The Thames Valley District School Board has announced that one of its three new elementary schools opening in 2025 will have an Indigenous-inspired name. The new school located in Woodstock, Ontario will be named Turtle Island Public School. When the school opens in 2025, it will serve 856 students in the Woodstock region and will feature a childcare centre for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. The London Free Press reports that Indigenous students and those living in local First Nations communities—including all families of the Chippewa of the Thames First Nation, Munsee-Delaware Nation, and Oneida Nation of the Thames—were invited to participate in the naming process polls. “The Board of Trustees is grateful to these school communities for their thoughtful participation in the school naming process,” said TVDSB Board Chair Beth Mai.
