Modest in scale and playfully animated with vertical coloured-glass sunshades, Vancouver Talmud Torah elementary school shares an interconnected courtyard with the neighbouring Beth Israel Synagogue. An interior street runs the length of the school, providing visual and physical connections to an expansive imaginative playground nestled between towering shade trees. A cafeteria and learning commons overlook a light-filled gymnasium and an artificial turf play field sits atop the roof of the school. Pedagogy is centred on 21st-century learning principles with clusters of classroom neighbourhoods connected with a series of classroom commons.