Children living at UniverCity will benefit from two of the Lower Mainland’s most innovative and progressive educational facilities when the community’s new elementary school and childcare facilities open in September.

In addition to the prescribed B.C. curriculum, the K-7 school will focus on themes that reinforce UniverCity’s community ideals and practices, including sustainability (being green), community involvement and learning through inquiry.

"It will also be one of Burnaby’s most ambitious schools when it comes to the design of the landscape," says Jonathan Tinney, SFU Community Trust director of community development.

"They’re incorporating a smaller than normal playfield in order to maintain a significant treed area for the children to play and learn in. The grounds will have green corridors and outdoor classrooms, a water garden to learn about hydrology and an organic garden to learn about growing and eating locally."

Located almost next door, the SFU Childcare Society will operate UniverCity’s new childcare facility, employing a Reggio Emilia-based preschool program. The Reggio approach is named after an Italian village where the increasingly popular teaching theory originated.

As part of the Reggio philosophy, staff will guide the three- to five-year-olds toward provincially set goals by appealing to their native curiosity about the world
around them. Along with more traditional methods, the approach focuses on learning through experience, exploration and expression.

"The childcare society uses a form of this system now," says Tinney. "But a big part of it involves the new building and the landscape, creating an environment that is purpose-built for this approach."