A Word from the Principal
On the foundation for what comes next.
A letter from Frank M.
A letter to the families considering Vaughan College, on what secondary school can become when a child is taught with real patience and attention.
The Letter
Dear families,
Preparing for secondary school can be both exciting and nerve-wracking, for students, and, if I am honest, for the parents who walk in beside them. The years between grade eight and graduation are short, and a great deal is asked of them: choose a path, build a record, become a young adult with a clearer sense of who you are. There is no shortcut through any of it. What there can be is a school that takes the work seriously and stays close to each student through it.
That is the school we set out to build. Vaughan College was founded by a small group of former principals and senior teachers who had spent careers inside the system and had quiet ideas about what could be done better. We wanted classrooms small enough that no question went unasked. We wanted teachers who were chosen for their depth in their subject and for their patience at the desk. We wanted a building where ambition and individual care could share the same hour.
Fifteen years on, those ideas have settled into the way the day is shaped. Classes hold steady at roughly ten students to a teacher. Free after-school tutoring is open to anyone who wants it. Schedules bend to meet a student where they are, full-time, part-time, evenings, summers, online, because no two paths into a university classroom look quite the same, and we would rather meet you halfway than insist on a route you cannot walk.
Come to us with enthusiasm, dedication, and a few years of your time, and we will give you the foundation to thrive in the world beyond school.
From the letter
The line above is the closest thing we have to a promise. It is also a fair description of the bargain. We ask for your effort and your honesty. In return, you will find a faculty that will not let you fall through the cracks of a system that, elsewhere, has too many. That is the daily, unspectacular work of this place.
I am asked, often, what we are most proud of. I think the honest answer is that we are proud of how plainly the school works. For years now, every Vaughan student who has applied to university has been admitted. Few of them arrived already ready, and we organize the school, in every detail, to help them get there. We take test anxiety seriously. We rebuild foundations without embarrassment when a student needs it. The kind of help that looks small from the outside, an extra half hour, a second explanation, a teacher who notices, is, in our experience, what changes a transcript.
The pandemic years asked a great deal of students who had done nothing to deserve them. We have built our days around the assumption that gaps are real and that helping a student close them is patient, skilled work. We offer every student who walks through this door a fresh start, and the room and the time to take it.
Beyond the academics, we want our graduates to leave with vision, courage, and the skills to improve the communities they enter. We try to teach, in a hundred small ways, that every person carries a real capacity for goodness and a quiet responsibility to act on it. That belief is older than this school and will outlive it. We are merely trying, while you are here, to be worthy of it.
If any of this sounds like the kind of school you are looking for, I would be glad to meet you. Come walk the halls during a regular school day. Sit in on a class. Ask the awkward questions. The best decisions about a school, in my experience, are made in person.
— Frank M.
Principal
Vaughan College, Woodbridge
Continue the Conversation
Come and see the school for yourself.
Tours are arranged by appointment throughout the year, and we welcome the questions you would rather ask in person. Walk the halls, meet a teacher, and decide whether this feels like the right place.