Joseph Burr Tyrrell Elementary School

About Joseph Burr Tyrrell Elementary School

Situated in scenic Fort Smith on the banks of the Slave River, JBT Elementary School is a K-6 elementary school with 280 students. Instruction is offered in both our English Immersion and French Immersion programs. For those students in the English program we also offer second language instruction in Core French, Chipewyan, or Cree.

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Students and staff focus on four simple rules: Pride, Respect, Ownership, and Safety. Literacy is a primary focus along with a focus on numeracy and social responsibility for all students and staff. We also pride ourselves on our open door policy and our school greatly benefits from parent and community support. At JBT we help to create and promote futures through offering a number of diverse programs and activities including: seasonal whole school culture camps, primary activity days, literacy activities, student achievement awards, and a variety of extracurricular activities and sports.

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 and is administered by the South Slave Divisional Education Council, alongside other schools in the communities of Hay River, Fort Resolution, Lutselk'e, and Kátlodéhche First Nation (Hay River Reserve).

The school was named after Joseph Burr Tyrrell, a geologist and cartographer from Weston, Ontario responsible for leading two expeditions into what is now referred to as the Barren Lands in the Northwest Territories.