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Learning at Rosseau Lake College is hands-on and guided by how students learn best. In our small classes, every student is seen and heard, and our teachers know each one well.
Our students graduate with a strong sense of who they are, shaped by the Rosseau Roots, six characteristics that guide each student’s growth from their first day to graduation: being thoughtful, persuasive, adventurous, creative, self-aware, and community-minded.
They leave with the knowledge and skills to succeed in post-secondary studies and beyond, and they earn the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD), recognized by universities around the world.
"There are tests, don't get me wrong, but how you learn, how you do best, that's what matters here."
Jeremy '24, United Kingdom, now studying Medicine at Brunel University London
Unique to RLC and developed here, the Foundation Years is a program of its own. Dedicated middle school homeroom specialists teach through collaborative, creative projects, often combining subjects like math and science.
The lake, the campus trails, and our outdoor teaching spaces become a living laboratory, because we believe learning at this age is richest when it's active and, as often as possible, outside. Students build problem-solving and critical thinking skills, learn to work with others, and grow more resilient and independent. They also come to live the Rosseau Roots and the Seven Grandfather Teachings in their own ways, and arrive in Senior School confident enough to ask questions and take intellectual risks.
Learning stays active and often moves outdoors, with the curriculum built around what our setting makes possible. In Grade 9 geography, students study the meaning of place first-hand, from the shoreline and forest to built environments, and examine rock formations in the field rather than in a textbook. In Grade 10 science, the campus's range of habitats becomes an outdoor laboratory, where students identify local wildlife and see Newton's laws of motion at work in a canoe on the lake. English, math, outdoor education, and language courses run all year to support mastery.
Post-secondary advising begins in Grade 9, with one-on-one meetings with our Academic and Post-secondary Advisors. At this stage, it's about exploring: trying new subjects, noticing what students are drawn to and what they aren't, and beginning to understand themselves as learners.
Learning becomes more self-directed, with university and college prerequisite courses in 18-week semesters. Advisors help students follow their interests while keeping them on track with core requirements. The same advisor they've met with since Grade 9 helps them connect who they are as learners to specific post-secondary programs, then guides them through applying and accepting their offers, into programs that reflect the goals they've spent years developing.
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Learning at RLC includes Indigenous perspectives, which understand knowledge as interconnected, land-based, and rooted in culture and history. Through our Seven Generations Initiative, we bring Indigenous ways of knowing into every subject, creating learning that reaches beyond the classroom and honours the history of this land.
The world’s biggest challenges don’t arrive labelled as math, science, or English questions. At RLC, the “I” in I-STEAM stands for interconnected. Students learn science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math alongside Indigenous and intercultural ways of knowing, and come to see how ideas, people, places, and cultures connect.
Guided by the principle of Two-Eyed Seeing, they learn to value more than one way of understanding the world. Every learning experience starts with one question: why does this matter? I-STEAM is most evident in our Foundation Years, and its principles shape learning in every grade.
Our program blends academic courses with hands-on learning that builds real-world skills. Alongside English, math, the humanities, and the sciences, students can take courses you won't find at most schools:
Our English Language Learning program supports students in Grades 7 to 10 while they take on the full program. Learn about English language learning →
