Upper Canada College (UCC) is an elite,
all-boys,
private school
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, operating under the
International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...
program. The college is widely described as the country's most prestigious
preparatory school, and has produced many
notable graduates. UCC has 1,200 students and is a highly selective school, accepting approximately 15% of all applicants in 2019. The school attracts the best and brightest students from all around the world and has a generous financial aid program, with more than $5 million being awarded annually to Canadian citizens.
The secondary school segment is divided into ten
houses
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...
; eight are for day students and the remaining two are for
boarding students. Aside from the main structure, with its dominant
clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
, the Toronto campus has a number of sports facilities, staff and faculty residences, and buildings for other purposes. UCC also owns and operates an outdoor education campus in
Norval, Ontario
Norval is an unincorporated community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada. Situated on the Credit River, it is located approximately west of Toronto and is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton.
Norval is believed to take its na ...
. It is the oldest independent school in the province of Ontario
and the third oldest in Canada.
UCC was founded in 1829 by
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada
The following is a list of lieutenant governors of Ontario and the lieutenant governors of the former colony of Upper Canada. The office of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario was created in 1867, when the Province of Ontario was created upon Confed ...
,
Sir John Colborne
Field Marshal John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, (16 February 1778 – 17 April 1863) was a British Army officer and colonial governor. After taking part as a junior officer in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedi ...
, based upon
Elizabeth College, Guernsey. After facing closure by the government on more than one occasion, UCC became fully independent in 1900, nine years after moving to its present location. Today, UCC is fully independent and the students and faculty are more diverse in terms of cultural and economic backgrounds. UCC has maintained a link to the
Canadian royal family
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the founda ...
through members of it, or representatives of the monarch, sometimes serving as the college's Visitor and/or on the Board of Governors.
History
Beginnings and growth
![UCC Seaton statue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15/UCC_Seaton_statue.JPG)
UCC was founded in 1829 by
Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada
The following is a list of lieutenant governors of Ontario and the lieutenant governors of the former colony of Upper Canada. The office of Lieutenant Governor of Ontario was created in 1867, when the Province of Ontario was created upon Confed ...
Major-General Sir
John Colborne
Field Marshal John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, (16 February 1778 – 17 April 1863) was a British Army officer and colonial governor. After taking part as a junior officer in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, Sir Ralph Abercromby's expedi ...
(later the Lord Seaton) in the hopes that it would serve as a "feeder school" to the newly established King's College (later the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
).
[ UCC was modelled on the great independent schools of Britain, especially ]Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
. Though now a private school, the college was created with public funds, including an initial land grant of 6,000 acres of crown lands, later increased to 66,000 acres. The school began teaching in the original Royal Grammar School; however, within a year it was established on its own campus, known as Russell Square,[ at the north-west corner of ]King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
and Simcoe streets. Colborne brought educated men from the United Kingdom's Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
and Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
Universities, attracting them with high salaries. Still, despite ever increasing enrolment, popularity with leading families of the day (both from the local Family Compact
The Family Compact was a small closed group of men who exercised most of the political, economic and judicial power in Upper Canada (today’s Ontario) from the 1810s to the 1840s. It was the Upper Canadian equivalent of the Château Clique in ...
and from abroad); a visit in 1847 from the Governor General of the Province of Canada
The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British North America, British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham ...
, the Earl of Elgin; and praise from many, including Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
, UCC was faced with closure on a number of occasions. Opponents of elitism sought to curtail provincial government funding and remove the college from its premises.
The school survived its critics; it merged with King's College for a period after 1831 and moved 60 years later to its present location in Deer Park, then a rural area.[ The school expanded in 1902 to take in lower year students with the construction of a separate primary school building, the Prep, allowing for boys to be enrolled from Grade Three through to graduation.
In 1900, the government of Ontario stopped funding UCC,] making it a completely independent school. By 1910, however, UCC was facing declining enrolment and capital; it considered selling the Deer Park campus for $1.125 million and moving again to become a full boarding school on a property purchased in Norval, Ontario
Norval is an unincorporated community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada. Situated on the Credit River, it is located approximately west of Toronto and is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton.
Norval is believed to take its na ...
. Plans were halted by the outbreak of the First World War, and the college remained where it was. It eventually thrived there, both physically and culturally, as the buildings were expanded and bright instructors attracted.
Principal William Grant spearheaded further development. Shortly after assuming his position 1917, he oversaw recruitment of teachers described as "eccentric, crotchety, quaint, though widely travelled and highly intelligent." His tenure also saw other improvements. Student enrolment doubled, and bursaries increased. Teacher salaries also doubled, and their benefits now included a pension plan.
UCC maintained a Cadet Corps
A corps of cadets, also called cadet corps, was originally a kind of military school for boys. Initially such schools admitted only sons of the nobility or gentry, but in time many of the schools were opened also to members of other social classes. ...
from around 1837, which became a rifle company
A company is a military unit, typically consisting of 80–250 soldiers and usually commanded by a major or a captain. Most companies are formed of three to seven platoons, although the exact number may vary by country, unit type, and structure. ...
attached to the Volunteer Militia Rifles of Canada (later The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada
("In peace prepared")
, colours = None (Rifle regiments have no colours)
, march =
, mascot =
, battle_honours = See #Battle honours
, website ...
) in 1860 and the one of two student corps called to duty in Canadian military history when it assisted in staving off the Fenian Raids in 1866. (The other one being Bishop's College School
Bishop's College School or BCS is an English-language non-profit independent boarding
prep school in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada for students in Grades 7 to 12.Thomson, Ashley; Lafortune, Sylvie (1999). Handbook of Canadian Boarding Schools. To ...
No.2 Cadet Corps)[ Through the two World Wars, a number of UCC graduates gave their lives and provided leadership; historian ]Jack Granatstein
Jack Lawrence Granatstein (May 21, 1939) is a Canadian historian who specializes in Canadian political and military history.SeJack Granatsteinfrom The Canadian Encyclopedia
Education
Born on May 21, 1939, in Toronto, Ontario, into a Jewish fam ...
, in his book ''The Generals'', demonstrated that UCC graduates accounted for more than 30 per cent of Canadian generals during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, and 26 Old Boys achieved brigadier
Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...
rank or higher. A war memorial display case and plaque in the Upper School's main entrance hall is dedicated to the UCC Old Boys who distinguished themselves during Canadian military service periods.
After the Second World War
UCC faced a major crisis when, in 1958, it was discovered that the main building was (due to poor construction) in danger of collapse. At the time, despite its benefactors, UCC had no endowment. An emergency building fund was started within the year and, with the assistance of Prince Philip
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...
, all of the necessary $3,200,000 was raised from Old Boys and friends of the college; Ted Rogers' contribution paid for the clock tower while Robert Laidlaw
Robert Alexander Crookston Laidlaw (8 September 1885 – 12 March 1971) was a New Zealand businessman who founded the Farmers (department store), Farmers Trading Company, one of the largest department store chains in New Zealand. He was also a C ...
donated the funds necessary for construction of Laidlaw Hall. Construction of the present main building began in early 1959 and it was opened by former governor general
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Vincent Massey
Charles Vincent Massey (February 20, 1887December 30, 1967) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada after ...
near the end of 1960. The crisis forced the school government to rethink their stance on foresight and planning, leading to a years-long program of new construction, salary improvements, and funding sources.[ Further, in teamwork with Principal Sowby, whom he had helped select, Massey had further influence on the college, bringing about somewhat of a ]renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
for the school: A number of distinguished visitors were brought in and leading minds were hired as masters. At this time, the curriculum began to shift from a classical education Classical education may refer to:
*''Modern'', educational practices and educational movements:
**An education in the Classics, especially in Ancient Greek and Latin
**Classical education movement, based on the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) an ...
into a liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
one; language options besides Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
were first offered after 1950.
1965 to 1975 was a decade of constant change at UCC;[ global and local cultural influences such as the ]Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, Yorkville, Woodstock
Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock. Billed as "an Aq ...
, changing fashion trends, rock bands, and Watergate, collided head-on with the conservative, traditional culture and environment at UCC. Individual freedoms trumped institutional discipline and moral authority Moral authority is authority premised on principles, or fundamental truths, which are independent of written, or positive, laws. As such, moral authority necessitates the existence of and adherence to truth. Because truth does not change, the princi ...
had lost its clout. Patrick T. Johnson, principal from 1965 to 1974, managed the cultural transition during these years, successfully integrating societal trends, traditional values, and individual self-expression. One of the casualties, though, was the cadet corps; it was disbanded in September 1975 in favour of a smaller volunteer corps. Under principals educated at Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
(Johnson) and Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
(Sadlier), the college refused to adopt the new provincial educational standards issued in 1967, which it considered lower than the old standards. UCC also moved forward with new educational and athletic facilities across the campus, while opening the campus to the wider community at the same time. By the 1990s, summer camp
A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as ''campers''. Summer school is usually a part of the academ ...
s were set up on the campus for any child who wished to enroll.
The college embarked on another building campaign, again with the aid of Prince Philip, beginning in 1989 and ending in 1994, with the construction of new athletic facilities at the Upper School and the replacement of the 1901 Peacock Building at the Prep. Two years later, UCC adopted the International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...
(IB), which augmented the Ontario Secondary School Diploma
The Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) is a diploma granted to secondary school graduates in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of the publicly-funded province-wide school system. It is awarded to all students who complete the On ...
. Following this, Grade Two was added in 1998 and Grade One Grade 1 may refer to:
*First grade, the first school year of primary education.
*A Grade 1 Graded stakes race horse race
* ''Grade One'' (TV series), a 2014 Chinese TV variety show
*Grade 1 listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed b ...
the next year. Since 2003, UCC has offered places from Senior Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
to Grade Twelve
Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...
.
Into the 21st century
In the years following 1998, five UCC staff were accused of sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
or of possessing child pornography
Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...
; three were convicted of some of the charges against them. In 2003, 18 students launched a $62 million class-action lawsuit
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
against UCC, claiming sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assa ...
by Doug Brown, who taught at the Prep from 1975 to 1993 and was eventually found guilty in 2004 of nine counts of indecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault.
England and Wales
Indecent assault was a broa ...
and sentenced to three years in prison. UCC agreed to a settlement with the victims, the terms of which cannot be disclosed.
UCC followed the trends in environmentalism when the Board of Governors unanimously voted in 2002 to establish the Green School initiative, wherein environmental education would become "one of the four hallmarks of a UCC education." Plans to carry this out saw not only upgrades of the school's physical plant
Physical plant, mechanical plant or industrial plant (and where context is given, often just plant) refers to the necessary infrastructure used in operation and maintenance of a given facility. The operation of these facilities, or the department ...
to meet environmentally sustainable
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livin ...
standards, but also an integration of these new initiatives into the curriculum. After the appointment in 2004 of Jim Power as principal, the curriculum further evolved to address reports of wider, societal trends showing a rise in boys' behavioural problems and a decline in their educational performance. Simultaneously, UCC's status as an all-boys school found support following years of pressure to become co-educational, especially as other prominent, formerly all-boys schools in Ontario began to make the switch, such as Lakefield College School
Lakefield College School (sometimes called LCS, The Grove or simply Lakefield) is a private day and boarding school located north of the village of Lakefield, Ontario. It was the first Canadian member of Round Square, an international affiliati ...
(1989), Appleby College
Appleby College, a leading Canadian day and boarding school, is an international independent school (grades 7–12) located in Oakville, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1911 by John Guest, a former Headmaster of the Preparatory School at Upper Cana ...
(1991), and Trinity College School
Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School ...
(1991).
As part of the strategic plan for the school, the board of governors decided in 2007 to close the 180-year-old boarding programme, citing market changes and the neglect of boarding over preceding decades—saying it had been for too long "too broken to be excellent, but not broken enough to fix". However, students, the Old Boy community, and others associated with UCC reacted negatively to the announcement, leading the board to revisit its earlier conclusion. The determination was boarding should be retained, but, only if it, among other requirements, housed no less than 60 students, the facilities were improved (work that took place through the summers of 2013 and 2014), and boarders be drawn from across the country.
Campus and facilities
Toronto campus
Upper Canada College occupies an open, 17 hectare (43 acre) campus in Deer Park, near the major intersection of Avenue Road
Avenue Road is a major north–south street in Toronto, Ontario. The road is a continuation of University Avenue, linked to it via Queen's Park and Queen's Park Crescent East and West to form a single through route.''Toronto Pocket Street Atla ...
and St. Clair Avenue, in the residential neighbourhood of Forest Hill. There are 15 buildings on the site:
The main structure (the Upper School), constructed between 1959 and 1960, central on the campus, and with a dominant clock tower
Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...
, houses the secondary school component of the college, in a quadrangle form. Laidlaw Hall, the principal assembly hall, featuring a full theatre stage and a pipe organ
The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...
, is attached to the west end of the Upper School and, at the other end, is the Memorial Wing, the school's main infirmary
Infirmary may refer to:
*Historically, a hospital, especially a small hospital
*A first aid room in a school, prison, or other institution
*A dispensary (an office that dispenses medications)
*A clinic
A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambu ...
. Closing the north end of the main quadrangle (which is the location of the statue of the Lord Seaton, installed in 1934) is one building, built in 1932, that contains the two boarding houses, as well as two private residences for the associated boarding masters, adjacent to which is the school chapel, donated by Governor General
Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
Vincent Massey
Charles Vincent Massey (February 20, 1887December 30, 1967) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada after ...
.
Satellite to this complex are townhouse
A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...
-style residences for masters and their families; the residence of the college's principal, Grant House, built in 1917; and a small, two-storey cricket pavilion
A cricket pavilion is a pavilion at a cricket ground. It is the main building within which the players usually change in dressing rooms and which is the main location for watching the cricket match for members and others. Pavilions can vary from m ...
, inaugurated by Governor General Ramon Hnatyshyn
Ramon John Hnatyshyn ( ; uk, Роман Іванович Гнатишин, Roman Ivanovych Hnatyshyn, ; March 16, 1934December 18, 2002) was a Canadian lawyer and statesman who served as governor general of Canada, the 24th since Canadian Co ...
. The Preparatory School, part of which was designed by Eden Smith
Eden Smith (1858 – 10 October 1949) was a British-born Canadian architect who belonged to the Arts and Crafts movement. Born in Birmingham, England, he achieved prominence as an architect in Toronto, Ontario. He was a founding member of The Ar ...
, is at the south-west corner of the campus, near which is a home for the Prep headmaster and a small gatehouse.
The athletic facilities include an indoor pool and three gymnasiums, as well as, around the campus, the William P. Wilder sports complex (containing an NHL and an Olympic sized hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
rink, one of only four in Ontario), a sports activity bubble, tennis courts, a sports court, a running track, and nine regulation sized sports fields. The two major fields of the Upper School are called ''Commons'' and ''Lords'', after, respectively, the British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
and House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
, and one of the main central fields is known as ''the Oval'' (covered in winter by a bubble
Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to:
Common uses
* Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid
** Soap bubble
* Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying funda ...
). In the summer of 2006, the latter, along with the encompassing running track, was renovated, with the grass replaced by a partially synthetic astroturf/grass hybrid and the track paved with a rubber turf. Several metres below the field, geothermal pipes were laid to provide alternative energy heating for both the Upper School and the adjacent sports complex. A number of these facilities are the result of a decade long, $90 million capital building campaign launched in the 1990s. Still planned are an Olympic-standard, 50-metre swimming pool; a new racquet centre for squash, badminton, and tennis; a rowing centre; the expansion of both the Prep and Upper School academic buildings; and an expansion of the archives.
The Ontario Heritage Trust
The Ontario Heritage Trust (french: link=no, Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien) is a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Culture. It is responsible for protecting, preserving and promoting the built, natural and cultural herita ...
, a non-profit agency of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, erected three plaques outlining UCC's presence and history in Toronto. One is on the north-east corner of 20 Duncan Street (the only existing building from the college's original campus), the second at the south-east corner of 212 King Street West, and one at the main entrance of the current campus at 200 Lonsdale Road. (An additional plaque that mentions Upper Canada College stands in Clarence Square
Clarence Square is a small park in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where Wellington Street West meets Spadina Avenue. It is a relatively quiet and shady park, with many large trees and a spacious grassy terrain. There are several benches and pi ...
, commemorating Alexander Dunn, an Old Boy who received Canada's first Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
.)
Norval campus
Upper Canada College owns and maintains an outdoor educational facility near the town of Norval, Ontario
Norval is an unincorporated community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada. Situated on the Credit River, it is located approximately west of Toronto and is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton.
Norval is believed to take its na ...
, on of property on the Credit River
The Credit River is a river in southern Ontario, which flows from headwaters above the Niagara Escarpment near Orangeville and Caledon East to empty into Lake Ontario at Port Credit, Mississauga. It drains an area of approximately . The total le ...
. The land was used by First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
as camping and hunting grounds and Huron
Huron may refer to:
People
* Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America
* Wyandot language, spoken by them
* Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec
* Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
and Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
travelled along the Credit to Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...
to trade with Europeans. By the early 19th century, the land supported farming; many remnants of this use remain, including apple orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...
s and artifacts, some of which were unearthed by students during simulated archaeological digs.
Norval's main purpose is to teach college students about the natural environment
The natural environment or natural world encompasses all life, living and non-living things occurring nature, naturally, meaning in this case not Artificiality, artificial. The term is most often applied to the Earth or some parts of Earth. Th ...
, sustainability
Specific definitions of sustainability are difficult to agree on and have varied in the literature and over time. The concept of sustainability can be used to guide decisions at the global, national, and individual levels (e.g. sustainable livi ...
, and ecosystems through outdoor learning programs, some in conjunction with Outward Bound
Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...
Canada. It is staffed by five full-time teachers, a superintendent, and cooks and housekeepers. Throughout the school year, entire classes, houses, or portions of certain grades will have a several day stay at Norval and other Ontario schools use the property and its facilities during the weeks when UCC students are not in residence. Norval also hosts an open house each season, with the spring Maple Madness focusing on the site's traditional maple syrup
Maple syrup is a syrup made from the sap of maple trees. In cold climates, these trees store starch in their trunks and roots before winter; the starch is then converted to sugar that rises in the sap in late winter and early spring. Maple tree ...
manufacturing, as well as cross-country skiing in winter and pumpkin carving in the autumn.[
]
The land was purchased in 1913,[ at a time when the city of Toronto was quickly growing around the college's Deer Park campus and the trustees were considering moving the school to a new location. Plans for buildings were drawn up by an architectural firm. However, due to the outbreak of the ]First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and then the depression, the move was fully abandoned in the 1930s. The college first attempted to sell the land in 1928 and again in 1935, but found no buyers. Eventually, the property was developed into an outdoor education centre for UCC students and community. Beginning in 1913, an annual picnic was held at Norval, the first being catered by the King Edward Hotel. As the land had originally been cleared for agricultural use, much of the site was open field until over 700,000 seedling
A seedling is a young sporophyte developing out of a plant embryo from a seed. Seedling development starts with germination of the seed. A typical young seedling consists of three main parts: the radicle (embryonic root), the hypocotyl (embry ...
s were planted by staff and students through the 1940s, followed by the creation of an arboretum
An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...
in 1962. The first bunk house was built in the 1930s and augmented in 1967 by another, larger residence and dining building known as Stephen House, which won a Massey Medal
The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) awards the Massey Medal annually to recognize outstanding personal achievement in the exploration, development or description of the geography of Canada. The award was established in 1959, by the Ma ...
for excellence in architecture for the designer, Blake Millar. Stephen House contains a classroom and laboratory, in addition to the residential spaces for students and staff. There is also a bungalow-style residence for the property caretaker and in 2003 several log cabins were built for writing retreats.
Into the 2000s, the school came under criticism for keeping the entirety of the increasingly taxed Norval property while so little of it was actually used; this argument has gained increased credence in light of the consistent yearly tuition hikes and mounting legal costs. Despite repeated assertions that the college had no intention of selling the property, citing not only rapidly increasing land value, but also an intention to hold it to prevent industrial development on land that contains a variety of wildlife, including spotted deer
The chital or cheetal (''Axis axis''; ), also known as the spotted deer, chital deer, and axis deer, is a deer species native to the Indian subcontinent. It was first described and given a binomial name by German naturalist Johann Christian Po ...
and hares
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The gen ...
, UCC sold a small portion of the acreage in 2007 to help cover costs related to the 2003 class action lawsuit brought against the school by former students. In 2011, the Norval Long-Range Planning Committee recommended that Norval's facilities should be expanded to allow for more overnight students and co-educational use.
Tuition, scholarships, and assets
Upper Canada College is Canada's wealthiest independent school, having an endowment of more than CA$
The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...
100 million. For the 2020–2021 school year, tuition fees range from $34,135 to $37,135 (not including a $8,500 initial registration fee, books and uniform) for day students and $61,085 to $66,835 for boarders (not including a $5,000 initial registration fee). An additional $500 technology fee is levied on all students in the Upper School, which covers the costs of a MacBook Air
The MacBook Air is a line of ultrabook computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc. It consists of a full-size keyboard, a machined aluminum case, and, in the more modern versions, a thin light structure. The Air was originally position ...
laptop computer, the associated software, and technological support. According to the school, less than two per cent of the Canadian population can afford the full cost of attending the school. The institution has strict admissions standards, accepting approximately 20 per cent of all applicants for the 2018–2019 school year. The college began a fundraising campaign in 2012 to obtain $100 million for scholarships; a donation of $11 million was received from Stu Lang, the largest single gift in Canadian independent school history. To honour Lang's donation, UCC created th
Lang Scholar Program
to recognize up to 15 student-athletes annually with extraordinary leadership potential. UCC disbursed over $5.0 million in financial aid in 2019 to approximately 20 per cent of students. Only students in grade five and above are eligible for this assistance.
Besides its own archives containing records that outline the history of Upper Canada, the province of Ontario, and the city of Toronto dating back to the mid-19th century, the college also has a notable collection of artwork, antiques, and war medals. This includes the Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
insignia presented to Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
, Foster Hewitt
Foster William Hewitt, (November 21, 1902 – April 21, 1985) was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for ''Hockey Night in Canada''. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt.
Biography
...
, Charles Band
Charles Robert Band (born December 27, 1951) is an American film producer and director, known for his work on horror comedy movies.
Career
Band entered film production in the 1970s with Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributo ...
, and Arnold Smith
Arnold Cantwell Smith (January 18, 1915 – February 7, 1994) was a Canadian diplomat. He was the first Commonwealth Secretary-General, serving from 1965–1975.
A talented student, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Christ Church, Oxford. ...
, plus Canada's first Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previously ...
, awarded in 1854 to Old Boy Alexander Roberts Dunn, and the Victoria Cross given, and ceremonial sword belonging,[ to ]Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn
Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn (19 November 1867 – 12 July 1913) was a Canadian soldier, and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwea ...
; the valour medals were given to the Canadian War Museum
The Canadian War Museum (french: link=no, Musée canadien de la guerre; CWM) is a national museum on the country's military history in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum serves as both an educational facility on Canadian military history, in ad ...
on permanent loan on 17 May 2006. In the college's chapel, itself decorated with works by Canadian artists, is an altar made of marble from parts of St. Paul's Cathedral, in London, England, that were damaged in the Blitz
The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'.
The Germa ...
and donated by Dean of St. Paul's Walter Robert Matthews
Walter Robert Matthews (22 September 1881 – 4 December 1973) was an Anglican priest, theologian, and philosopher.
Early life and education
Born on 22 September 1881 in Camberwell, London, to parents Philip Walter Matthews, a banker, and ...
. On this is an altar cloth
An altar cloth is used in the Christian liturgy to cover the altar. It serves as a sign of reverence as well as a decoration and a protection of the altar and the sacred vessels. In the orthodox churches is covered by the antimension, which also c ...
made from a piece of that which was used for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
The coronation of Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953 at Westminster Abbey in London. She acceded to the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952, being proclaimed queen by her privy and executive ...
. Held is an American flag
The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the c ...
that flew atop one of the World Trade Center
World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association.
World Trade Center may refer to:
Buildings
* List of World Trade Centers
* World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
towers in New York City. Further, the school holds works by Thoreau MacDonald
Thoreau MacDonald (April 21, 1901 at Toronto, Ontario – May 30, 1989 at Toronto) was a Canadian illustrator, graphic and book designer, and artist.
Career
MacDonald was the son of Group of Seven member J. E. H. MacDonald. He was self-taught, ...
and a collection of original paintings from the Group of Seven
The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...
(though several were auctioned by the college in an effort to pay for the lawsuits it faced in 2004); an original Stephen Leacock
Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock (30 December 1869 – 28 March 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known ...
essay, titled ''Why Boys Leave Home—A Talk on Camping'', donated in 2005 and published for the first time in ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
''; and the original manuscript of Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
' work ''The Mask of Aesop'', which he wrote in 1952 specifically for the Prep's 50th anniversary. Also in UCC's possession is a chair owned by Sir John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...
and another that once belonged to George Airey Kirkpatrick
Sir George Airey Kirkpatrick (September 13, 1841 – December 13, 1899) was a politician from Ontario, Canada.
Born in 1841 in Kingston, Ontario, the son of Thomas Kirkpatrick, George Kirkpatrick was educated at Trinity College Dublin.
Car ...
.
Governance, faculty, and staff
Upper Canada College is incorporated under an act of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and administered by a 17-member Board of Governors
A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organi ...
as a public trust, with the current chair of the board being Russ Higgins, a principal of MacPherson Builders ltd. Somerset Entertainment. The board, whose members are appointed and elected from alumni, parents of students past and present, and the wider UCC community, selects the college's principal, who serves for five years, managing the school's annual operation and heading an executive committee composed of vice-principals, department heads, and administration staff. There are also a number of other committees for advancement, finance and audit, governance and nominating, human resources, long range planning, property, and senior management review. Additionally, the UCC Foundation, a registered charity in Ontario since 1962 and run by a board of trustees, manages the school's endowment. Honorary trustees include David R. Beatty, John Craig Eaton II
John Craig Eaton II (born May 30, 1937, in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian philanthropist and former businessman who is a member of the prominent Eaton family.
Family and career
He is the great-grandson of Timothy Eaton, founder of the former ...
, Hans Michael Jebsen Hans Michael Jebsen () is a Hong Kong-based Danish businessman and landowner. He joined the Jebsen Group in Hong Kong in 1981, and has been the Chairman and main shareholder of the Group since 2000. He is originally from Denmark. He owns a large po ...
, Michael MacMillan
Michael I. M. MacMillan (born 1957) is the CEO of Blue Ant Media, a privately held Canadian media company that creates and distributes engaging content in categories that span lifestyle, travel, music and entertainment. The company owns specialt ...
, Kelly and Michael Meighen
Michael Arthur Meighen, (born March 25, 1939) is a Canadian lawyer, cultural patron, and former senator. He practised as a litigation and commercial lawyer in Montreal and Toronto. He is a grandson of Arthur Meighen, the ninth Prime Minister o ...
, Richard M. Thomson
Richard Murray Thomson, (born August 14, 1933) is a Canadian banker. He earned a Bachelor of Arts and Science degree in engineering from the University of Toronto and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
He joined t ...
, Galen Weston
Willard Gordon Galen Weston (October 29, 1940April 12, 2021) was a British-Canadian billionaire businessman and Chairman Emeritus of George Weston Limited, a Canadian food processing and distribution company. Weston and his family, with an esti ...
, and Michael Wilson.
There are 129 faculty members in total, of whom 12 possess doctorates, 40 hold master's degrees, and 20 per cent are International Baccalaureate examiners. 17 faculty members reside on the campus. The student-to-teacher ratio is 18:1 in the lower grades and 19:1 in the upper grades.
Visitor
Sir John Colborne served informally as Upper Canada College's first visitor. When the post was created in 1833, the Bishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers ...
was named as the occupant, ''ex officio''. Four years later, an act of the Upper Canada legislature outlined that the Visitors of UCC would be the judges of His Majesty's Court of King's Bench. The role was then transferred in 1850 to the Governor General of the Province of Canada
The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British North America, British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham ...
, on behalf of Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
, until Confederation
A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...
, after which the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
The lieutenant governor of Ontario (, in French: ''Lieutenant-gouverneur'' (if male) or ''Lieutenante-gouverneure'' (if female) ''de l'Ontario'') is the viceregal representative in Ontario of the , who operates distinctly within the province bu ...
acted as Visitor. However, it was later felt the provincial viceroy was connected too much to politics and the office of Visitor was not mentioned in the 1901 act that altered the government of UCC.[
Victoria's great-grandson, Prince Edward, Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII and then ]Duke of Windsor
Duke of Windsor was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created on 8 March 1937 for the former monarch Edward VIII, following his abdication on 11 December 1936. The dukedom takes its name from the town where Windsor Castle, a ...
), was in 1920 appointed as Upper Canada College's official Visitor, at the Prince's request. The ''College Times'' wrote then:
It will be a great pleasure to all to hear that the HRH the Prince of Wales has expressed a wish to be given the fine old English title of Visitor of this school. HRH met so many "Old Boys" while ighting in World War Ithat when he made his visit to Canada last year he instituted special inquiries about the previous history of the College. Finding that the title existed, he has thus honored us by becoming "Visitor of Upper Canada College".... The gracious offer of the Prince, places the position on a still higher plane, and it makes us all feel a lot prouder of the grand old College to which we belong.
Maintaining a connection with the Canadian royal family
The monarchy of Canada is Canada's form of government embodied by the Canadian sovereign and head of state. It is at the core of Canada's constitutional federal structure and Westminster-style parliamentary democracy. The monarchy is the founda ...
, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...
(husband of Edward VIII's niece, Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
), was in 1955 appointed Visitor of UCC; a role in which he served until his death in 2021. He visited the college five times while he was Visitor,[ aided two fundraising campaigns, and gave items to the school, such as a signed cricket bat.
In May 2012, the Upper Canada College Monarchist League conducted a poll and submitted to the Board of Governors a report outlining how 71 per cent of students surveyed (91 per cent of those in Year One) approved of another member of the royal family to act as UCC's visitor upon the resignation or demise of the Duke of Edinburgh. It was recommended that the next person to occupy the post be non-partisan and of a young age, so as to be likely to serve for a number of decades, as the Duke of Edinburgh had done. The most widely supported figure was Prince Philip's grandson, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.][
]
Student body
UCC is a non-denominational school with approximately 1,000-day students and 88 boarders; Senior Kindergarten to Grade Seven students, approximately 400 boys, attend the Preparatory School (the Prep), after which a boy may move on to the Upper School, which consists of Grades Eight to Twelve. The Upper School years are known as follows:
* Grade Eight
Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...
: Year Eight (formerly called Year One)
* Grade Nine
Grade most commonly refers to:
* Grade (education), a measurement of a student's performance
* Grade, the number of the year a student has reached in a given educational stage
* Grade (slope), the steepness of a slope
Grade or grading may also ref ...
: Year Nine (formerly called Year Two)
* Grade Ten: Year Ten (formerly called Foundation Year)
* Grade Eleven: Year Eleven (formerly called IB1)
* Grade Twelve
Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...
: Year Twelve (formerly called IB2)
While Prep students are divided into forms
Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens.
Form also refers to:
*Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data
* ...
, UCC, like several other schools in the Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
, divides its Upper School students into houses. The house system was first adopted in 1923, consisting of only four houses until the late 1930s, after which the number increased the present ten. Eight of these—Bremner's, Howard's, Jackson's, Martland's, McHugh's, Mowbray's, Orr's, and Scadding's—are for day students and the remaining two—Seaton's and Wedd's—are for boarders. The houses compete in an annual intramural competition for the Prefects' Cup and the boarders also take part in weekend events and trips with boarders from neighbouring girls' schools.
Martland's was named for John "Gentle" Martland, a master at the College who was most well known for his reform of the boarding houses, making them into something more than simple residences. He toned down the rigid study regimes, cold dormitories, bland menus, and bullying, fostering instead more tolerating discipline, swift punishment for serious offenders, the occasional feast, and organised recreation. Wedd's is the one the oldest of the ten houses at UCC and is named for William Wedd, formerly first classical master.
The school's student government
A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...
, created in 1892 and known as the Board of Stewards, represents the students at events, such as Association Day and Winterfest, and relays their wishes, during times of change or concern, to the upper administration. The group comprises 17 elected members of the Leaving Class:[ one steward for each house (the heads of houses) plus seven—the Head Steward and six stewards with portfolio—chosen by the majority of the whole student body.] In addition to the stewards, students can enter the prefects
Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area.
A prefect's ...
program, requiring them to show leadership through their senior years to be awarded the title of ''Prefect'' upon graduation, the highest recognition UCC offers "for citizenship and leadership."[
]
Though Upper Canada College has accepted ethnic minorities
The term 'minority group' has different usages depending on the context. According to its common usage, a minority group can simply be understood in terms of demographic sizes within a population: i.e. a group in society with the least number o ...
since the first black
Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...
student (Peter Gallego, the son of a former American slave) enrolled in 1831 and First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
boys, such as Francis Assikinack Francis Assikinack (18241863) was a 19th-century Ojibwe historian. Assikinack was born on Manitoulin Island. He was raised learning only Ojibwe and did not learn English until after enrolling at Upper Canada College in 1840. His father Jean-Baptist ...
(son of the Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
leader Jean-Baptiste Assiginack
Jean-Baptiste Assiginack (1768 - 3 November 1866) was an Odawa leader in the early 19th-century. He was also known as "Blackbird," a literal translation of his name in the Anishinaabe language.
Early Life and War of 1812
Assiginack is thought ...
) in 1840, their representation within the student body was initially disproportionate to the same within the city's population and the school developed a reputation as a "WASP
A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...
bastion". Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...
considered the school's ethnic makeup during his time there, between 1959 and 1965, reflective of the culture of Toronto in general; according to him, "basically Tory, Anglican and fantastically patrician." Peter C. Newman
Peter Charles Newman (born May 10, 1929) is a Canadian journalist and writer.
Life and career
Born in Vienna, Austria, Newman emigrated from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1940 as a Jewish refugee. His parents were Wanda Maria and O ...
, who attended UCC a decade before Ignatieff, and himself Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
, said anti-semitism was "virtually non-existent." According to school historian Richard Howard, UCC transformed its culture during the 1970s, as it began to offer assistance to the less affluent and made attempts to attract boys from visible minorities, becoming what he called "a small United Nations" that echoed Toronto's emerging ethnic variety (today, students from over 20 different countries and regions attend UCC), though, as recently as 1990, there were references in ''College Times'' editorials to anti-semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
and sexism. These aspects of college life came to light in 1994, through James T. Fitzgerald's book ''Old Boys'', which published some alumni's recollections of the school. In it, Peter Dalglish noted that while the student body was more racially diverse, it was still predominantly populated by the upper middle class, with the Asian students being even wealthier than their white counterparts. The college took the criticisms seriously, hiring Dalglish to help open UCC to the broader community. The decision to reverse the 2007 plan to eliminate boarding was made in part because of boarding's inherent ability to allow students from around the world to attend UCC. The college's expansion of financial aid beginning in 2012 was intended to socioeconomically diversify the student body.
Curriculum
Upper Canada College educates boys from Senior Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
through to Grade Twelve
Twelfth grade, 12th grade, senior year, or grade 12 is the final year of secondary school in most of North America. In other regions, it may also be referred to as class 12 or Year 13. In most countries, students are usually between the ages of 17 ...
. Graduates receive both the Ontario Secondary School Diploma
The Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) is a diploma granted to secondary school graduates in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of the publicly-funded province-wide school system. It is awarded to all students who complete the On ...
and the International Baccalaureate
The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB Dip ...
(IB) diploma; UCC adopted the IB program in 1996 and the entire curriculum is today guided by the non-governmental organization. French, language, mathematics
Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
, science, outdoor education
Outdoor education is organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey wilderness-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges and out ...
, physical education
Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...
, the arts, and more are covered during a boy's years in the Prep School and, once boys move to the Upper School in Year One (Grade Eight
Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...
), they begin university preparation through a liberal arts
Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...
program. The courseload includes mathematics, history, geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
, science, English, second languages, civics, design, film and the dramatic, visual, and musical arts, as well as computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
. Aiding both student and teachers is the Wernham West Centre for Learning, the most comprehensive and endowed secondary school learning facility in Canada. Created in 2002 as a department pertaining to the refinement of academic skills and assisting the students with learning disabilities, its primary focus is to facilitate improved learning skills and abilities, as well as accommodate for students with particular learning disabilities.
Extracurricular activities
Participation in extracurricular activities is encouraged at Upper Canada College; all students are required to complete 40 hours of Community Service as a part of their Ontario Secondary School Diploma as well as complete 150 hours of other extracurricular commitments, with an equal division between arts, athletics, and community service (what the IB calls ''CAS'': creativity, action, service), prior to graduation.
Arts and athletics
Upper Canada College runs a variety of extracurricular theatre programs, ranging in scope and scale, from musicals to Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
, with at least one large-scale and one small-scale production each year. Smaller, student written and run plays are also produced. The theatre program, which includes all aspects of production, is run in conjunction with Bishop Strachan School
The Bishop Strachan School (BSS; Strachan pronounced "Strawn") is an Anglican day and boarding school for girls in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school has approximately 900 students, including 80 boarding students, ranging from Junior Kindergar ...
, a nearby girls' private school. Various bands and music groups that practice extra-curricularly are also supported by the college, including a wind ensemble, concert band, stage band, string ensemble
A string orchestra is an orchestra consisting solely of a string section made up of the bowed strings used in Western Classical music. The instruments of such an orchestra are most often the following: the violin, which is divided into first a ...
, jazz ensemble, and singers. These groups compete in festivals at different levels and also organize fundraising concerts. UCC has sports rival
A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...
ries with other boys' schools in Ontario.
Sports teams run by UCC include baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
, basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
, cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
, hockey
Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...
, Sport rowing, rowing, Rugby football, rugby, lacrosse, soccer, Squash (sport), squash, Swimming, Track and Field, tennis, and volleyball. Some teams are purely Intramural sports, intramural, but 45 interscholastic teams compete in the CISAA and OFSAA and regularly place high in the standings at national and international competitions, such as the Head of the Charles Regatta.
Programs
The World Affairs Conference is Canada's oldest student run conference, begun in 1983 and organized in conjunction with Branksome Hall since the late 1980s. Held annually, the Conference has reached over 4,000 students, 25 countries, and 65 schools around the world. Past speakers have included Mehdi Hasan, Ralph Nader, Stephen Lewis, Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...
, Susan Faludi, Gwynne Dyer, Thomas Homer-Dixon, and Edward Snowden, all of whom have spoken on a variety of topics including human rights, gender issues, justice, globalization, and health ethics. The conference has also received letters of support from both the Mayor of Toronto and the Prime Minister of Canada. The Executives of WAC for the 2022-2023 school year are: Jefferson Ding (Conference Chair), Rahul Nanda (Conference Chair), John Voudouris (Head of Plenaries), Alan Xu (Head of Keynotes and Panels), Cole Herman (Head of Programs), Ian McCreadie (Head of SPRINT), Ian Ye (Head of Marketing), Aaron Ratnavel (Head of Registration), Jack Guilfoyle (Head of Facilities), Rohin Arya (Head of Technology), Carson Berall (Head of Finance), Ray Wu (Head of Productions), Nicolas Albornoz (Head of Design), and Will Morgenstern (Head of Security).
In conjunction with other schools, UCC ran the Ontario Model Parliament (OMP), a simulation of a Legislative Assemblies of Canadian provinces and territories, provincial parliament that started in 1986, when it was founded by UCC teacher Paul Bennett, and was composed of two events: an Elections Day at UCC, followed by a three-day simulation that took place in the legislative chamber at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. UCC students made up the entirety of the Executive Committee that organizes and runs the model parliament, however 200 students from high schools around the province participated. Past Elections Day speakers have included Art Eggleton, John Tory, John Aimers, Bob Rae, and Rex Murphy. As of 2015, OMP has been replaced by OMUN, a Model UN conference now led by UCC students sometimes in conjunction with the Bishop Strachan School and Branksome Hall. OMUN hosts around 400–500 delegates annually and has multiple international delegations present. UCC hosts 50–100 clubs (depending on the term), with Model UN and DECA being among the most popular.
The UCC Green School is an environmental organization composed of student, teachers, and faculty, through which UCC has planted and maintained an educational Organic gardening, organic garden, reduced landfill waste and water consumption, and implemented a program of purchasing renewable resources for renovations. The Green School has won awards from the City of Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
and the National Audubon Society.
Media
The College maintains and administers its own publishing company, the UCC Press, which produces all school publications. It also once printed professional texts, novels, and histories, such as those by Robert Lowell, but the UCC Press today prints the majority of school-related publications—newspaper, alumni magazines, financial reports, etc.—save for the ''College Times''. UCC provides several publications, most of which are written, directed, and printed by students.
The ''College Times'' is UCC's yearbook and is the oldest school publication in Canada, having been issued without fail since it was founded by John Ross Robertson, then a student at UCC, in September 1857. The first editions were written by Robertson and fellow pupils and printed on presses at ''The Globe (Toronto newspaper), The Globe'', the predecessor newspaper of the present ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
''. Past editors include Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
, Michael Ignatieff
Michael Grant Ignatieff (; born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a histo ...
, and Stephen Leacock
Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock (30 December 1869 – 28 March 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known ...
. Issued more regularly, Upper Canada College also has an online publication, The Blue and White (TBAW, tbaw.ca) to which students submit articles about school life and current affairs. TBAW was founded in 2011 by William Hall. ''Old Times'' is the school's alumni magazine, which reports on the lives of Old Boys, and highlights recent and upcoming events.
Serials for the student body include ''The Blazer'', the college humour newspaper; ''Quiddity'', the school's annual arts and literature publication, which showcases students' creative work; ''The Blue Page'', a one-page weekly publication of letters to the editor expressing opinions on any relevant issue; and ''Convergence'', the school's award-winning student newspaper. In addition, BluesTV was a student-led, school television network that started in 2007 and aired multimedia, slideshows of pictures from various school events, as well as promotional material created for the college. BluesTV became a subsidiary of the Media Association in 2009, fostering the operation of a live-announcement submission and display system.
Community service
Upper Canada College encourages students to engage in voluntary community service. In relation to this, the college runs the Horizons program, in which local underprivileged children are tutored in music, digital media, and academics twice a week by current UCC students. Further, each year, usually for two to four weeks during Spring Break, UCC also organises trips for 15 to 20 of its Upper School students to various developing countries where they take part in community building services such as constructing schools, Water well, wells and homes, or aiding in conservation work. Students have ventured to places like Venezuela, El Salvador, Kenya, and China.
Events
Every year the school plans and runs several on or off-site events, some of which are open only to students in certain years, while others to the entire student population, alumni, and their respective friends and family. These events are intended to serve a variety of purposes—promoting school spirit, for enjoyment, fund raising or philanthropic causes—and many are organized by the #UCC Association, Upper Canada College Association, with the help of parent and student volunteers.
Association Day is analogous to UCC's homecoming. Held since 1979, ''A-Day'', as it is informally known, constitutes the school's largest annual event, taking place over the last weekend of September and culminating on the Saturday with a large festival, including competitive matches for all fall sports teams and the Association Dinner for Old Boys celebrating their five-year incremental class reunions. Later in the academic year is the Founder's Dinner, a formal event that has been held for more than a century. It typically takes place on the Thursday night before the third weekend in January, which is made a special long weekend for students as a commemoration of Sir John Colborne's birthday. Another regular event is the UCC Gala, a black tie dinner and silent auction organized every three or four years in May.
Two secondary school student dances take place in the calendar year: The Battalion Ball originated out of the ''At Home'', a UCC community-wide event similar to a modern homecoming and first held in 1887. The revival of the UCC Rifle Corps in 1891 resulted in students attending the At Home in their cadet uniforms and, by 1897, a dance was added to the festivities in the evening, known as the ''Rifle Corps Dance''. By 1931, the dance became the ''Battalion Ball'', after the Rifle Corps was renamed the UCC Cadet Battalion, and, in 1971, the colloquial nickname ''The Batt'' was devised, which later developed into "Batt Ball". The event was held off-campus for the first time in 1975, at the Royal York Hotel (Toronto), Royal York Hotel, and, after 1976, when the Cadet Corps was disbanded, school uniforms replaced military attire, Rock and roll, rock bands played, and Batt Ball became more of a spring prom. Today, Batt Ball is reserved for students in grades 11 and 12, held at venues such as the Fairmont Royal York, Royal York Hotel or Arcadian Court, with attire being tuxedo (clothing), tuxedo for boys and evening gown or cocktail dress for girls, and music is provided by DJs. The Stewards' Dance is UCC's fall semi-formal and is typically fashioned around costume party themes such as "Great Couples in History". The dance takes place in late October and is administrated by the Board of Stewards for all students in grades 11 and above.
Various sporting events occur annually: Hockey Night has been held by the college since 1933 as an evening where the First Hockey team would play a feature game against one of UCC's rival schools in competition for the Foster Hewitt
Foster William Hewitt, (November 21, 1902 – April 21, 1985) was a Canadian radio broadcaster most famous for his play-by-play calls for ''Hockey Night in Canada''. He was the son of W. A. Hewitt, and the father of Bill Hewitt.
Biography
...
Victory Trophy.[ The game was held at Maple Leaf Gardens, thanks to the generosity of the arena's builder, Conn Smythe, and its (as well as the then Toronto Maple Leafs) owner, Harold Ballard, both themselves Old Boys. After the closing of The Gardens in 2000, the event was moved to the Air Canada Centre and then the Ricoh Coliseum. Over the decades other games were added to the roster, including a game involving the school's Junior Varsity team, the final game of the house hockey tournament, and a game between Havergal College and ]Bishop Strachan School
The Bishop Strachan School (BSS; Strachan pronounced "Strawn") is an Anglican day and boarding school for girls in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school has approximately 900 students, including 80 boarding students, ranging from Junior Kindergar ...
. By the early 1990s, pleasure skating and Prep School games had been added to the evening's schedule. Further, the Terry Fox Run is one of Upper Canada College's most successful events; the school is an official site for the run, acting as the start and end point, as well as part of the course, which ventures throughout Toronto Belt Line Railway, Toronto's Belt-Line. UCC's Terry Fox Run is also the largest site and has raised the most money in the world since 2000. The Prep Games Day is an annual held event at the junior school.
Affiliations
Upper Canada College is a member of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario (CIS), the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS), the Secondary School Admission Test (SSAT) Board, the G30 Schools, the Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) and an associate member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the International Boys' Schools Coalition (IBSC), the Toronto Boys' School Coalition (TBSC), and the college principal is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) in the UK. Along with St. Andrew's College (Ontario), St. Andrew's College, Ridley College, and Trinity College School
Trinity College School (TCS) is a co-educational, independent boarding and day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than two years before Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School ...
, UCC also remains one of the Conference of Independent Schools of Ontario Athletic Association, Little Big Four, an athletic association of Ontario independent boys' schools established in the 19th century.
Bishop Strachan School
The Bishop Strachan School (BSS; Strachan pronounced "Strawn") is an Anglican day and boarding school for girls in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The school has approximately 900 students, including 80 boarding students, ranging from Junior Kindergar ...
(BSS) is located only two blocks from UCC, it is UCC's sister school. UCC students work on joint projects with students of other nearby girls' schools, including BSS, St. Clement's School, Havergal College, and Branksome Hall.
The school had, between 2008 and 2009, a relationship with an Ontario Junior Hockey League team, the Toronto Patriots, Upper Canada Hockey Club, though the team and the school were not directly affiliated. Upper Canada College is also a member of the Ontario Tennis Association.
UCC community
Alumni
The college states that almost every UCC graduate, known as an ''Old Boy'', goes on to post-secondary schooling, though some will take a sabbatical; Peterson's reported in 2010 that of 150 graduating students, 143 went on to college or university. The graduate community consists of over 6,000 Old Boys around the world and, though the career paths of the college's alumni are varied, UCC has a reputation for educating List of Upper Canada College alumni, many prominent and notable graduates.
The school has produced six Lieutenant-Governor (Canada), lieutenant governors, four Premier (Canada), premiers, seven chief justices, and four List of mayors of Toronto, Mayors of Toronto. At least 17 graduates have been appointed to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada, 25 have been named Rhodes Scholars, five have been named Loran Award, Loran Scholars,[ 10 are Olympic medalist, Olympic medallists, and at least 13 have been accepted as fellows of the Royal Society of Canada. No less than 41 have been inducted into the ]Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the ...
since the honour's inception in 1967 and 11 into the Order of Ontario.
Faculty
Notable faculty members of Upper Canada College have included:
* George Anthony Barber – Toronto's first school superintendent and founder of the Toronto Cricket, Skating and Curling Club, Toronto Cricket Club
* Michael Barrett (physician), Michael Barrett – Physician and proponent and first Dean of the Ontario Medical College for Women (later Women's College Hospital)
* John Colapinto — New Yorker staff writer, author of the novel About the Author (2001) and the New York Times bestselling nonfiction book As Nature Made Him (2000).
* Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
– Noted author
* Mike Eben – Hec Crighton Trophy recipient, three-time all-star wide receiver in the Canadian Football League, CFL, and radio and television narrator
* David Gilmour (writer), David Gilmour – Author and broadcast journalist
* Ralph Connor, Rev. Dr. Charles Gordon – Noted author
* Robert Sympson Jameson – Chief justice of the Dominica and Upper Canada, member of the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada, Speaker of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada, and Chief Superintendent of Education
* Stephen Leacock
Stephen P. H. Butler Leacock (30 December 1869 – 28 March 1944) was a Canadian teacher, political scientist, writer, and humorist. Between the years 1915 and 1925, he was the best-known English-speaking humorist in the world. He is known ...
– Most widely read English-speaking author in the world 1910–1925
* Bruce Littlejohn – Internationally recognized photographer, writer, and conservationist
* J. P. M. B. "Jock" de Marbois – Appointee to the Légion d'honneur and Commodore of the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy
* John McCaul – Theologian, second President of University of Toronto, UofT, and President of the Canadian Institute (later the Royal Canadian Institute)
* James Alexander McClellan – President of the Educational Association of Ontario and education reformer
* Sir George Robert Parkin – Leader of the Imperial Federation League and First Secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship
* Sir Edward Robert Peacock – Receiver General to the Duchy of Cornwall and the Director of the Bank of England
* James Dodsley Humphreys – Toronto's "favourite tenor" and musical composer
* Henry Scadding – Canadian intellectual
* Arthur Sweatman – Archbishop of Toronto and Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
* Arnold Walter – Austrian musician, founder of the Canadian Opera Company, and Director of Music at UofT
* Thomas Young – Architect, illustrator of early Toronto, and founding member of the Canadian Institute
Matriculation
Between 2016 and 2022, UCC students matriculated at the following colleges and universities: Amherst College, Brown University, University of Cambridge, Columbia University, Cornell University, Duke University, University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, University of Edinburgh, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, McGill University, Northwestern University, University of Notre Dame, University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, University of St Andrews, Stanford University, University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
, University of Waterloo, Williams College, and Yale University.
UCC Association
The Upper Canada College Old Boys' Association is a non-profit organization established in 1891, on the day of the closure of the college's Russell Square campus. The name was changed in 1969 to the Upper Canada College Association, when the association expanded its mandate to include parents, faculty, staff and friends of the college in matters relating to UCC, such as governance and advancement. Specific programs are also run by the association, including those that permit recent graduates to volunteer as mentors to students, and Old Boy reunions are set up around the world by the association's fifteen branches outside of Toronto: Calgary, Halifax Regional Municipality, Halifax, Kingston, Ontario, Kingston, London, Ontario, London, Montreal, Ottawa, and Vancouver in Canada; Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco in the United States; London in the United Kingdom; Hong Kong in China; and Budapest in Hungary.
A 29-person board of directors, referred to as the Association Council, meets three times a year to discuss matters facing the college and plan association events; 21 of those on the council are elected by members of the association at its annual meeting, while the remaining eight are ex officio. Four of the 17 members of the college's board of governors come from the association board, including the President of the Association, and serve on the larger body for a three-year period.
Arms, motto, and crest
Upper Canada College's motto is ''palmam qui meruit ferat'', meaning "let he who merited the palm bear it,"[ and was derived from the poem by John Jortin titled ''Ad Ventos—ante A.D. MDCCXXVII'' ("To the Winds—Before 1727"). The words, attached to the coat of arms, arms of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Lord Nelson in 1797, were first used in relation to UCC in 1833, as part of an emblem stamped on the inside of books given as prizes, showing the phrase written on a ribbon tying together two laurel leaves around the school's name. Around 1850, a crown replaced the school's name; John Ross Robertson stated this was at the insistence of Henry Scadding, who argued in favour of its use because the school had both been founded by a Lieutenant Governor (Canada), lieutenant governor and was at first a royal grammar school. The crown originally used was that of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV.]
In 1889, Scadding produced the design for the insignia which can still be seen over the doors to Laidlaw Hall at the college's Upper School. L.C. Kerslake described this crest in 1956:
The small wreath, crossed anchor and sword in the centre of the crest are found in Lord Nelson's coat of arms.
The open book in the upper left corner is symbolic of education which is the primary function of any school. The quadrant-shaped figure in the upper right corner is a section of the standard of St. George and signifies the school's connection with England and Great Britain, the native land of the founder, Lord Seaton.
Technically speaking, the crown should not be included in the crest, as the school was not instituted by royal charter. However, loyalty to the Crown is one of the fundamental traditions of UCC and is certain to endure as long as the school itself.
The cornua copiae just above the motto stands for the fullness of school life which is one of the distinctive marks of UCC.
This complex design, known as ''Scadding's Device'', which was just the Seal of Upper Canada as authorised in 1820 with the college's motto and palm branches applied, was never widely used.[ Instead, the simple crown between laurel leaves tied with a ribbon bearing the school motto became the standard crest, though its appearance changed throughout the decades in reflection of current tastes.
It was not until the mid-1970s, as the college approached its sesquicentennial, that consideration was given to having the crest authorised by the College of Arms, then the heraldic authority for Canada, and the Armoral Bearings Committee was established to oversee the project. A petition was thereafter submitted to the Earl Marshal in 1981.][ The Board of Governors insisted that the school's traditional crest be incorporated into the forthcoming achievement; however, as the crest includes a royal crown, it was necessary to obtain the Monarchy of Canada, Canadian monarch's personal permission to use it officially. This was done via the ]Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
The lieutenant governor of Ontario (, in French: ''Lieutenant-gouverneur'' (if male) or ''Lieutenante-gouverneure'' (if female) ''de l'Ontario'') is the viceregal representative in Ontario of the , who operates distinctly within the province bu ...
, then John Black Aird (himself a UCC Old Boy), and Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...
consented to the request, making UCC the only institution of its kind in the Commonwealth of Nations to have the royal crown in its arms.[
The letters patent granting UCC its armorial achievements, including a Heraldic flag#Standard, heraldic standard, were issued on 4 January 1985, the 155th anniversary of the college's first day of classes.] The traditional crest became the school's badge. However, as text and figures are normally not included in such emblems, the motto was omitted, but the King of Arms made an exception to the rules by allowing the retention of the date ''1829''.[ The symbol also became the Crest (heraldry), crest of the school's new arms, though here with the number ''1829'' also absent, since, per heraldic rules, the royal crown must sit directly on the helmet. The Escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon of the arms shows two deer's heads in the chief—one being the crest of the arms of John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, the Lord Seaton and the other taken from the arms of Bishop John Strachan, the first chairman of the board of governors—while, below a Line (heraldry), line of division embattled as in Seaton's achievement, is the aforementioned Scadding's Device surmounted by another royal crown. The shield is supported by, on the left, a master in academic gown and, at right, a student in ]cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
uniform, both styled on such figures in the mid-19th century.[ These devices were in 2005 registered with the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
]
In media
In the 2006 film ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'', the main character of Martin Ward (Colm Feore) is a graduate of Upper Canada College. The school is also mentioned in Michael Ondaatje's ''In the Skin of a Lion'' as an institution into which the wealthy in Rosedale, Toronto, wished to enroll their eldest sons.
UCC was a filming location for the 1993 movie ''Searching for Bobby Fischer'' and was the focus of episode eight of season nine of the Rogers Television show ''Structures''.
See also
* List of Canadian organizations with royal patronage
* Lower Canada College
References
External links
*
Toronto Public Library: Catalogue for Upper Canada College
The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum and Archives: 1930s inspection of the UCC Cadet Corps (video)
{{Coord, 43.693, N, 79.404, W, region:CA-ON_type:edu, display=title
Upper Canada College,
Organizations based in Canada with royal patronage
Boys' schools in Canada
Boarding schools in Ontario
Private schools in Toronto
High schools in Toronto
Elementary schools in Toronto
Preparatory schools in Ontario
Educational institutions established in 1829
International Baccalaureate schools in Ontario
Member schools of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference
Clock towers in Canada
Terminating vistas in Canada
1829 establishments in Upper Canada