Global Programs

Not for Ourselves Alone

At York House School, we seek to inspire and build students’ capacity to understand and shape the world.

At York House School, we seek to inspire and build students’ capacity to understand and shape the complex world we’re living in today. We strive for YHS graduates to be able to apply their learning to their life pursuits, daily tasks, new scenarios, and a changing environment with curiosity and confidence. We help them develop knowledge, skills, and habits of mind so that they may understand and act on issues of local and global significance. Our school motto, “Not for Ourselves Alone,” expresses our commitment to empowering students to contribute to the betterment of the world.

At YHS, Global Programs refers to a host of learning experiences in and beyond classrooms through which students build their capacity to:

To do this, we believe that students must build their capacity to:

Know themselves;
Investigate the world;
Recognize, seek to understand, and value diverse perspectives; and
Take informed and ethical action

These experiences range from student-led clubs to volunteer community-based opportunities, from wilderness pursuits to socially innovative projects with impact. Examples of student-led clubs include First Responders, Robotics, Green Club, Random Acts of Kindness, and Model United Nations. Programs such as Each One Teach One and Kidsafe give YHS students the opportunity to learn through volunteering as mentors with young people in Vancouver.

Through our Incubator for Social Innovation, students engage in a design-thinking process and take a nugget of an idea to action. Through Outdoor Education students from Senior Kindergarten to Grade 12 explore the woods, mountains, and sea in British Columbia. National and international excursions, as well as international exchange opportunities in Mexico, England, Australia, China, and France, create opportunities for students to meet young people their age, explore the power and innovation of difference, and expand their perspective-taking skills which are essential to navigating today’s complex and dynamic world.

Through YHS Global Programs, students develop knowledge, skills, and habits of mind to learn, live, and lead well. They learn through doing. They learn through an ongoing cycle of understanding, action, and reflection.

At YHS, we believe in developing programs and partnerships that are guided by values of diversity and inclusion, a belief in the dignity and respect of all people, reciprocal and mutually beneficial relationships, innovation, and a commitment to deepening our individual and collective understanding of key concepts and pressing issues of our time.

International Exchange Program

YHS has long-standing partnerships with five schools for international exchange:

Seymour College in Adelaide, Australia
King Edward School for Girls in Birmingham, England
St Helen & St Katharine School, Abingdon, England
Colegio Williams in Cuernevaca, Mexico
Lauriston School for Girls, Melbourne, Australia

The International Exchange Program is open to ten YHS students in Grades 9 and 10. While temporarily on pause due to COVID, students apply in April of each year for the following academic year. Participating students:

Host a student from a partner school in a homestay scenario for four weeks;
Participate in a series of workshops at York House to prepare for their experience abroad, and to process their learning on return;
Live with an exchange partner and family for four weeks (including two weeks of the March break); and
Reflect on and share their learning with the York House community.

National & International Excursions

List of 8 items.

2023-24

National & International Excursions expected to resume.
2021-2023

National & International Excursions & Exchange on pause due to COVID-19.
2020

Quebec
Greece (postponed due to COVID)
France Exchange to Vancouver (postponed due to COVID)
International Exchange: Mexico, England, Australia
2019

Quebec
Poland
Cuba
France Exchange
International Exchange: Mexico, England, Australia
2018

Quebec
Germany & Poland
China - Hong Kong & Shenzhen
France Exchange to Vancouver
International Exchange: Mexico, England, Australia
2017

Quebec
Winnipeg
Guatemala
Poland & Germany
China - Chongqing
International Exchange: Mexico, England, Australia
2016

New York
Quebec
Poland
France
International Exchange: Mexico, England, Australia
2015

New York
Italy
Honduras
International Exchange: Mexico, England, Australia

Local Partnerships

School-wide
Women in Leadership Speaker Series: To learn with leaders and speakers engaged in our Women and Leadership Speaker Series such as Canadian astronaut Roberta Bondar; our very own author in residence, Tanya Boteju, and climate change activist, author, and Inuit leader, Sheila-Watt Cloutier.

Little School
Kindergarten students grow food in the garden and share this with the community. They participate in the Terry Fox Run, make cards for the Marpole Women’s Society, and create holiday gifts for Family Services of Greater Vancouver.

Junior School
Junior School students learn about water, food security, and literacy through classroom and community projects with Backpack Buddies. They develop relationships with children and elders beyond YHS through long-standing partnerships with organizations such as South Granville Park Lodge, the Reading Bear Society, Queen Alexandra Elementary, BC Children’s Hospital, and the YWCA.

Senior School

Volunteer Festival: The annual student-led Volunteer Festival exposes students to volunteer opportunities and inspires and supports their involvement in understanding and taking action on community-based opportunities for engagement and leadership in the Vancouver community.

Fundraising Festival: Students raise awareness about social issues and invite student voice, choice, and critical discernment around fundraising contributions to social causes.

Pop-up Board Council: Students raise awareness around the school about initiatives, issues, opportunities, and connections as a community.

Vancouver School Board Community Schools Mentorship (previously called KidsSafe): Each week, students volunteer after-school as tutors with an elementary-aged buddy from Queen Alexandra School.

Each-One-Teach-One Program: Partnering with St. George’s School students, YHS students act as mentors to elementary-aged students from Admiral Seymour Elementary School.

Engage! Student-led Speaker Series: Students share their own experiences of their volunteering, community engagement, and learning about community-based issues.

Incubator for Social Innovation: Students take a nugget of an idea for social innovation to action through a design process.

With respect, we acknowledge that the land on which we learn, play, and work is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xwməѲkwəyəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səlílwəta/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.