Fires and floods; Lytton students persevere through unusual year

Loring-Kuhanga and Maria Adams both work at Stein Valley, north of the downtown core of Lytton.

As part of the one-year anniversary, a time capsule will be buried today. Included inside, notes and rocks from the younger generation.

“I work at Stein Valley as the K-to-Grade 4 teacher, so I got some of the students to do those already, and I did my rocks already. I’ll just put the rocks in, I think,” said Adams.

Teaching the younger cohort of students at the school has been a challenge for Adams as she attempted to bring normalcy back into their lives.

“I just try to make it a happy experience. We didn’t do as specific learning as we did before; it was a little bit more relaxed,” stated Adams.

Even as the one-year anniversary approached, she noted a controlled burn in the village was difficult for some in her classroom.

“We did have a few students that were re-triggered again because of the smoke and the fire. They were really emotional that day, and it did help to let them know there were the firefighters right by the fire. They aren’t going to let it [spread] like it was before. That really helped them,” remembered Adams.

The Stein Valley School runs on a 12-month calendar, so unlike students in Kamloops who are off until September, they will return to the classrooms in four weeks’ time.

“Some of our students are just getting used to being in school, so their preference is to continue staying in school, but some of our students have really struggled through this,” added Loring-Kuhanga.

by Michael Reeve

Fires and floods; Lytton students persevere through unusual year

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