We are extremely proud and excited to announce the creation of our very own athletic department! Starting in September 2023, SCIDES will offer a new range of sport-specific courses designed for athletes to gain credit for training and competing while supplementing their athletic competition with learning aimed at facilitating both personal and athletic growth. While we have a lineup of seven courses to start with, this will soon expand to nine courses; we will continue to explore new course options to meet the needs of as many individuals as possible! If you are an athlete or interested in athletics, a full-time SCIDES student, cross-enrolled, or looking to cross-enroll, we encourage you to sign up. If you are interested in enrolling for any of the courses in our athletics department, please reach out to Mr. Corey Hermiston via email: chermiston@365.sd58.bc.ca

Over the summer we are introducing our support staff to you, a vital part of the SCIDES team we could not work without. We're so grateful for our support staff, and Joyce Bain is up next. Joyce has been a part of the SCIDES secretarial team for a very long time.

Thanks for taking the time, Joyce. Can you introduce yourself and tell us where you're from?

My name is Joyce Bain. I've lived in Merritt for a reeeeeeeeally long time. Years and years and years.

Over the summer we'd love to introduce our support staff to you, a vital part of the SCIDES team we could not work without. We're so grateful for our support staff, and Kristen Lupton is up next. If you call SCIDES during the summer, you'll probably be talking to her!

Thanks for taking the time, Kristen. Can you introduce yourself and tell us where you're from?

My name is Kristen Lupton, I live here in Merritt, and I’ve been all over the place, but I was born in Williams Lake.

September 30, 2021 was the first nationally recognized Day of Truth and Reconciliation; before that, Orange Shirt Day was established in 2013 to remember and honour the residential school survivors, and the children who never made it home. At SCIDES, we recognize that we learn, teach and work on the ancestral, traditional and unceded territories of the NłeɁkepmx and Syilx people and we acknowledge our Metis communities and their contributions to the Aboriginal ways of being, knowing and doing in Canada.

March is here and with it, the first signs of Spring, bringing longer days and the hope of warmer weather and more time spent outdoors. While we all continue to follow public health orders and stay home in order to see the end of the pandemic sooner than later, wellness is on everyone's mind and it's our theme this month. We are excited to share great resources with you, and would love to hear about what you're doing to stay well; connect with us on Facebook to share.

March Resources

Blogs and Articles

Happy New Year! 2020 is behind us and we love the hope 2021 brings with it. We are committed to supporting you in your educational journey as always, and planning is a big part of that. It's our theme for January, and we are excited to share great resources with you.

January Resources

Blogs and Articles (and one Vlog)

For this holiday season, the team at the Kengard Learning Centre wants to bring you a bit of cheer and comfort by sharing their favourite holiday recipes.

Download the recipe booklet right here.

We wish you a wonderful holiday season! The Kengard Learning Centre will be closed from December 21 - January 1 and reopen again on January 4th.

December is here and we can't believe that 2020 is almost behind us. What a year it has been! While the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down, we're happy to announce that we've opened up cross-enrollment for grades 10-12, as long as space is available. This month's theme is "A Time of Giving" and we are excited to share great resources with you.

November is here and the pandemic still has a tight grip on all our lives. But we're here for the long haul and we'll get through this together. Even though we're still not able to accept any registrations from students outside of School District 58, we're here for you on our blog to share information and inspiration. This month's theme is "Grit" and we are excited to share great resources with you.

We're into the second month of the new school year and are starting to settle into a new normal. Even though we're not able to accept any registrations from students outside of School District 58, we're here for you on our blog to share information and inspiration. This month's theme is "Master of your Own Destiny" and we have found great content for you.

A new school year is here and in so many ways it’s a fresh start. A new way of doing school (though SCIDES has been offering online support and instruction for over 20 years), a new way of organizing our lives around a pandemic, and a fresh chance to be better citizens of the world who care for and accept others.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has both slowed down and sped up life as we knew it before March of 2020. The last six months have been a challenge for all of us, and we want to start the new school year by offering our support and perspective on what’s to come. Each month will have a different theme and we’ll share our insights as well as some resources for you to dive deeper into the topic.

~ A message from Principal Karen Goetz ~

The following is an excerpt from J. Abner Peddiwell’s The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, first published in 1939. Two stone-age philosophers are discussing education and, interestingly, what they say, even by 1939 standards, is not that different than modern discourse on the subject.  

“Schools are educational institutions, aren’t they?”

Summer is here and that means vacation time, family time, sleeping in, and relaxing. All great things, but we think that reading needs to be part of this list as well. Research has shown that you lose some of your reading skills if you don't read over the summer, and there's an easy way to keep that from happening: read! We put together some suggestions for you, and we challenge you to read at least three books over the summer break. Share with us on our Facebook page which books you're reading, we'd love to know! Have a great summer - and remember that SCIDES has teachers and support staff available during the summer months. Get in touch at 1.800.663.3536 or email registrar@365.sd58.bc.ca. 

We hope you had a fantastic Spring Break! We're thrilled to share our next educator of the month with you, Mrs. Cathy Southwell.

Mrs. Southwell, thank you for taking the time. Let's get started! Where are you from?

We're excited to share the next Educator of the Month with you - Liz Moore. Here's how she answered our questions (hint: we love her wit and spirit!)

Mrs. Moore, we're thrilled to have you as our Educator of the Month for February. We look forward to finding out more about you! Please introduce yourself.

My name is Liz Moore, and I have lived in Merritt for nearly twenty years. Before that, I lived in the Eastern and Midwest United States, where I attended high school and university. However, my childhood was spent in BC, and this is where I dreamed of returning. A teaching job brought me back, and I am very glad it did. 

Summer is approaching fast, and before we jump into our yearly celebrations in June, we want to share another exciting topic with you: Math! Yes, math is exciting, and not just for mathematicians. Math is used in many professions, including air traffic controller, architect, astronaut, forensic analyst, nuclear engineer, stockbroker, and urban planner.

But today we’re not talking about the careers that math makes possible (we talked about careers in general in one of our recent blogs), we want to highlight a few other interesting things for you.

Hard to believe the first month of the new year is already over, but here we are: it’s February! We hope you had a chance to test the waters with journaling in January; if you missed our writing prompts, you can find them here. It’s never too late to give journaling a try.

This month we celebrate Social Studies Month at SCIDES. Social Studies are an important part of the core curriculum. They encompass world history, as well as a closer look at Canada, while also considering human society, political science, philosophy, and more. A broad and very interesting field, with many opportunities to create your own learning plan. Contact us at SCIDES to find out more about individualizing your education! 

Can you believe fall snuck up on us like that? It’s in full swing and we’re dedicated to staying healthy and active during the cold and wet season – so we’re declaring November Sports Month at SCIDES! Let’s have a look at what we can do for you and your fitness (if you participate!) and what’s in store for this month.

October is Art Month at SCIDES! We’re kicking off the new school year with creativity. Last school year, we had Art Month in May, and you can read about it in our blog archive. Just like last time, we have another trip planned to 4Cats Studio, and we’ll be offering various activities at SCIDES and online. But there is more! On October 21, 2016 is a non-instructional day (in School District 58), and we challenge you to create something that day.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Before you know it, summer will be over (we know, unfair!), and it’s back to school. 

If your kids are enrolled at SCIDES, you’ll have a lot more flexibility in the new school year to adapt your children’s education to your family’s needs. Doing school at home is especially rewarding and challenging in grades K-9; while you can always count on the support from the team at SCIDES, we also want to share studying tips that work well for younger kids, so you’re off to the best possible start for the 2016/2017 school year.

Encounters with Canada is a wonderful organization that offers youth ages 14 - 17 the opportunity to spend a week in our nation's capital. With different themes like Arts & Culture, Communication & Social Media, and Youth & Democracy, the week in Ottawa is an unforgettable trip for those who participate. Several of our students have taken the opportunity to go (SCIDES offers up to $600 towards the trip - ask Mrs. Eves for all the details); and this month we asked one of the recent attendees to tell you about his experience. 

Last month was Art Month at SCIDES, and one of the things we talked about in our blog was Aboriginal Art in British Columbia. Aboriginal Art has been around in BC for thousands of years. We are very lucky to live in a province with such rich aboriginal culture and heritage, which is often reflected in the art created by First Nations artists. But of course there is much more to aboriginal culture than arts. This month, we want to celebrate aboriginal education and highlight the programs we offer, as well as the much needed progress that has been made in incorporating the aboriginal voice into our curriculum. 

Last month was Earth Science Month at SCIDES, and this month we're getting artsy - May is Art Month! We're talking about a few exciting field trips, BC artists past and present, post-secondary art schools in BC, and Aboriginal art in our province. Of course we also want to let you know that we offer Art Classes at SCIDES, and we're thrilled to feature the art work of SCIDES student Mariya Johnson in our blog picture this month, who's taking Art 12 right now. 

March was Math Month at SCIDES, and we hope you had your slice of Pi! Just in case you missed it, here's something you should not miss: The "Lose Yourself in the Digits" Pi Day video, performed by Pi Diddy.

Now we're moving on to Earth Sciences, and we're talking about Earth Day, Geocaching, and Earth Sciences at SCIDES in this blog post - we know, it's exciting! 

January was Reading Month at SCIDES and we hope you had a chance to check out some (or all!) of the resources we mentioned in our last blog post. This month, it's not only a new semester for most secondary students, but we're also diving head first into an exciting topic: history. History does not have to be ancient, and certainly not boring! It's being made every day and both our shared current and past experiences bind us together. They are stories worth learning and sharing! Here's what we want to share with you this month:

Happy New Year! We hope you have a fantastic 2016, filled with joy and success. The SCIDES team is by your side to take your education to the next level, and we’re committed to providing you with great resources throughout the year.

December was Writing Month at SCIDES, and it was great to see your writing adventures on our Facebook page; we’re looking forward to hearing from you about your reading journey in January! 

December is Writing Month at SCIDES, and we're celebrating writing in all its forms - especially letter writing by hand. (Yes! That's still a thing!)

November is Sports Month at SCIDES, and we want you to get active and celebrate sport in your community!

Sports and play are important for kids and adults alike, and we'll introduce a few amazing programs and opportunities to help you get more active this month.

October is Science month at SCIDES and the Kengard Learning Center! We'll be celebrating, challenging, learning, and having fun with Science all month long. Check out what we have lined up for you...

If you're enrolled with SCIDES full time (meaning SCIDES is your school of record), then you're in for a real treat: you will get access to BrainPOP! BrainPOP is an online platform that engages students through animated movies, learning games, interactive quizzes, primary source activities, concept mapping, and more. There are two versions available, one suitable for Grades K - 3 (Junior BrainPOP) and one for Grades 4 - 10 (BrainPOP). 

BrainPop covers topics within Science, Math, Social Studies, English Language Arts, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Music, Health, Reading, and Writing - watch your inbox for the login code. We'll get it out to you soon!

It's Orientation Month at SCIDES, and we hope you settled comfortably into the new school year. To cap off this month of new grades, new courses, and new experiences, we asked our Principal Ms. Colleen Mullin for her best advice for a successful school year. Here's what she had to say: