Why Ridley?
Ridley College offers a global education anchored in Canadian values. Our students attend school ‘with the world,’ sharing life-shaping experiences and preparing for leadership and impact.
When a family chooses Ridley, it is an honour and a privilege to welcome them through our gates. Each student who comes to us does so from a unique path and perspective, but the reasons families choose Ridley are often similar.
On our campus, a transformation takes place: Ridleians from across Canada and around the world live, learn and play with each other and collaborate with dedicated faculty and mentors. Each day, our diverse community of young people is inspired to seek out knowledge, nurture important values and believe in themselves.
As an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, our classroom culture is learner-driven and rests upon a foundation of inquiry and curiosity. Pair this with the Ridley community’s commitment to serving others, and we graduate students who are ready to face the world as resilient, integrated and engaged global citizens.
Our education focuses on the ‘whole person,’ fostering intellectual, physical, and social-emotional skills that our graduates carry with them throughout their lives. We place particular emphasis on wellbeing, which not only ensures students feel secure, connected, and engaged but teaches them the habits needed to lead flourishing lives—today and long after they’ve left the Ridley gates.
Here are some of the common reasons our families decided a Ridley education was right for them:
OUR APPROACH TO LEARNING
Education at Ridley is ‘learner-centred’ and inquiry-based, enhanced by the International Baccalaureate (IB) philosophy – a diverse, rigorous programme that challenges students and sets them apart. This curriculum develops curiosity, open-mindedness, and agile thinking and doing. It builds leaders and responsible citizens who have the ability to transform our globe.
Learning is fundamental to the wellbeing, prosperity and sense of belonging of all people. At Ridley, we are all learners. Teaching and learning is a respectful and habitual process, an art and science founded upon relationships and love. Self-efficacy, confidence, and a growth mindset are essential to the development of self-actualized individuals committed to life-long learning.
We foster a culture that recognizes the individual all the while promoting individual agency. Our emphasis is on a life examined through a commitment to the liberal arts and humanistic enquiry.
WELLBEING EDUCATION
At Ridley, we believe to be well educated is to be prepared to lead a good life. This is an old idea, too often forgotten in modern society. Today, we refer to this as Wellbeing Education – teaching young people the habits of living well.
Our wellbeing curriculum and approach to living and learning is influenced by two approaches – Visible Wellbeing and the PERMA-V theory – which have evidence-based research in positive psychology and its application to education. This focus on positive education enables students to build the foundation for a flourishing life.
