Reviews of Kamloops School of the Arts (School)

Bella’s Outlet

Well i don’t like some teachers????????????????

John Cochrane

ksa is awesome

Bryce Craig

Sure they are a little disorganized but it was a good school. I enjoyed my time here

Francis Norwood

i like pizza

Mason Lougheed

i dont like art

UwUImAShoe

My time here is still not over but overall my experience hasn’t been the greatest, it’s a decent school dont get me wrong but the way they deal with problems is just brushing them away like nothing ever happened.

THERESE

I have nothing but raving, positive, yell-it-to-the-universe things to say about this school, it's administration, all staff I have interacted with, and the level of quality, help, understanding, and COMPASSION my son and I have both received during our almost-9 years with them so far. I have to say that I was actually very shocked at having read many negative comments on here... I do understand people will always have different experiences, outcomes, and different reactions to situations. I feel sympathy for those who have a bitter taste regarding this school after their experience. I really struggled at first, whether or not to actually enroll my son in this school, as he really was not at all "artsy" in any way - and some very difficult behavioural issues had recently started to surface. But I learned -very quickly- that it was not about whether or not your child is good with a set of pencil crayons, versed in a 2nd language, or star pupil at the dance academy in town...... this Arts school integrates all of the arts into their curriculum, and into HOW they teach it - and therefore, HOW the students receive, learn, and understand it as it's presented, at each level and grade! It's amazing. And as far as his/ our "issues" were concerned... I've never experienced as much compassion, concern, caring, and hands reaching out to help us up - ever. They have worked very directly both with my son and myself so much, I'll never be able to express my gratitude, to many people, enough to actually show how much of an effect it has made! This school, in my own opinion, is simply one of the BEST, and can't recommend it enough!!

Juno M

was okay at best.

-Candy-

Should not be called an Art school. Some teachers here are good, but the school in general is a no.

Rian Munro

Best school ever. So happy I have both my kids in this school

Robert Stenson

It's an indisputable fact that I attended this school for longer than most of the kids there have been alive. Thus, I've put more time into arts-based learning and creative experiences than most people will ever even dream of. My life here was really the best of times, yet it was often the worst of times as well, but if I had to pick from the positives and negatives of the school, the bad would outweigh the good. I went to this school starting from preschool, back before the high school part of it was made into a full-fledged reality, all the way to Grade 12, during which the school took on a new K-12 identity and many of the people I knew and cherished had come and gone. It seems like merely a week ago that I walked through those green-tinted doors of the old elementary campus back in 2005, but it really has been over thirteen years. Think of it this way: kids born in this millennium are going to college now, the 90s was almost thirty years ago, and 9/11 had its 17th anniversary not too long ago as of this writing. However, this school had plenty of problems too. Just some of those recurring issues the school had during my long stay there were its sub-par lunch program and the complete lack of awareness regarding the mental health and well-being of its students. It was not always the best place to be, especially when I got on people's bad sides and my empathy and self-awareness slumped on various occasions. I was a troublemaker and "problem student" most of the time too, which didn't help matters. I must say, the teachers, students and vibes of this school were decent at best and scarring at worst. Sometimes all my classes and peers were fine, yet other times I could hardly stand them. Like the world of arts itself, the school is a constantly evolving matter in which "self-expression and performances" lead to consequences, both good and bad. While I can admit some of my actions and subsequent consequences were on me, oftentimes they were completely unwarranted and unacceptable, like in Grade 11 when I was involuntarily taken off my antidepressants by my doctor and was then kept on a tight and short leash for the rest of the year. During this time the administrators of the school resorted to unscrupulous and reprehensible tactics, including the likes of coercion, emotional blackmail, abuse and punishment, in order to "correct" my "wrongdoings" whilst being vulnerable due to the lack of pills in my system and to make me "safe" from "hurting myself or anyone else." As one can tell, not only was the district-wide Code of Conduct utterly violated in nearly every possible way during this period, yet also the administrators and support staff employed by the school were completely and willingly ignorant regarding the poor choices they made. It is for these reasons and my personal experience that I must say that the school doesn't care if you're a perfectly respectable individual. If you refuse to conform to their strict standards even once, the school will pull no punches regarding their methods of punishment, making you feel like scum and resorting to the lowest common denominator in order to spread their outright misuse of power. Anyway, some of the people I cherished the most during those years were the close friends I had all throughout elementary school (you know who you are), my kindergarten and Grades 2, 5, and 7 teachers, and even the janitors. Those people helped me prosper, but others, like the aforementioned administrators, along with various bullies and love interests, didn't. In conclusion, Kamloops School of the Arts (or as the name I knew it by most of the time, Beattie School of the Arts) was an interesting yet flawed endeavor which I stuck by for most of my life thus far. It was never perfect, but the nostalgia, experience and all-around spirit of the school kept me going through the dark, and the light of it all. Despite this, I have no plans to revisit that place, especially due to their chronic mistreatment of me.

J Todd

This school failed a student, a family, and the school's very own basic purpose: to provide each student with an education. In fact, instead of making any effort at all to help me learn, the administrators at this faculty decided to kick me out of it. I have a chronic health condition, and I guess this makes me not "pure" enough to attend here. Essentially, I was discriminated against for having a chronic illness. I had quite a flare-up of my condition while I attended this school and attendance was difficult during this time. I would try emailing my teacher about assignments, but instead of giving me any actual physical work, I received speeches about how I have to be at school to daily. Although aware of my chronic struggle, the school refused to accommodate it. I can understand that I need to physically be there for some assignments, but to give me absolutely none or any sort of substitute work was only setting me up for failure. Whenever my parents or I would try to reach out to the overworked student counsellor (who I am sure would misplace her head if it were detachable), she would either completely forget the entire conversation, or just flat out never get back to us. I emailed her actually about an urgent matter near the end of the school year and it took her a month to get back to me. Even then, her email really did not help in any way. It just goes to show how my voice or case did not really matter to them. My critical situation should of been a priority to them, but instead it was continuously put to the back of the pile. As the school year came to a close, the school discarded me like trash. My family received a letter in the mail basically outlining how I am being kicked out of the school. This is not the kind of thing that should be done through letter; it should be done in person (we tried to set up a meeting multiple times before even receiving the letter to discuss my future education but nobody ever got back to us) and an attempt should be made to still try to make the student successful in their following school year. Throughout my entire attendance here, the vice principal and principal made no effort to try to meet with my family and I, or create a way to accommodate my serious situation. Now a new school year has started, and I am left with literally to school. Nobody from KSA has checked in to see how I am or if I am even attending a school. It does not matter what a student is going through; every child has the right to learn. Some of us has difficulties that make it harder for us to attend and no child should be abandoned behind the rest of their class because of it. Everyone deserves to have a fair education. A couple of side notes: The first face that one greets at a school, the secretary, should have some enthusiasm in her. The main secretary here, Mary Ullstrom, is about as lively as a rock. There is never any expression on her face, and this just immediately gives off an unwelcoming vibe. Oh, and ask her any question and she will repeat her famous catch-phrase, "I don't know". I thought secretaries tend to be in the loop about what goes on at a school? And If you are thinking of attending here for the fine arts program, let me warn you, the art room SUCKS. The best supplies they carry are a bunch of ratty old Crayola pencils. A high school student who is heavily involved in art can only learn such basic techniques from these kind of extremely basic supplies. My previous school carried brands like Prismacolor and Copic. Those actual quality supplies really helped me advance my learning. The art teacher can be quite temperamental too; don't get on her bad side.

Jasmin MacDonald-Boyle

i got tolded to commit sewerslide also i never learned how to do long division