For today's episode we have Kim Ondrik, who is currently the Head Learner and co-creator of Mill Bay Nature School, an innovative school of School District 79 (Cowichan Valley) where children are centered and the BC curriculum is perceived as joy-filled, imaginative, and provocative. Even though it is not labelled a “C” community school, this seems to be an incredibly community-minded school, how it collaboratively and democratically functions, who it involves in learning, how it values the community and knows what the community adds to a student’s school experience, and more. We talk to her about the model of Mill Bay Nature School, how the Hul’qumi’num’ People inspired their teachings, the benefits of consensus learning, and more in this deeply rich episode.


RESOURCES:

https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:23862

QUOTE:

"Partnerships with Indigenous locals in facilitating outdoor education experiences are an excellent way to invite community members into schools, their knowledge and practice in the outdoors being invaluable. In the Australian Indigenous Education Action Plan, (2010, p. 9), it says, “A sense of cultural identity, and the active recognition and validation of Indigenous cultures by schools, is critical to student wellbeing and success at school”. It is when all these factors combine that an Indigenous component to outdoor environmental learning is authentic. The inclusion of Indigenous perspectives is in fact vital to increase the knowledge of the wider population in Indigenous ways."

-[Place-based outdoor learning and environmental sustainability within Australian Primary Schools](https://researchdirect.westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:23862)


BIO:

Kim Ondrik is presently the head learner and co-creator of Mill Bay Nature School, an innovative school of School District 79 where children are centered and the B/C curriculum is perceived as joy-filled, imaginative, and provocative.. The school is in its fourth year and is inspired by the embodied ideas of the Hul’qumi’num’ People, Reggio Emilia, Dr. Gord Neufeld, and proponents of ‘risky play’ and processes of democracy and consensus.

Kim says: “Mill Bay Nature School takes collaboration seriously – wide awake of how dedicated teachers ‘scraping up against reality’ as they interrogate their assumptions and transform – in the service of young people, their families and the greater community – create enormous tension, calling forth great humility and holding the potential of one example of systemic transformation.”

Kim was the co-creator of three other innovative sites of learning and growth in British Columbia public education before her work in the Cowichan Valley. She previously spent time as a teacher in Vernon, and is a proud mom of 4 sons.