About Our School

Equinox Holistic Alternative School is a special place.

Equinox Holistic Alternative School is a special place. Of course, anywhere that children come together to learn is bound to feel special. Our particular sort of special has to do with the tall linden trees under which kindergarteners learn. It’s in the delight of a child teaching their grownup the difference between a bird's nest and a drey, or a birch leaf and an aspen. It’s in the amount of dirt that comes home under fingernails and inside boots. It’s in the fresh air “sit-spots” and the painted rally signs for eco-justice marches, and in the songs of ukulele strumming. It’s in the way children leave eighth grade feeling deeply loved, and confident in their unique identities, with the skills to self-advocate and carve out their essential places in the larger community.

Equinox is a public school under the Toronto District School Board and, as such, follows the Ontario Ministry of Education curriculum; however, our approach to teaching it is our own and is grounded in Holistic Education and nature-based learning practices. 

 

 

 

 

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"Holistic education is an effort to cultivate the development of the whole human being. Where conventional schooling views the child as a passive receiver of information and rules, or at most as a computer-like processor of information, a holistic approach recognizes that to become a full person, a growing child needs to develop — in addition to intellectual skills — physical, psychological, emotional, interpersonal, moral and spirited potentials. The child is not merely a future citizen or employee in training, but an intricate and delicate web of vital forces and environmental influences."

 

picture of Jack Miller

Jack Miller

Professor at the University of Toronto - Ontario Institute for Studies in Education & Equinox Founding Partner

“The land is the real teacher. All we need as students is mindfulness.” - Robin Wall Kimmerer


Our building & our classrooms

In 2009, Equinox was the first public school in Canada to offer outdoor kindergarten. Our main schoolyard includes five “outdoor classrooms”, consisting of elm trunk benches, and a rock circle that classes share. Our school’s other outdoor “classrooms” include Small’s Creek and Williamson ravines, Monarch Park, Woodbine Park, Ashbridge’s Bay, the Humber River, Lake Ontario, and other natural spaces visited at different times throughout the year.

Equinox shares a building with Roden Public School; our indoor learning environments are on the first and third floors. The third floor includes an open common area where small Equinox assemblies, concerts, and other gatherings happen.