ABOUT US
Our Purpose
Sea to Sky Outdoor School delivers educational programs for students of all ages that foster connections with self, others and the natural world. We challenge participants to think deeply about the world, and their role in creating more just resilient and sustainable communities.
Fostering an understanding of the interconnected relationship between human systems and ecological systems is at the heart of our curriculum and values. We believe that the outdoor classroom provides the perfect venue to nurture connections, community and critical consciousness that will empower youth.
The Challenge
From covid to climate change; from poverty to population; from digital dependence to depression, we face a plethora of challenges that will shockingly affect our lives in ways we cannot yet imagine. The challenges facing young people may seem insurmountable. At Sea to Sky Outdoor School, we aim to support health and foster leadership that is focused on personal wellbeing and self-awareness, developing a loving relationship with the land, and building resilient and just communities, so that we may face these obstacles together with grace and integrity.
Sea to Sky Outdoor School designs and delivers programs that will assist in this leadership development. We do not have all the answers. Nor do we presume to know the questions. We do know that nature can provide the wisdom and inspiration to lead us on this path.
Our Goals:
It is our intent that in all Sea to Sky programs, students will:
Increase knowledge and wonder about their natural home;
Begin to develop a relationship with the land that is founded in reciprocity and gratitude.
Reflect on the ecological and social effects of personal lifestyle choices;
Develop skills which will strengthen their home and school communities.
Our Classroom:
At Sea to Sky Outdoor School, we are honored and grateful to teach, live and learn on the unceded territory of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) Nation, in southwestern British Columbia, Canada.
Sea to Sky Outdoor School operates from one site: Camp Fircom on Gambier Island. Our campus is located on Howe Sound, Canada's southern-most fjord, just north-west of Vancouver, both approximately 20 minutes by ferry or water taxi from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.
Sea To Sky's campus is easily accessible from Vancouver, but leave students, parents and teachers feeling they have come to a wilderness setting.
Camp Fircom is our Outdoor School campus on Gambier Island. The facility is bordered by a spectacular granite shoreline covered in a fir-arbutus forest.
Camp Fircom is a wonderful facility with comfortable cabins and lodge accommodations as well as a beautiful dining hall and many creative outdoor covered learning spaces. From here, Sea to Sky makes use of an amazing classroom of big trees, creeks, wild beaches, high mossy bluffs and protected parkland.
Our Approach to Teaching and Learning
At Sea to Sky Outdoor School, we combine a generous dose of optimism, realism, humor and kindness with a heap of small footprint fun and wilderness adventure. Our programs engage students in connecting with the value and wisdom of nature, and we invite students to be vulnerable and caring community members.
As educators we adhere to a pedagogy of kindness where we invite vulnerability by modeling vulnerability; we take risks and invite risk taking; we challenge by choice; we are guided by empathy; we are comfortable with quiet and try as best we can to go slow.
Learning at Outdoor School may not look the same as learning in a brick and mortar classroom, but is often deep, meaningful and worthwhile.
Our Pedagogical Framework:
The 3 R’s at Sea To Sky Outdoor School:
At Sea To Sky Outdoor School, we look out onto a world that is ripe with challenge and change. We see a world where the realities of climate change have been largely ignored; where poverty, both at home and abroad, continues to darken every neighbour's door; and where we are only coming to realize the social effects of long term isolation and fear.
We also see the power of young people who are looking for connection; who have passion in their hearts and vision in their minds; who, supported by quality education and sound mentorship, will help build resilient communities that will thrive today and tomorrow.
With this vision of hope, Sea To Sky engages with students, educators and elders to build curriculum based on provincial and school curriculum standards that supports students to grow into healthy and connected community members and leaders.
The 3 R's at Sea To Sky Outdoor School provides the basis for this collaboration and creative vision:
If it's REAL then learners will connect on a visceral level with who they are and who they are not. An opportunity to understand their honest and authentic passions is paramount.
If it's RELEVANT learners will move beyond the superficial and the trivial. It has to be meaningful and pertinent to where they and our world are presently at. Nothing less will do.
If it's REVOLUTIONARY then boldness will have won out over timidity. Learners will explore their assumptions and ideas about their lives and the world, and about what they long for and what is possible.
OUR HISTORY
Sea to Sky Outdoor School began in the Spring of 1992 on Keats Island in Howe Sound. The dynamic and skilled duo of Tim Turner and Wendy Miller provided leadership and expertise to a project inspired by passion and a love for the natural world.
Over the next 30 years, Sea to Sky provided over 2000 students and adults each year with the Sea to Sky experience: a melange of activities connected individuals with wild nature, challenged them to think about the Big Picture and asked the questions that pointed to the greatest challenges of our time. All of this wrapped in the joy, playfulness, music and jest of Sea To Sky Educators. Elementary and secondary schools chose the structured learning programs of Sea to Sky to complement their own curricula and provide their students with a unique learning adventure they would not soon forget.
In 2017, Wings (Tim) and Roots (Wendy), passed the reins of Sea To Sky Outdoor School onto Chael MacArthur and Robyn Ashwell.
During their first season as directors of Sea to Sky Outdoor School, Robyn and Chael welcomed a new member to the Sea to Sky family, Sadie. Guided by the beauty of the world around them and the wisdom of their new born child, Chael and Robyn brought new life to Sea to Sky Outdoors School. There were some hurdles along the way, and behind the magic of the programs and student experiences, there were sometimes ripples and rough waters, but soon the waters calmed and Robyn and Chael found themselves feeling highly energized and optimistic.
In March 2020, as a result of the global pandemic, Sea to Sky Outdoor School ceased operations and Robyn and Chael drew on all measures of resilience to adapt and pivot to meet the needs of their partner schools and community. They began by offering the Coast Wild Summer Program for local children; they offered day programs in local metro Vancouver parks for partner school; and started a September to June grade 1-4 Forest School program as well as a Pre - K program. As restrictions begin to lift in 2022, Chael and Robyn reignited the Sea to Sky Outdoor School torch with a new season of programs.
As of the Spring of 2025, Sea to Sky Outdoor School has been passed on to Camp Fircom, where we continue to honour the legacy of past and present Islanders, and we are thrilled to be preparing for our upcoming season. We are cleaning off the cobwebs. Dusting off the earth ball. Walking all the trails. And building the excitement for Sea to Sky Outdoor School Season 70 - 30 years of land loving learning.
