Experience the extraordinary.
1967 RLC established
Grade 7-12
Mission We create extraordinary learning opportunities rooted in meaningful experiences in our unique natural environment. RLC is a family with global citizenship who support one another to be the best of ourselves, throughout our lives.
Day and boarding
140 Total enrolment
18 Average class size
50/50 International to Canadian students
1:4 Ratio of faculty to students
70% of students live on campus
100% of students spend nights on outtrips, explore hundreds of kilometers of trails, and paddle some of the most beautiful lakes and rivers in the world.
Vision We will be the school of choice for students looking to be conscientious stewards of our ever-changing world. The RLC family will reflect the global nature of learning; our campus will be a home that inspires deep connections to the environment; and our values will reflect our roots and guide us into the future.
From the Head of School
R H Perry, our founding head of school, felt that the goal of Rosseau Lake College was to equip students “socially, morally, and intellectually so that they may meet the challenges of ensuing decades with courage, intelligence and understanding.” Since we began in 1967, that has been the core of our mandate: to educate young people, but to think about more than just the workplace. Yes, students need skills—they need to do math and to be able to write an elegant sentence—and we give them those things. But they also need an opportunity to become courageous and understanding. They need to become fantastic people: empathetic, generous, and considerate; able to have fun and equally able to meet adversity. And they need a sense of rootedness, to know that they are part of something larger than themselves, and to feel belonging within a community of mentors and peers. Rosseau Lake College is a physical space, but it’s also a metaphorical space. It’s a place of peace and challenge, growth and recreation, learning and calm. It’s where generations of young people have become the people they are meant to be.
Dave Krocker Head of School
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Extraordinary learning is in our nature. Rosseau Lake College is a small school in all the best ways: intimate, active, and personal. RLC is Ontario’s most northern independent school and has a campus that remains unique among independent schools in the world. Established in 1967, our students arrive from more than 20 countries and across Canada. They benefit from a world-class academic program located in the heart of Ontario’s famed Muskoka region.
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You get time to reflect on what’s really important.” —Brooke ‘24
We believe that students learn best through discovery. It’s the difference between spotting an owl during a hike in the forest and seeing it at the local zoo. While impressive in both scenarios, the experience is vastly different. That’s the essence of learning by discovery. At Rosseau Lake College, we intend for students to see the owl not because it is shown to them, but because they encounter it for themselves. We help them apply new skills in the service of their natural curiosity. We ask them to take what they learn and to make it their own. It is common to walk into a classroom at Rosseau Lake College to find the teacher among the group, positioned in a circle, collectively wrestling with a complex issue, concept, or formula. The teacher isn’t a lecturer, but rather a guide who works alongside the student, providing encouragement, direction, and guidance. Learning is project-based, collaborative, and active.
We know that learning takes time. Instruction is delivered in two semesters of 15 weeks and a one-month term course. Elongated blocks each afternoon offer both focus and depth. These provide large spaces of time for students to develop their thinking and follow their curiosity. There isn’t a sense of being pushed from class to class, discipline to discipline, whenever a bell rings. Instead, there is time to get into a task and stay with it, free from distractions. An investigation, a writing task, a piece of research can take the bulk of an afternoon. With a majority of staff and students living on site, learning happens naturally, taking the time necessary to work through the material, to address questions that arise, and to simply enjoy the pleasure of finding things out.
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“
LC has transformed my son. He is becoming R the person he was meant to be.” — Moira MacSween, RLC parent
Student-centred The curriculum is tailored to students’ interests to foster motivation and acknowledge pre-existing knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values.
Transferable Priority is given to cultivating knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that have applicability across various contexts, enabling seamless transferability.
Cross disciplinary Students are granted rich opportunities to explore the interrelationships between topics and disciplines. This extends to connecting curricular concepts to real-life scenarios outside the school environment.
Relevant Educational experiences are related to real-world issues, and solving real-world problems, in order to instill a sense of purpose.
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Inspiration is in our nature. At Rosseau Lake College, the natural environment is a constant presence in academic delivery and the overall student experience.
Research shows that being active and engaged in the outdoors encourages students to think more creatively, to engage more readily in problem solving, and to take initiative in exploring their world. It inspires teamwork and delegation and provides opportunities for students to naturally take leadership roles. Situated away from urban centres, on 56 acres of Muskoka waterfront, RLC grants a unique opportunity for students to live actively and to engage meaningfully with others. Our one-of-a-kind campus is an exceptionally
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rich resource for instruction, recreation, and inspiration. There are canoes, climbing walls, kayaks, sailboats, and a snowboard terrain park. Trails through the forest and along the shoreline are used for hiking in the warmer months and snowshoeing and skiing when there’s snow. The members of the faculty share a belief in the benefits of active learning and of spending time outdoors. And that’s a guiding principle for instruction. Lessons are active and purposeful with classes making the most of our setting.
ur daughter loves the programming, the campus, O and the teachers. We are thrilled she finally loves school.” — N icole McArthur, RLC Parent 9
Welcoming the world is in our nature. Our greatest distinction within private and independent schooling—and our greatest advantage—is our size.
In terms of metrics, we’re also one of the most diverse schools in the country. In a student body of 140 students, each year there are in excess of 20 nations and as many languages and dialects represented. The students signify a web of relationships stretching across North America and around the world. Living and learning with peers from so many places is a uniquely valuable experience. Interacting with peers from diverse backgrounds helps students develop strong crosscultural communication skills. Exposure to different cultures fosters open-mindedness and cultural awareness, preparing students to engage with a globalized world. Rosseau Lake College is the smallest independent school in Canada in terms of student population, and that’s intentional. Our size is our strength. It allows for a genuine sense of partnership between teacher and student, and it creates a shared excitement about educational and personal discovery. No one gets lost in the crowd. Our students benefit from being visible and known to all faculty, peers, mentors, and parent volunteers.
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veryone could just E relate and talk to each other. … You felt heard and cared for.” — Ouelhore Diallo ‘22, Nigeria, recipient of the President’s International Admissions Scholarship, University of Western Ontario
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Indigenous knowledge is in our nature. Indigenous culture, history, and learning philosophies are a cornerstone of our school’s everyday learning experiences and are integrated throughout our curriculum. These experiences deepen the bonds in our community and foster understanding, personal growth, and inclusive leadership skills within our faculty, staff, and students. The Seven Generations initiative is a result of nearly three decades of consultation and development with the guidance from First Nations Elders and families within the Robinson Huron Treaty Territory including Wahta First Nation and RLC Indigenous alumni. It is named after an Indigenous teaching that emphasizes the responsibility of each generation to consider the impact of their decisions on the next seven generations.
Local education with global relevance The Seven Generations initiative forms the core of RLC’s values; not only does it benefit the local Indigenous RLC students, it also provides powerful learning for all our students and staff, regardless of citizenship. It reflects the spirit of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) recommendations that supporting Indigenous learners begins with caring about them and who they are; expecting them to succeed; and celebrating their cultures, histories, and languages. While that is particularly clear for Indigenous learners, it’s true for all learners. Central to the school’s ethos, the Seven Generations initiative at Rosseau Lake College underscores the respect and care that all students need in order to learn and grow. It also provides a resource for others interested in how to use local resources and relationships to inform an international approach to education.
Thoughtful We are members of the natural world. We work to understand it so that we may better respect and protect it.
Persuasive The natural world needs us, and we have the competence, confidence, and character to advocate for it, our community, and ourselves.
Adventurous The natural world challenges familiar comfort and ease. We embrace challenges as opportunities for personal growth.
Creative The natural world poses complex problems. We never stop inquiring, working to better understand challenges.
Self Aware The natural world removes us from distraction and allows for contemplation. We embrace the opportunity to connect with self, to understand who we are, enabling us to navigate the world at large with integrity.
Community-Minded The natural world unites us. We actively support each other, meeting each challenge with an open mind.
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Self-discovery and resilience are in our nature. Rosseau Lake College’s balanced, supportive, and challenging co-curricular program provides opportunities for students to develop self-confidence, selfawareness, and the life skills that will serve in high school, post-secondary programs, and beyond.
Arts
Recreational Athletics
We aim to infuse our community with the magic that cultivating a love of the arts can bring. We offer opportunities and experiences in music, visual arts, drama, dance, and media arts. We celebrate how participating in the creation and sharing of the arts brings us together as a community and allows us to connect to one another and express ourselves. Our arts programming allows each student to explore their own talents and gives a variety of opportunities to be a part of classes, clubs, performances, and events.
In a sense, the entire campus is an athletics facility that students enjoy and make use of every day. From formal varsity teams to paddles on the lake on a warm sunny day, an active lifestyle is foundational to the RLC academic program. These are the things that make our athletics facilities particularly distinctive: a lake with 4000 feet of pristine lakefront shoreline, a sailing dock, a swim dock, a beach, and 56 acres of mixed-use forest. Those aren’t typical for schools across Canada, and they provide access to an exceptional range of athletic and cocurricular programming. It is indeed a special value proposition that in order to access canoes, paddles, life preservers, and water, we simply walk a short distance along a trail. A teacher at RLC can provide these experiences on a whim, free of intensive planning and transportation and logistics and paperwork. Similarly, a student at RLC is free to follow a compulsion to swim, paddle, ski, skate, sail, hike, and more with relatively little obstruction. There is always a willing facilitator among a group of highly certified and qualified educators.
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he drive to get the T most out of myself and hit my potential may be the most important value I have taken from Rosseau.” — Katie Tsuyuki ‘01, Olympic snowboarder
Outtrips
Personal development
The first week of each year is spent on a week-long outtrip, and there are other outtrip opportunities throughout the year. These trips are an enduring symbol of learning at Rosseau Lake College. That first trip places the idea of challenge at the forefront of our shared experience, effectively framing and foreshadowing the school year ahead. An outtrip, of course, is not quite the same as the long research essay or impossibly hard math problem. All three, however, are journeys for our students as they travel the distance from “I don’t think I can do this,” through twists, turns, and setbacks to finally arrive at “I did this.” The outtrips foretell the many journeys that lay ahead. At school and beyond, students will be faced with new challenges, and while they will often be unfamiliar, the feeling of facing them, and overcoming them, will be utterly familiar.
Rosseau Lake College has been celebrating student success in the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award program since 1977. The program is global and student-driven and requires commitment, a spirit of adventure, decision-making, goal-setting, and perseverance to achieve the Award. Our membership in the Round Square global community provides key opportunities for student and teacher exchanges, allows attendance at international conferences, and encourages participation in international service projects. We reach out to other Round Square schools to create unique, bespoke opportunities for students and teachers to develop international understanding and self-confidence, and to build interpersonal and communication skills.
Discovery projects
We work to elevate student expectations of self, to augment their sense of who they are and what they’re capable of. The Rosseau Roots describe the six characteristics through which students are able to clearly describe their growth from the time they join our community. The Seven Grandfather Teachings are also embedded within the values of the school. The Seven Grandfather Teachings are grounded in traditional Anishinaabe values and have been passed down through generations as a guide to growing, learning, and living a good life.
Discovery Week, a signature program at RLC, provides students with the specific opportunity to challenge themselves in ways and to an extent that they have not before. We have seen students imagine, create, and articulate incredible projects that hold meaning well beyond the simple fulfillment of a task or the grade associated with that task. Students have delved deeply into mechanics, engineering, culture, business, art, science, and beyond. Projects have included everything from designing and building a motorized go-kart, to manufacturing and marketing cosmetics, to organizing the school’s first powwow.
Character education
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Wellness is in our nature. It is a trademark of the RLC teaching and learning community that we work, always, to ensure we meet the particular needs of each student. This assurance is at the heart of our personalized learning approach.
Academic success is tied to social and emotional wellness. RLC’s approach to education appreciates the importance of supporting the whole child. Individual attention and small class sizes help identify academic challenges and offer students the support they require. We offer a range of learning support interventions, depending upon the needs of the student.
Guidance and post-secondary counselling Academic counselling begins in Grade 9 and continues with frequent and regular check-ins, including post-secondary planning, through Grade 12 and beyond. Post-secondary counselling includes one-on-one meetings with our guidance counsellor. In Grades 9 and 10 the goal of academic counselling is chiefly investigative: to help students find outlets for their interests while trying new things and experiencing new areas of the curriculum. In Grades 11 and 12 there is an increased focus of finding the right post-secondary option. Our guidance team helps through each step of the application process, including fielding scholarship opportunities.
Socio-emotional well-being The mental and emotional welfare of each student is paramount to the RLC offering. Our students benefit from being visible and known to all staff, peers, mentors, and parent volunteers. Students are counselled around active living and good daily routines and habits. They are mentored by boarding and campus life staff. Each student is assigned a faculty mentor, and has access to a range of supports, from group work to one-on-one counselling. Socialemotional topics are routinely discussed in mentor groups that meet weekly.
“
he goal is to T ensure we are creating a learning environment where students can fulfill their potential and chase their dreams.” —John Dinner, Coordinator, Student Success
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Community is in our nature. Boarding is the heart of Rosseau Lake College. Living on campus gives students more than just a place to sleep. It opens the door to a world they can call their own, allowing them to experience all that RLC has to offer.
The idea of home describes so much of what makes our school special. We believe that the extent to which learning is embedded in experience—and the vast range of experience we offer beyond academics— helps to cultivate a deep sense of connection to this place and to each other. School is more than the time we spend in the classroom setting—it’s the entire experience of growing and being with others. When students at RLC give their community talks at the end of Grade 12, those are the kinds of experiences that they speak of the most: the long hours spent in conversation in the evenings, the great talks with friends and teachers in the dining hall, the day trips on the weekends. The activities are great, but sharing them with others is what alumni remember most.
A community of academic peers The students who make up this community are those for whom academics is a passion and who are functioning at a high intellectual level. And, as we know from tennis and chess, when you play with others at the same or better skill level, it improves your game. Being part of a boarding community, simply because of its make-up, only furthers those connections, providing the challenge and the perspective that our students crave.
Where friends become family Alumni regularly come back to campus to share their insight, their experiences, and to reconnect. For all RLC graduates, this is home. Many important relationships are made here, providing support and connection for life.
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his is a community, and that’s what makes boarding T great—students from around the world coming together to share ideas, experiences, and to grow together.” — Kate Knight, Assistant Head of School, Student Services
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It is in us. In the journeys we take to become our best selves. In the diverse experiences we welcome with open minds and open hearts. It reveals itself in our deep connections to our community and the environment around us. Rooted in the spirit of Indigenous teachings. Reflected in our intention to be conscientious stewards of our ever-changing world. It’s in our willingness to accept challenges and to grow from them. To never stop inquiring. To never stop supporting and inspiring others. It is in all of us.
At Rosseau Lake College extraordinary learning is in our nature.
Rosseau Lake College 1967 Bright Street Rosseau, Ontario Canada P0C 1J0 705.732.4351 800.265.0569 admissions@rosseaulakecollege.com rosseaulakecollege.com