Vision, Mission and Values
Vision
To be an educational community of inspired learners and leaders prepared to adapt confidently and engage responsibly in our changing world.
Mission
RDS inspires and develops the authentic character and potential of each child.
Values
We are guided by and adhere to our values of integrity, diligence, respect, and involvement.
A Message from our Head and Chair
The 2023/24 academic year was very busy with students involved in the buffet of classes, sports, clubs and activities that make up the fabric of the RDS experience. Our staff also continued to work on realizing the goals identified in our Strategic Plan, Meaningful Learning for Life. Highlights of this work included:
Future Ready Graduate Implementation: Launching the implementation of our profile of the Future Ready Graduate in Grades 6-8.
Experiential Education: Students from Grades 5-8 embarked on enriching field trips to Ottawa and Quebec City.
Literacy Enhancement: Expanding the structured literacy, Really Great Reading Program throughout the Junior School.
Community Engagement: Strengthening our connection with the RDS community through increased parent involvement in school events and fundraising.
We're also excited to announce that the RDS Board of Directors has approved our proposal to join the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan This decision is a significant step towards our strategic goal of Fostering a Place-Based and Future-Proof Mindset By joining the OTPP, we're solidifying our position as an employer of choice within the marketplace.
At the heart of RDS remains our unwavering commitment to developing and inspiring the authentic character and potential of each child. We're grateful for the continued support of our community, which enables us to provide exceptional educational experiences and foster a nurturing environment for all learners. Thank you for your ongoing support of RDS!
John Reid Head of School
Cathy Simpson (Clare '13 & Mitchell '18) Chair, Board of Directors
RDS Leadership
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sarah Ahmed, CPA Controller
Nicole Blair Assistant Head of School
Tory Boeckh Director of Student Life
Patrick Fordyce Director of Enrolment Management
John Reid Head of School
Cathy Simpson Board Chair & Alumni Parent
Debbie Champion, CPA Treasurer
Sze-Linn Choong Current Parent
Leverett Binks - Collier RDS Alumnus
Courtney Gibson Current Parent
Martha Mitchell Current Parent
Sandy Ward Current Parent
The Bottom Line
Commitment to Institutional Stewardship
As a not-for-profit independent school, RDS is dependent largely on tuition fees for revenue. In 2023/24, tuition fees comprised 87% of total revenue. Contributions from our community provided approximately 2% of total revenue and were used to help fund projects that would otherwise not have been possible.
The money we raised this year went towards enhancements to our teaching and learning spaces, including: a student art gallery on the 3rd floor, a living wall in the JK/SK area, student work display boards on the 4th floor, and an upgrade to the Grade 5 classroom
Staff salaries and benefits account for approximately 64% of total expenses. This allocation of expenses is typical among independent schools. The breakdown of operating revenue and expenses for the 2023 - 2024 fiscal year is:
Revenue
Fundraising
The ability to continue to enhance our programs is made possible by your generous support of the Annual Giving Campaign and Annual Art Show.
It is through the generous contributions of our community that we were able to raise over $80,000. It was tremendous to see 100% of our families contribute to our Art Show
Our programs benefited from the following enhancements: a Living Wall in the Kindergarten area, Student Work Display Boards in the 4th Floor Corridor, 3rd Floor Student Art Gallery, and Classroom Enhancements.
Annual Giving
Anonymous
Grace Andal
Clare Arena
Paul Arena
Laura Bae Nyström
Bruce Barber
Alissa Barton
Carly Basu
Mark Brennan
Shuting Chang
Sze-Linn Choong
Rui Feng
Clarissa Ferguson
Patrick Fordyce
John Graber
Clay Horner
Robin Horner
Ye Jia
Guangxiu La Borde
Amy Little
Martha Mitchell
Fredrik Nyström
Michael Ouellette
Amit Patra
Ekaterina Pesegova
Erica Procter
Stephanie Ratcliff
John Reid
Sidhartha Sharma
Aiva Sharakovsky
Jeremy Shell
Aakansha Singh
Ksenia Smorgonskaia
Ross Strowger
Thuy Tran
Peeranut Visetsuth
Amber Wilson
Matt Wilson
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the donor information in this report
We apologize for any errors and ask that you please notify us if there is a typo.
Art Show Donors
Junior Kindergarten
Patricia Back
Gianluigi Bisleri
Jasline Chadha
Long Dam
My-Tu Thi Doan
Carlo Gil Fernandes
Farid Khaheshi Hassankiadeh
Ye (George) Jia
Max Lawson
John Lyne
Jeany Nham
Chang Park
Orlando Pinzon
Alexander Puodziukas
Sadaf Salehkalaibar
Louise Scott
Jade Sehinson
Joanna Simon
Harmeet Singh
Elaine Tang
Damon Usborne
Roksana Dobrawa Zapala
Xin (Cindy) Zhan
Vittoria Zubani
Senior Kindergarten
Abdullah Al-Hashemi
Hadeel Adel Aljazzaf
Justin Alizadeh
Mark Peter Brennan
Wing-Yee Cheung
Karl Cheong
James Ebeda
Karen Ellison
Patrick Fordyce
Jason Richard Galbraith
Shannon Farrah Gotfrit
John William Robert Graber
Darcie Ladd
Calvin Lam
Laura Levine
Fredrik Nyström
Laura M Bae Nyström
Matias Palacios-Hardy
Ramandeep Kaur Sarai
Sarah Mary-Clare Scuglia
Dina Shamlawi
Jeremy Shell
Sonja Schneemann
Amy J Stent
Martin Joseph Steinlehner
Grade 1
Hawraa Almahmeed
Shuting Chang
Simone Chow
Phil Chow
Mariangela D'Agostino
Shaun Doody
Carlo Gil Fernandes
Ellen Guevarra
Jonathan Guevarra
Yu Ting Henry Han
Mir Sirajul Islam
Jesus Besari Jimenez
Paul Jones
Paul Lau
Wei Liu
Hollis Loubert
John Lyne
Scott Alexander McLean
Mladen Peric
Shastri Meranda Ramnath
Farzana Azad Rimi
Louise Scott
Aiva Sharakovsky
Vladislav Sharakovsky
Ksenia Smorgonskaia
Thuy Thi Tran
Beatriz Morera Villar
Congxuan Coral Yan
Kok Hooi Yap
Shiau Liang (Agnes) Yee
Roksana Dobrawa Zapala
Grade 2
Justin Alizadeh
Abdulaziz Saud Alosaimi
Shira Babins
Bruce Barber
Mark Peter Brennan
Kate Alexandra Chartrand
Howard hou Chen
Wing-Yee Cheung
Ronald Choi
Rebecca Fang
Dima Farsoun
Mariella Ferreyra
Patrick Fordyce
Jason Richard Galbraith
Shannon Farrah Gotfrit
Jaydeep Arun Halankar
Radhika Halankar
Hend Huthaifa
Ye (George) Jia
Guangxiu (Georgette) La Borde
Zhivan La Borde
Darcie Ladd
Josh Li
Janet Ng
Phuong (Linda) Tu Ngo
Brian Peterson
Ferase Rammo
Gnanaraj Shanmugarajah
Aakansha Ajay Vir Singh
Rajiv Singh
Alison Sreedharan
Ravi Sreedharan
Amy J Stent
Kimberly Thomas
Clayton Dawn Thomas
Rodrigo Torres-Andrade
Syed Ashfaq Qadri
Shahdab Ferdaus Qadri
Xin (Cindy) Zhan
Anne Zhang
Art Show Donors
Grade 3
Grace Andal
Ryan Andal
Laura M Bae Nyström
Lisa Michelle Barrans
Avin Basu
Carly Basu
Sacha Bernard
Brian Thomas Bertrand
Christine Kit Nil Chan
Bogdan Chmielewski
Shaun Doody
David Epstein
Michelle Marie Epstein
Gary Francis
Agueda Gallego Gonzalez
Alana Hughes
Alex Jackson
Chanda Jackson
Miyuki Kodomari
Stephanie W Lam
Jeremy Little
Amy Little
Hollis Loubert
Yuliana Georgieva Mladenova
Valentin Mladenov
Fredrik Nyström
Michael Kevin Ouellette
Geeta Pandya
Hitesh Pandya
Juanita M Portela
Sarah Robichaud
Sidhartha Sharma
Neha Trivedi
Brian Tse
Christopher Varga
Amber Wilson
Matt Wilson
Max Young
Grade4
ClaudiaBianchi
NasrinBiramax
PatrickBolan
BingxuChen
HowardChen
MarkCormier
JustinCournoyer
VanessaCresnjar
NorikoDaido
AizeAnnieDu
RebeccaFang
OreyFidani
Ahmed A Ahmed Gadalla
Mingzhu Gao
Marzena Magdalena Gasinska
Jiayi He
Andrea Christine Kenyon
Esther Kim
Laura Levine
Mengchao (Frank) Li
Eric Lim
Laura E Main
Adam Main
Lisa Marriott
Kevin Charles McGee
Sean Miller
Garfield Mitchell
Sweta Misra
Amit Kumar Patra
Candice Kimberly Perez
Orlando Pinzon
Stephanie Ratcliff
Jeremy Shell
Joanna Simon
Luke Smith
Yeana Smith
Nadina Yasmin Taylor
Yan He Zhao
Zhuo Ming Zhao
Art Show Donors
Grade 5
Meghan Abbott
Giorgia Anton
My-Tu Thi Doan
Dima Farsoun
Vanessa Fong
Mir Sirajul Islam
Jesus Besari Jimenez
Emmanuel Katsavos
Seunghee Kim
Johan Louis Kotze
Andrew Maren
Stephanie Maren
Phuong (Linda) Tu Ngo
Chorfa Plain
Alexander Puodziukas
Ferase Rammo
Gnanaraj Shanmugarajah
Eric Shi
Ross Strowger
Ryan Taylor
Beatriz Morera Villar
Toby Wu
Stephanie Wu
Bernize Van Wyk
Ching Anna Yeung
Grade 6
Alissa C Barton
Joseph Cheng
Sze-Linn Choong
Karl Josef Codilla
Katerine Galura Codilla
Vanessa Cresnjar
Moizza Shehzad Elahi
Kelly Feng
Orey Fidani
Mingzhu Gao
Courtney Gibson
Sarah May Gibson
Christopher Michael Hawke
Omran Hilal
Denise Jones
Warren Jones
Chloe Jeon
Yoontae Jeon
Mengchao (Frank) Li
Jason LeBlanc
Monica Claire LeBlanc
Laura E Main
Adam Main
Nina Makarem
Robert Mark
Malam Mbarak
Martha Jane Mitchell
Andrew Pinto
Erica Procter
Jane Allison Rannie
Farzana Azad Rimi
Quentin Summers
Deborah Templer
Cortleigh Teolis
Jaron Waldman
Sandy Ward
Lloyd Von Wersebe
Huawen Zhao
Grade 7
Barbara Blanc-Luera
Laurel Brown
Nicola Epprecht
David Epstein
Michelle Marie Epstein
Chris Ferguson
Clarissa Ferguson
Vanessa Fong
Robin Naomi Fraser
Ilyse Glickman
Alix Paisley Horwitz
Warren Horwitz
Johan Louis Kotze
Reid Levesque
Malcolm Levy
Aileen Lim-Trotter
Ruben Luera
Yoshiyuki Orita
Megumi Orita
Stephanie Peltz
Jillian Rogers
David Rosen
Ben Ross
Richard Schulte-Hostedde
Ian Shelley
Marni Soupcoff
Ryan Taylor
Morgan Taylor
Justin Taylor
Richard Therrien
Krisztian Toth
Mrs Rebecca Toth
Makoto Trotter
Bert Van den Daele
Andrea Wightman
Bernize Van Wyk
Jiahui (Jessie) Xue
Grade 8
Clare Arena
Paul Arena
Claudia Bianchi
Gideon Chemel
Eunyoo Chung
Justin Cournoyer
Daniel Cummings
Tanya Evidente
Maya Goldenberg
Stuart Hands
Mir Sirajul Islam
Desiree Klein
Giuseppe Mandarino
Amy McCarten
Heather McCarten
Strahan McCarten
Claudia Mutis
Jane Ogilvie
Richard Ogilvie
Ekaterina Pesegova
Erica Procter
Farzana Azad Rimi
Tova Rose
Sandy Ward
A special thank you to the generous individuals behind these businesses within our community for their contributions to the Annual Art Show.
Actinolite Restaurant
Barry's Gym
Dr Judy Sturm & Associates
ElleTO
Glass Bird Tattoos
Heather Bolt
Jonathan Hyman
Lac+ Co Inc
Luxury Finds Consignment
Nail Cloud
The Cellar Salon
White Sands Travel Inc.
On behalf of the entire RDS Community, a very special thank you to our incredible Parent Guild for the 2023 - 2024 Year.
Claudia Bianchi, Chair
Sze-Linn Choong
Nicola Epprecht Desiree Hands
Kimberly Kislock
Jeany Nham, Art Show
Aileen Lim-Trotter, Class Reps
Kate Pesegova, Used Uniforms
Erica Procter, Vice-Chair
Amber Wilson, Art Show
