Parent Resources
Student Resources

District Parent Advisory Council
Employee REsources
Welcome to Cowichan Valley School District
The Cowichan Valley School District proudly serves learners across many diverse communities. We offer world-class instruction and a rich diversity of engaging programs to help prepare our learners for a world they will create.
Contact District
Phone: (250) 748-0321
Fax: (250) 748-6591
Email: info@sd79.bc.ca
Mailing Address
Welcome to Cowichan Valley School District
There are 17 Elementary schools and 5 Secondary schools in the Cowichan Valley School District.
Catchment School
To learn what your catchment school is and to obtain school contact info please use the School Locator tool.

Framework for Enhancing Student Learning (FESL)
Each school has their own plan on how to serve our learners. These plans align with the district-wide FESL and Beyond Education, you can find individual school FESL’s with the below
Nourish Cowichan
Nourish Cowichan provides lunch for all students who need it without barriers such as registration or application.
Please connect with your school office staff for access or more information.
Transportation Registration
Registration for the upcoming school year will open May 1 – May 31 for annual registration.
School Fees
District Academies
The Cowichan Valley School District, in partnership with a number of organization, offers District Academies to students both within, and beyond, the Cowichan Valley. The various District Academies offer students exceptional choice and the ability to focus their learning in specific areas of interest led by specialists in that field.
View 2024-2027 School Calendars
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have questions about how the school calendars are created? Please read our Frequently Asked Questions.
Parent Resources
Student Resources

District Parent Advisory Council
Employee REsources
Welcome to Cowichan Valley School District
The Cowichan Valley School District proudly serves learners across many diverse communities. We offer world-class instruction and a rich diversity of engaging programs to help prepare our learners for a world they will create.
Contact District
Phone: (250) 748-0321
Fax: (250) 748-6591
Email: info@sd79.bc.ca
Mailing Address
Google Translate is offered as a complimentary tool to improve the accessibility of the Cowichan Valley School District. Therefore, we cannot be held accountable for Google Translate™.
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Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat is a secure, AI-powered conversational assistant built directly into the Microsoft ecosystem. It’s a tool that can assist & analyze information, draft content, and help you save time with repetitive tasks.
In addition to quick tips, we have provided links to Microsofts support site for video tutorials as well.
Educators get access to the standard Copilot Chat tier for free. You get a powerful, web-grounded AI that is recommended for use within a school environment.
Here is a quick summary of some ways it could help:
Copilot Chat acts as a web tool to help save time with timely & repetitive tasks. Because it is web-grounded, it uses the latest information to help you:
Draft Communications: It can draft weekly newsletters, clear emails to parents regarding student progress, or polite field trip reminders, saving you from staring at a blank page.
Save Time on Prep: You can ask it to write a complete lesson plan, build an evaluation rubric, or generate a 10-question multiple-choice quiz on a topic of your choice.
Differentiate Learning Instantly: Copy and paste a dense, complex article into the chat and ask Copilot to “Rewrite this text at a 5th-grade reading level” or “Simplify the vocabulary for English Language Learners (ELL).”
Because you’re using Copilot chat within an Educational tenant, it features strict data guardrails. Your prompts, school data, and internal files are entirely isolated within your organization’s secure tenant—they are never shared publicly or used by Microsoft to train their AI models.
Students (ages 13 and up) get access to the standard Copilot Chat tier for free. Copilot chat can serve as a tool to assist in learning & build critical thinking and digital literacy skills:
Even with safeguards in place, using any kind of AI at school comes with specific responsibilities. Here is a quick guide on staying safe.
1. Oversharing Personal or Sensitive Info
The Right Way: Students should be instructed on safe use of this tool, because the risk of accidentally entering personal information is high. As a public body, we must exercise our due diligence to ensure students understand the risks.
The No-No: Typing personally identifiable information into the chat—like a home address, phone number, passwords, student ID numbers, or sensitive information about your fellow classmates.
2. Admins Can Audit
The Right Way: Remember that because this is a school-issued account, your school district’s Tech Department have the ability to log, search, and audit chat history for safety, compliance & bullying. Keep your conversations appropriate and strictly focused on schoolwork.
The No-No: Treating the chat history like a private, unmonitored diary.
3. Plagiarism (The “Copy-Paste” Trap)
The Right Way: Use it to brainstorm an essay outline, explain a concept you don’t understand, or check your paragraph for grammar errors. You should always be the one doing the actual writing.
The No-No: Asking Copilot to write your entire essay, history report, or coding assignment, and turning it in as your own work.
4. Fact checking
Double-Check the Facts: AI can sometimes “hallucinate” (make things up that sound totally real). Always verify critical facts, dates, or formulas using reliable sources or your school textbooks before putting them into an assignment
The key to unlocking your school or organizational privacy features is ensuring you always sign in with your corporate/educational credentials. Avoid using third party AI tools to ensure you’re staying within the district guardrails. There are two primary ways to access
This is the dedicated, standalone home for your AI chat experience.


