Island Pacific School opened in September, 1995 with 14 students, three teachers, and a crazy person who thought it would be a good idea to start a school on Bowen Island.

We are pleased to confirm that Nathalie Sinclair — IPS’s first math teacher — will be joining us for the 25th Anniversary celebration on Friday, June 19th, 2020. Nathalie — along with D.G. Blair (Science), Sandra Kirkwood (French), and Ted Spear (the crazy person) — were the “Founding Four” educators who started the school. Their first professional planning meetings were held in Ted’s basement because they did not yet have an actual school building in which to meet.

Nathalie was a much-loved math teacher because she showed students how to look at mathematics as a fascinating exploration of possible worlds rather than an academic subject that needed to be mastered. She introduced the IPS kids to fractals and Fibonacci spirals long before these were a thing in math teaching. She taught at the school from 1995-1998 and, not surprisingly, has since become an award-winning professor of math education at Simon Fraser University.

Some of the students who learned math under Nathalie’s care include:

Class of ’96

Hamish Allan-Headley, Dustin Pritchard, Robin Seims, Chris Zwanenburg

Class of ’97

Anthony Bookless and Duncan McTavish

Class of ’98

Cristina Bally, Brendan Churcher, Alexandra Goodall, Casey James and Alexander Wright

We are still hoping to confirm that D.G. Blair and Sandra Kirkwood will be able to join us as well. In the meantime, please be sure to spread the word to any IPS alumni you happen to know, as we do not have contact information on all of them. We look forward to reconnecting with more students, staff and parents on June 19th, 2020.

Contact Ted Spear with any contact info or questions about our 25th celebration
spear.ted@gmail.com and https://www.tedspear.com

Photo credits: Simon Fraser University – Communications & Marketing