Kindergarten to Grade 7
Kimberley Independent School offers exciting, innovative, hands-on learning experiences for students. We hold value in outdoor education, the arts and French which are woven into academic curriculum set out by the BC Ministry of Education. Our class size maximum of 16 allows for individualized learning experiences for all our students.
What Sets Us Apart
Academic Excellence: Our rigorous curriculum is designed to challenge and inspire students, with a strong focus on literacy and math skills.
Small Class Sizes: Our small class sizes with an educational assistant in each classroom allow our teachers to provide personalized attention to each student, catering to their individual learning needs and styles.
Dedicated Faculty: Our teachers are passionate about teaching and are committed to providing a supportive learning environment where every student can thrive.
Comprehensive French Program: Our commitment to excellence extends to our language program, where students benefit from daily French instruction.
Extended School Day: Our school day runs from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM, providing ample time for academic instruction, extracurricular activities, and enrichment programs.
Engaging Extracurricular Activities: Our students take part in multi-week programs that include activities like skiing, biking, rock climbing, and swimming, allowing students to develop new skills, build confidence, and stay active.
Before and Aftercare Programs: We understand the challenges of balancing work and family life, which is why we offer before and aftercare programs for our students. Before care runs from 8:00 AM - 8:30 AM and aftercare runs from 3:00 PM - 5:30 PM.
Academics
Kimberley Independent School has the freedom to create educational experiences that meet each individual child’s needs, while adhering to the BC curriculum. Our school nurtures intellectual curiosity, stimulates personal growth, encourages critical thinking, and promotes a lifelong love of learning. Small class sizes of 16 maximum, allow for individual attention. A low student-teacher ratio encourages close connections between staff, students and families. KIS teachers, who are BC certified, usually teach in their areas of expertise and strive to develop a full understanding of each student’s learning style, interests, and motivation.
Extra-Curricular
KIS students participate in multiple different activities, allowing them to get the opportunity to explore a range of interests and unlock passions that they never knew they had! One of the greatest advantages extracurricular activities offer is giving our students “real world” skills. These skills include (but are not limited to):
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Goal setting
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Teamwork
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Time management
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Prioritisation
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Problem solving
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Analytical thinking
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Leadership
In addition to encouraging our students to participate in activities outside of academics, we are giving them a route to make new friends, develop new interests, and deepen their social and intellectual growth.
Kimberley Independent School offers many extra-curricular activities during and after the school day, at no additional cost to families. Activities include rock climbing, mountain biking, swimming, skiing, and hiking. We also utilise staffs qualifications, skills and interests, to offer many clubs such as school sports, drama, painting, design, gardening and cooking. We also listen to the requests of the students each year and run clubs based on student’s interests for instance, Pokémon, crocheting, Lego and chess.
Outdoor Education
Serious and deep learning can happen outside with all subjects, be it math, science, geography, or social studies. While a controlled environment like an indoor classroom is sometimes necessary, there are so many opportunities to taking lessons outside of those four walls while still meeting curriculum requirements. KIS is a school of place based learning and takes the student outside the 4 walls of the classroom at every opportunity and believe that children greatly benefit developmentally from being outdoors. Outdoor education supports emotional, behavioral and intellectual development. Through outdoor education such as weekly Camp Stone Days in the fall and spring, students develop a sense of self, independence, confidence, creativity, empathy towards others and motor skills. Outdoor experiences help our students increase their understanding of their natural and human communities which leads to a sense of place. Through connection to place, students develop stronger environmental attitudes and civic behaviors. Outdoor learning experiences are the foundation of raising the next generation of active citizens. Outdoor classrooms provide natural entry points for families and community members to get involved with student learning.
The Arts
At KIS the arts are an important part of our school curriculum. The positive impact of the arts on academic achievement is worthwhile in itself; it's also the tip of the iceberg when looking at the whole child. Through the arts, students develop skills like resilience, grit, and a growth mindset to help them master their craft, and do well academically, By setting clear expectations and goals for students and then drawing the correlation between the work done and the results, students can begin to shift their motivation, resulting in a much healthier and more sustainable learning environment. By immersing students in arts education, our staff draw them into an incredibly complex and multifaceted endeavor that combines many subject matters (like mathematics, history, language, and science) while being uniquely tied to cultures. Learning art goes beyond creating more successful students. We believe that it creates more successful human beings.
Character Driven
KIS fosters ethical, responsible, and caring young people by modeling and teaching good character through emphasis on universal values. Kimberley Independent School teaches children about basic human values including honesty, kindness, generosity, courage, freedom, equality and respect. Our goal is for our students to become morally responsible, self-disciplined citizens. Keeping the communication lines open ensure everyone is working toward the same goals.
Community Connections.
KIS nurture students’ personal and social growth and community conscience. Students are involved in experiential learning, within the community through local external educational and sports programs.
Learning in our community provides a hands-on approach to learning from professionals in their individual area of expertise. This makes learning an experience that moves beyond the classroom and brings a more involved way of learning.