable life skills. Debate Camp, which runs programs in multiple locations across Canada and the US, ran day and overnight camps this year as well. Both these camps bring a great deal of enthusiasm and youthful energy to the campus in the absence of our own students.

 

At any given time, one or more of our major sport partners, including Rugby Canada, Rowing Canada and Thunder Indigenous Rugby, will be holding camps on campus as well. BC Rugby held its age group Provincial Championships at Shawnigan in early July (with hundreds of young athletes attending from all over the province, all staying in our boarding houses), in addition to camps, training sessions and matches to help determine provincial teams and prepare them for various national-level competitions such as the Canada Summer Games.

 

And finally, Shawnigan is also the venue for some major life events during the summer as some staff members and alumni take advantage of the Chapel and the School’s overall beautiful setting to hold their weddings.

 

So whether it’s business as usual for administration staff, keeping the campus in perfect condition for operations staff, or hosting camps or other events, Shawnigan may be a different place in the summer months, but it’s no less special than it is during the rest of the year.