In the 1880’s, Katherine Lang Durnhan taught the Island children in her home. In 1888 the City of Toronto decided to open a school on the Island. The city gave the land at no cost to the school board to build a one room school house near the Gibraltar Lighthouse. The first teacher, Miss Clark, had sixteen students and earned $345.00 . Sometimes the school was closed because not many people lived on the island in the winter. In 1896 the school was made permanent. The teacher was Miss Helyer. The caretaker, Mr Durnhan was also the lighthouse keeper.

In 1909, it was decided to move the school, but before they could move it, on May 24, it burned to the ground. It was suspected that someone had set fire to the school house on purpose. The fireboat “Nelly Bly”, prevented all the houses nearby from being burned as well.

A new school was built and opened in September 1909. That year there were 52 children in attendance.

In 1921, the number of pupils had doubled and their was a space problem. The school board wanted to build a new school closer to Ward’s but the City of Toronto would not give them any land. So they added another room to the building. The number of students steadily increased, so more rooms were added in 1932. After World War 11, people began to live on the Island year round because there was a shortage of houses in the city and more houses were built on Ward’s and Algonquin Islands.

More rooms were added in the 1940’s and in 1953. There were 630 pupils in 1954.

In 1956, Metropolitan Toronto Park’s Department started to tear down houses on Centre and Hanlan’s Point to make a park, so enrollment dropped again. In 1960, to use the extra space, the residential Natural Science Programme began.
Today the Island Public/Natural Science School operates a day programme from junior kindergarten to grade 6, a residential natural science programme for 68 visiting grade 5/6 students each week, the Gibraltar Point Day Nursery for 19 children ages 2 - 5 and a Parenting Centre for pre-school children and their caregivers.

The ground breaking for a brand new Island School was held on November 21, 1997. The new IPNSS was opened in April 1999.