Imagine your child’s classroom in the open air!

The Langley Environmental Awareness Program (LEAP) brings kids outside to engage with their learning. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 7 spend Mondays and Tuesdays learning at local parks, while taking part in community walks from Fort Langley Elementary on Fridays. Wednesday and Thursdays are spent indoors. Using the great outdoors as a classroom, students learn the BC Curriculum through their interactions with nature.

Parents/guardians of the program must be prepared to pick-up and drop-off their child from various locations around Langley, and students must be dressed for the weather.

This high-demand learning opportunity has transitioned to an academy as of September 2023. As an academy, the District is looking at expanding and offering placements for students in Grade 7. Families interested in enrolling their child in any grade must attend a future information session before their student can enter the program.

If you have any questions about the program, please contact Fort Langley Elementary, Principal Logan Kitteringham: lkitteringham@sd35.bc.ca

Read this guidebook or watch the video below to get a sense of the program:

PARENT-STUDENT- HANDBOOK

Parent Info Session – Intermediate Entry (Gr. 5-7)

LEAP welcomes all families to learn about this outdoor educational opportunity and determine if the program is the right fit for their child. Please note that the upcoming session is intended for students entering a program in higher grade levels. Pre-Kindergarten families should wait until the fall prior to attend a session for their child’s entry into school. As part of the registration process, all families are required to attend a parent info session prior to starting the program.

Check back later for the date of the next info session.

If you want to learn more about this program, please complete this expression of interest form below.

Expression of Interest Form

LEAP GUIDING VISION

The Langley Outdoor Education program seeks to nurture practices of learning and teaching to include a significant portion of the school year spent in meaningful, outdoor place-based settings throughout Langley. Learning will be cultivated in local places close to the program schools and in other parts of Langley. Experiences in natural settings will be made so that diversity, complexity, stewardship and sustainability become part of the students’ understanding of their place and world. Educators will use the current curriculum and the CARE document to organize and conceptualize environmental learning.

Use of the outdoors makes a major contribution to physical and environmental education and enhances many other curriculum areas. It contributes to personal growth and social awareness and develops skills for life and the world of work. Qualities such as a sense of responsibility and a purpose in life are nurtured.

CARE includes:

COMPLEXITY:  considering the complexity and inter-relatedness of natural and human-created systems, and how humans interact with and affect those systems

AESTHETICS:  developing an aesthetic appreciation for the natural world that encourages students to learn about and protect the environment

RESPONSIBILITY:  providing opportunities for students to take responsible action and explore the environmental impact of their decisions and actions

ETHICS:  providing opportunities to practice an environmental ethic based on an examination of values that can give rise to new visions, possibilities and actions

The Langley Environmental Awareness Program opened its doors at Fort Langley Elementary in September of 2017. Mrs. Marlee St. Pierre (kindergarten) and Ms. Ashley Harder (grade 1) were hired as the teachers of the two classes, and their passion for outdoor learning has ensured a strong start for the program. They have engaged parents in the program and have ensured that students are working and learning outdoors as much as possible right from the beginning. The goal is to be learning outdoors 60 percent of the time: Mondays and Tuesdays are for learning outdoors, with Fridays designated for Community Walks. Wednesdays and Thursdays are for learning in classrooms at Fort Langley Elementary. An Education Assistant is dedicated to the program, providing extra support to teachers and assisting in ensuring student safety in outdoor environments.