Junior Years

The Junior Years at St. John’s Academy are where it all begins!

Students in Grades 4 and 5 are welcomed into a warm, inquiry-led environment built around curiosity, hands-on discovery, and the joy of learning something new every day. Home base is a dedicated classroom, complete with mudrooms and washrooms of their own, but learning at St. John’s Academy rarely stays within four walls.

Students explore curated spaces across campus for music, art, and physical education, and venture off campus regularly for swimming, skating, visits to local farms and parks, and trips to museums and cultural spaces that bring their studies to life.

Outdoor learning and free play are part of the rhythm of every week, balanced with a gentle introduction to technology that builds early skills without losing sight of what young learners need most: time to explore, create, and wonder.

Students begin learning French and take part in sports jamborees that introduce them to soccer, cross country, basketball, and more, planting the seeds of a lifelong love of movement and teamwork.

Enrichment

We encourage our students to be active, to be creative, to participate in service, and to think locally and globally. Our programs ensure that students build community outside of their classroom, learning to contribute, build, play and work with their broader student community.

For our youngest students, co-curriculars are about exploration, joy, and the pleasure of trying something completely new in a low-pressure environment. Junior Years students choose from a range of hands-on, creative, and outdoor activities designed to spark curiosity and build confidence alongside peers from across their grade group.
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Our visual arts program, which covers painting, drawing, pottery, sculpture, and more, gives students the time, materials, and mentorship to develop a genuine artistic practice.
Our design program introduces students to the principles of visual communication and the digital platforms that bring them to life.
Music at St. John’s Academy is deeply imbued in our programs and offerings. Starting in their earliest years at St. John’s, our musicians grow in confidence, skill, and love of the craft and the sound of it carries across the whole school.
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For students in our Junior Years, athletics at St. John’s Academy begins with the joy of movement and the pleasure of playing together. Junior Years students take part in sports jamborees, fun, inclusive multi-school events that introduce students to a range of sports in a supportive and celebratory environment.
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Environmental education at St. John’s is deeply ingrained in daily school life through inquiry-based lessons, hands-on projects, interdisciplinary learning, and a deep institutional commitment to environmental stewardship, conservation, and care for the land. Nestled between the forests of Mount Baldy and the waters of Shawnigan Lake, our campus sits within one of the most ecologically rich and beautiful settings on Vancouver Island, and we use every square metre of it with intention.
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Our philosophy is built around the belief that young people flourish when they feel connected and valued, and everything we do outside of academics is designed with that in mind. St. John’s gives every student a role to play in the life of their school with opportunities for involvement including peer support networks, student-run enterprises, school-wide competitions, and student government.
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