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About Us

Lord Selkirk is a large English and French Immersion dual track elementary school located within the Cedar Cottage community. The 2016-17 school year will have approximately 745 Kindergarten to Grade 7 students enrolled at Lord Selkirk, making it the largest elementary school in the Vancouver School District. 

We have 28 different languages represented in our school community, with 190 of our students having a designation as English Language Learners. Thirtyfour students have Special Needs designations and 19 are of Aboriginal ancestry. 

As of September 2016, Selkirk will be in the eleventh year of its French Immersion program and includes a full complement of Kindergarten through Grade 7 students. Selkirk has more than 60 students who are identified from the Social Services Index as being “vulnerable” and we continue to maintain our Enhanced (formerly termed Inner City) School status into the next school year. This designation allows us to maintain some additional supports for learners and families such as literacy support using iPads, social-emotional learning programs such as Mindfulness and community outreach through activities such as Books and Breakfast and Movie & Family Nights. This work is supported by our Behaviour Support Worker and our larger Enhanced School Team made up of Gladstone CST Coordinator and Youth & Family Worker. To fully support all our students, Selkirk remains actively involved in various school, community and ministry partnerships such as: Enhanced Services (Inner City) Team programs (Social Responsibility, Media Literacy presentations), Cedar Cottage Out of School Care and During/After-school programs, Community Schools Team lunch hour and after school programs, Books and Breakfast, Friendship Club, Spirit of Selkirk Club, Student Leadership Team, Reading buddies (with Strong Start kids) and numerous leadership and extremely popular sports opportunities as well as parent-run programs (Fruit & Veggie Program, Chess club, School Spirit Club, Lego Club, Letter Writing Club, Community Choir). We run a Rec n’ Read summer school program for specially referred grade 1 & 2 students from all the elementary schools in the Gladstone family of schools. 

The school provides educational classes for parents and preschoolers. These activities include a daily Strong Start Program run from 9:00am to 12:00pm for 0 to 4 year olds and their caregivers with average daily participation of about 20 to 50. We also operate an Adult Education program in ESL and computer skills at nearby Selkirk Annex.  

Staff envision success for learning for each student to include:

  • Well-rounded abilities in all academic, physical and social areas
  • Students who are well-prepared for their experiences beyond elementary school (high school, post-secondary, work force, etc.)
  • Effective communication skills
  • Produce quality writing (versus social writing) with an understanding of purpose, audience and voice (life-long, 75% of writing is non-fiction and purposeful – e.g. job applications, etc)
  • A sense of personal safety at school
  • A sense of connectedness to an adult in the school
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