Joseph Burr Tyrrell Elementary School is an elementary school in Fort Smith,

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and is named for Joseph Tyrrell. The school is overseen by the Fort Smith District Education Authority and administered by the South Slave Divisional Education Council. It provides elementary education services to students from Fort Smith as well as the nearby Salt River First Nation and Smith's Landing First Nation.

Background

As of 2020, the school had 249 students and 28 staff members. The number of students tends to shift significantly from year-to-year due to the large number of students from outside the community whose parents attend nearby Aurora College, Thebacha Campus for a limited time. One estimate indicated that student turnover at the school could be as high as fifty percent. The school is located in the

South Slave Region The South Slave Region is one of five administrative regions in the Northwest Territories of Canada. According to Municipal and Community Affairs the region consists of seven communities with the regional office situated in Fort Smith and a sub ...

and is administered by the South Slave Divisional Education Council, alongside other schools in the communities of

Hay River Hay River may refer to: Places * Hay River, Northwest Territories * Hay River, Wisconsin Rivers * Hay River (Wisconsin) * Hay River (Canada), a river in Alberta and Northwest Territories, Canada * Hay River, Northern Territory, Australia * Hay R ...

, Fort Resolution, Lutselk'e, and Kátlodéhche First Nation (Hay River Reserve).South Slave Divisional Education Council
/ref> The school was named after

Joseph Burr Tyrrell Joseph Burr Tyrrell, FRSC (November 1, 1858 – August 26, 1957) was a Canadian geologist, cartographer, and mining consultant. He discovered dinosaur (''Albertosaurus sarcophagus'') bones in Alberta's Badlands and coal around Drumheller in 1884 ...

, a geologist and cartographer from Weston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

responsible for leading two expeditions into what is now referred to as the Barren Lands in the

French Immersion Program

The school is, as of 2012, hosting a

French Immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French-immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects s ...

program being offered to students from grades one to six.

References

{{coord missing, Northwest Territories Elementary schools in the Northwest Territories