Heritage in Schools

Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s Heritage in Schools Program includes our Heritage Study Guide that is full of helpful resources for teaching about local heritage, our popular Field Trip Grants, and Professional Development support for educators.

The Heritage in Schools Program aims to:

Increase students’ and educators’ awareness and knowledge of local heritage places and history by providing learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom.
Encourage students and teachers to engage with Vancouver’s diverse heritage places, and contribute to meaningful discussions around their histories and future legacies.
Support the professional development of educators in order to promote place-based heritage education in Vancouver public schools. We do this by collaborating with educators and students to develop accessible resources and self-directed inquiry-based projects, and through support of Vancouver Heritage Fairs.

Thank You to Our Project Partners

Andrew Mahon Foundation

GMR Foundation

Heritage Study Guide

Our easy-to-use Heritage Study Guide contains a wealth of resources that connect to the BC curriculum. The guide helps educators to incorporate heritage and local history in the classroom and make place-based connections to the community beyond the classroom.

The Heritage Study Guide links to a wealth of VHF resources as well as the many online resources created by local organizations, communities, and institutions.

The focus is on place-based learning to help students understand their local environment and how it fits into our evolving city. The guide helps educators unpack complex concepts and explores intangible and tangible aspects of local heritage to create an understanding of why these places matter.

We are excited to announce that a re-designed Heritage Study Guide with additional resources will be launched in Fall 2022.

In the meantime, please download our original Heritage Study Guide and let us know how you are using it with your students.

Heritage Study Guide PDF

Field Trip Grants

Our popular Field Trip Grants will re-open for the 2022-23 school year for Vancouver School Board educators and classes.

For up to date information on our Field Trip Grants, please subscribe to our eNews, follow us on social media, or contact our Special Projects Manager Jessica Quan jessica@vancouverheritagefoundation.org

Learn More

Professional Development Support

As part of our Heritage in Schools Program, we provide professional development support to educators by offering a variety of in-person and virtual sessions as part of organized professional development days. For the 2022-2023 school year, VHF is planning a variety of site-specific Professional Development sessions in different Vancouver neighbourhoods.

If you wish to invite VHF to present to your staff, arrange a walking tour of your school and neighbourhood, or to be on the Professional Development Days email list, please contact: jessica@vancouverheritagefoundation.org

Vancouver Heritage Fairs

VHF is proud to support the Vancouver Heritage Fairs. The Heritage Fairs Society is a non-profit organization that promotes the education of Canadian history amongst BC Students. Every year, the society plans fairs across the province in which students showcase their projects on a certain aspect of our past.

The Heritage Fairs Society is always looking for volunteers. They are currently looking for English and French speaking adjudicators who are interested in history and heritage and enjoy working with children (for virtual and in-person fairs).

If you wish to participate, please contact: vanregionalhf@gmail.com