Staff and students arrived at Mildenhall Montessori School in Etobicoke on Monday to find their schoolyard a little more bare than usual.

A red canoe that had been a fixture at the Mimico school for four years had been removed from the property, leaving behind only a mound of dirt in its place.

The canoe, which had holes in it and was donated to the school by a local canoe shop, had been used as a decorative piece to house a school garden.

The school's registrar, Jane Chaban, said considering the amount of gravel and dirt that filled the canoe, removing it from the property would have taken a considerable effort. 

"We are just dumbfounded someone would do that," she said. "It would be no easy feat to do ... It must have been a few people."

Parent Ernesto Cervini agreed. 

"I'm not sure why anybody would steal this," he said. "It must have been a big job to dig out all of the plants and take the canoe."

Chaban said the school chose not to report the incident to police, but she hopes that if community members keep an eye out for the canoe, they may be able to find it and have it returned.