Middle School Education includes taking our students on two extended trips into the great outdoors during the academic calendar: a fall hiking trip and a spring kayak trip.

One of the highlights of Island Pacific School’s expeditions is the Kayak & Camping Expedition that happens every June.

Our entire school goes on this trip to and from Gambier Island on the West Coast of Canada. This year the expedition will be June 20-22, 2022.

Our grade 6-7 group travels directly (via water taxi) to Camp Fircom on Gambier Island where they spend two nights in the camp cabins. The first day, the 8-9 group paddle to Halkett Bay on Gambier Island and camp overnight in tents. The grade 9’s make their solo camp on this night.

The second day, the 8-9 group will kayak along the shore of Gambier to join the rest of the school at Camp Fircom for a final afternoon and evening of activity.

These expeditions provide physical and critical thinking challenges intended to bring out the best in individuals and the groups in which they work and play; challenges that call on the values on which Island Pacific School is founded: wisdom, courage and integrity. Students and staff also have a chance to get to know one another informally, outside the classroom.

Would you like to volunteer with us? If so, please email pam.matthews@islandpacific.org or call me at 604.947-9311 and let’s talk!

In sharing hard work, fears and triumphs, hot meals and stories around a campfire, students and teachers build mutual trust and respect that carries academic tools into the classroom when they return to school.