GAIA School
IP Number NS/02,Sector 93, Opp ATS Green Gate 2, Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201301, India
GAIA School – full name Global Academy for Integrated Arts – is a progressive K-12 micro-school (currently 80 learners, ages 5-18) located on a 2.5-hectare permaculture campus twenty minutes from Victoria, BC, Canada. Conceived in 2019 by a group of educators, artists, and environmental scientists, GAIA’s mission is to cultivate “ecological intelligence and creative courage” through an arts-integrated, project-driven curriculum that is rooted in Indigenous land ethics, systems thinking, and outdoor learning.
Core Program
Learners are grouped in four multi-age “Studios”: Earthkeepers (ages 5-7), Wayfarers (8-10), Cartographers (11-13), and Catalysts (14-18). The week is structured around three learning strands:
1 Studio Workshops (STEAM labs, visual arts, circus & movement, music production, first-nations carving).
2 Inquiry Arcs – six-week multidisciplinary projects tied to a guiding question such as “How does water hold memory?” or “What food systems would feed 10 billion people?” Students collaborate across studios, prototype solutions in GAIA’s makerspace, and integrate fieldwork in the school’s wetland, greenhouse, and food forest.
3 Personal Learning Journeys – individual or small-group deep dives negotiated with mentors and documented through digital portfolios.
Daily Rhythm
Morning Circle under the cedar canopy starts at 9:00 with land-acknowledgement, gratitude song, and micro-lessons on Salish language. Core skills (literacy, math, French) are woven into maker labs rather than taught discretely; learners earn “G-credits” that convert to BC curriculum requirements at graduation. Twice-weekly Cascadia Days see the entire school board the BioBus to mountain watersheds, salmon hatcheries, or local artist studios. Afternoons are dedicated to rehearsal, harvesting, or one-on-one coaching with experts-in-residence.
Green Campus
Five geodesic classrooms with passive-solar frames are arranged around a central Ganden garden teeming with heritage apple varieties. Solar arrays and Tesla batteries make GAIA near-net-zero; a living machine (reed-bed) treats grey water; compost toilets close the nitrogen loop. The campus doubles as a teaching laboratory: students monitor soil arthropod diversity, host citizen-science nights, and run a seasonalCSA that supplements 25 % of their own meals.
Assessment & Credentials
Rather than grades, teachers issue narrative reports and “wisdom badges” aligned to four key capacities: Ecological Stewardship, Creative Expression, Critical Systems Thinking, and Courageous Collaboration. Older learners curate a public Capstone Exhibition in partnership with community mentors; recent projects included designing a mycelium-based biofilter for nano-plastics and staging an aerial-dance piece on climate grief that toured four regional theatres.
Access & Community
Tuition operates on sliding-scale $4k–10k CAD; 20 % of places are fully funded via the GAIA Equity Fund. Parents contribute 12 service hours per term (carpentry, guest coaching, or grant writing). The school is fully certified as a BC Independent School Group 3, making credits transferable to public secondary or post-secondary institutions.
Outcome data show 95 % of graduates pursue post-secondary or apprenticeship, yet every alum lists “planet caretaker” as a primary identity marker—proof that GAIA is not just a school but a regenerative culture in miniature.
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- Published: July 30, 2025
