AIFK Founder and Lead Teacher
Symon James-Wilson, HBA, BEd, MA, OCT
Symon James-Wilson is the founder and lead teacher of Algonquin Island Forest Kindergarten. Symon is an Ontario Certified Teacher (OCT) and third generation Toronto Island resident. She brings over sixteen years of experiencing working in a variety of traditional and alternative education settings to her role at AIFK.
The impetus behind AIFK
Symon founded Algonquin Island Forest Kindergarten after two years of teaching learning pods. For those unfamiliar with the term, the learning pod model is a type of cooperative homeschooling where children from different families come together to learn in a small group, often home-based setting. Learning pods are usually facilitated by the parents of participating children, trusted community members, or formally trained teachers.
Facilitating learning pods opened Symon’s mind to a whole new approach to elementary education. With a small group of four to six children, she was able to get to know her students and their families with a depth that had never been possible in traditional school settings. Symon found it much easier to incorporate nature-based learning, hands-on activities, and arts education in the pod model. Symon began to wonder how more children could experience this kind of education, even if only for a year or two of their preschool and elementary years.
In July 2022, AIFK was born. With so much of her own childhood having been shaped by the Island's enchanting landscapes, Symon was excited to mentor and support a new generation who would contribute their own unique gifts to our world. She set forth an intention to provide the children in her care with a kindergarten experience that is more personal, exploratory, and intrinsically motivating than what is currently being offered in most preschool environments; including school-based kindergartens where the average student to teacher ratio is 13:1 and children are mostly indoors.
Education and Professional Background
Symon has earned a Honours Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Education, and a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto. During her studies, Symon traveled to Tanzania, Australia, Guyana, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the United States to conduct several academic research projects. She has published findings from her research in human geography textbooks and edited volumes as well as online. Her MA thesis on the historical geographies and infrastructures of school segregation in the Rochester, NY was awarded the American Association of Geographers’ Critical Geographies of Education Subgroup’s 2020 Dissertation Award.
During Symon’s time in the Concurrent Teacher Education Program at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE/UT), she practiced alongside teachers in the US, UK, Australia, Tanzania, and Canada. Symon has volunteered in several schools in the Toronto District School Board including: The Grove Community School, Equinox Holistic Alternative School, Palmerston Avenue Public School, Bessborough Drive Elementary and Middle School, Pape Avenue Public School, and Wilmington Elementary School. She has taught in traditional, alternative, outdoor, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia inspired settings. Symon also has a professional background in community gardening, forest school programming, curriculum writing, and postpartum care providing.
Symon is excited to be one of the first Ontario Certified Teachers to launch a forest kindergarten program in Toronto. She is committed to making Mother Nature-guided education more accessible to families in the city. She sees Algonquin Island Forest Kindergarten as a positive step in that direction.