With deep gratitude and respect, we are honoured to be learning and unlearning on the ancestral and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) & səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation).

Dr. A.R. Lord Elementary School is in the northeast part of Vancouver close to Hastings Park Conservancy in a diverse, hilly, green neighbourhood. Our area has not experienced high transiency. We even have a second generation of students attending A.R. Lord. There are fourteen different languages spoken in our community with English, Cantonese, and Vietnamese being the most prevalent.

Most grade seven students enter Templeton Secondary where they have success in academics, specialized programs, sports, and social responsibility.

The student population engages in extra-curricular learning and school service opportunities such as choir, cross-country, Dungeons & Dragons, volleyball, basketball, badminton, track & field, Templeton STEM challenge, student-led morning announcements, student lunch monitors, and student leadership with social justice projects.

Our school’s enrollment has plateaued in the past two years. We enroll Kindergarten to grade seven students in eight divisions with close to 180 students. Across the street at Hastings Community Centre, the out of school care program, ‘OSC’ is a welcomed asset to our school community. The community centre also runs daycare and preschool programs where future classmates meet before entering Kindergarten.

Since emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic our staff have engaged in recurring conversations about how best to meet increasing and complex needs related to learning, mental wellness, family stressors impacting students, generalized anxiety, and the shifting concept of world safety. We are active partners with our School Counsellor, School Psychologist, School Speech-Language Pathologist, and the Templeton Family of Schools Community School Coordinator.

Our school team engaged with the Shanker Self-Regulation Framework™: a five-step method (and framework) to deal with stress so that we experience calm in mind and body and, from there, begin to restore physiologically, emotionally, psychologically, and socially. We worked regularly to better support dysregulation in our school community in monthly learning sessions. Dr A.R. Lord Elementary has many unique and positive characteristics. We are proud of how we organize a small and complex student population into an inclusive and close school community. Our school community benefits from close relationships between all ages of students, as well as between home & school.

At A.R. Lord Elementary, we celebrate student achievement inside and outside the classroom. Student work is displayed all over our physical space. Students and staff regularly acknowledge each other’s achievements publicly and individually through morning announcements, in-person visits, P.R.I.D.E tickets, and during formal collaboration and learning sessions. The community regularly invites others to observe learning and results of project-based learning. This also creates a sense of belonging in school and community. Applying chosen skills to demonstrate learnings allows students to celebrate their strengths.

We celebrate physical and mental well-being inside and outside the classroom. Often, staff teach and support groups learning outside as well as lead direct teaching of outdoor education. We regularly make the connection between physical & mental well-being through the Self-Regulation Framework ™ and other mental health and social-emotional learning curriculum such as Second Step, Open Parachute, MindUp, SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity), Zones of Regulation, Social Thinking ™. Staff support students with open dialogue, gender-inclusive language (and reminder notes for guest educators), and regular teaching opportunities. We celebrate SOGI Pride and School P.R.I.D.E through our Code of Conduct. The school-wide positive behaviour support system is grounded in the P.R.I.D.E matrix: Purpose, Respect & Responsibility, Integrity, Diversity and Engagement.

Equity and Reconciliation is an ongoing practice as staff and students are unlearning prejudices and re-learning history together. We engage in acts of reconciliation together by sharing inquiry projects about Canadian history, daily land acknowledgements, and singing the Coast Salish anthem. Our school library is a common learning area where staff and students access new and culturally responsible print materials that teach and celebrate Indigenous culture.

We have an extraordinarily spacious and engaging school yard with a playground structure, garden area, 2 basketball areas, gravel field and grass field as well as several playground games painted beneath a covered, hard surface play area.