Douglas Jones built a rural school around the outdoors
The Waterloo graduate is principal of Limehouse Public School, which has held EcoSchools Platinum certification for five consecutive years.
Douglas Jones (BES ’93) once told a classmate he would never teach geography to high school kids. A third co-op term at Boyne River Natural Science School, an outdoor education centre, changed his mind: a week with a group of Grade 5 students led him back for a second term and into an honours thesis on outdoor education.
He is now principal of Limehouse Public School, a small rural school beside the Bruce Trail and the Limehouse Conservation Area. When he arrived in 2021 he encouraged teachers to ask where students would learn a lesson best. Mornings begin outdoors, older students mentor younger ones, and in the first year the school’s academic results began outperforming board and provincial averages.
Limehouse has held EcoSchools Platinum status for five straight years and was one of five schools in its region to adopt Learning for Sustainable Futures. In 2025, Wilfrid Laurier University researchers placed it at the threshold of Stage 4, Collective Action and Widespread Practice. It has also been approved to become the Northern Centre for Environmental Leadership.
Jones, a 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, also coaches teachers, principals and administrators who want to teach outdoors and sustainably.
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