Student Life

In order to extend students’ learning beyond the classroom, beyond the school walls even, each leadership role has a service learning component. Based on their leadership role, each student is responsible for organizing and leading a service project with community or global connections.

Our PreK to Grade 3 students participate in monthly assemblies that celebrate their learning and the Student of the Month from each class. This is a special time to come together and share all the awesome things happening in our early year classrooms!

Students in Grades 4-8 also participate in monthly assemblies, each centered around relevant Canadian or UN International days that happen in that month. September will see us gather to learn about the importance of Orange Shirt Day in Canada. October’s assembly has a wellness focus with World Mental Health Day happening on October 10th. 

A multitude of co-curricular club offerings from both our teachers and specialists cater to a variety of skills and innovations at The Giles School.  Choices range from Cooking, Spanish, Arts and Crafts, Painting, Chess, Sports, Zumba, Dance, Yoga, Ballet, Lego, Singing, Coding and Robotics to name a few. Each term sees a new offering of clubs, with student signup taking place at the beginning of the term. Popular clubs are repeated based on interest.

Depending on the numbers of participants, day camps are also offered during the school breaks of November, March and during the summer. A week of fun-filled daily activities ranging from outdoor education, obstacle course, cooking, no bake cheesecake, arts and crafts, singing and dancing, soccer and much more. A full program will be provided to parents a few weeks before the start of the day camp.

Students in JK-Grade 4 have dedicated Outdoor Education time weekly, through autumn, winter and spring. Not only does this place-based, student centered outdoor time allow our scholars to learn and develop healthy relationships with themselves, their peers and nature through play, it fosters a lifelong love of nature. As David Sobel poses, how can we ask students to save something they feel no connection to? Students will experience first hand the biotic and abiotic factors in their environment and observe the changes they go through season to season.

Through nature connection and education we can build upon UN Sustainable Goals 13, 14, and 15, creating a tangible context and laying the groundwork for meaningful service projects as students progress into the upper grades at Giles.

Field trips present powerful experiential learning opportunities for our students of all ages. We look forward to being able to participate in them again when it is safe for the students, teachers and the community.

Many of the special days at The Giles School correspond to UN International Days, such as International Day of Literacy, Human Rights Day, Poetry Day, etc. Not only do our assemblies and special days focus on this calendar, they integrate curricular opportunities to connect to these global themes. Another beloved special day is the Science Fair! Keep a close eye on the calendar and our weekly communications to learn more about what we do on special days. 

Spirit days are also a special time at The Giles. Our Spirit Day Student Leaders coordinate the planning and motivation for participation in spirit days, and invite all students in PK-Grade 8 to participate by dressing up to the theme! Spirit Days will be added to our calendar in late September, giving our leaders a chance to brainstorm and organize.

We also celebrate a different country during our Flag Raising ceremony each month. Student leaders make a presentation on the country of the month to their fellow students. We hope to represent every country from our school community by celebrating the internationalism and inclusiveness of our school.

Led by our Chief Student Officer and mentor teachers, the Giles Student Council contributes to daily school life by representing the student voice in the planning and implementation of our assemblies, spirit days and special events, and fundraisers. It is an opportunity for both our younger and older students to represent their classroom and be mentored by their peers on council in reciprocal learning relationships.  Connection is built and strengthened amongst the student body and across the school as the council members learn more about the interests and strengths of their classmates, and work to raise the voices of their peers. Students in Grades 2 to 8 will make up the student council, with representatives being chosen by classroom voting. Meetings will be held once a term.