Havergal College
1451 Avenue Road, Toronto, Ontario
Gender: Girls
Living: Day (JK to Grade 12) & Boarding (Grades 9 to 12)
Given the epic urban sprawl of Canada’s economic and cultural centre, it’s difficult to imagine a vibrant and spacious oasis within Toronto’s concrete jungle. Fortunately, Havergal College prides itself on such imagination, and so among the hustle and bustle of an international cosmopolis, you’ll find the beautiful 22-acre Havergal College campus. The largest girls’ school campus in the city—and an institution that has been educating young women since 1894—Havergal boasts a natural tree-lined ravine that embraces the campus, plus lush green fields and a mix of contemporary and heritage architecture that traces the history and excellence of Toronto itself.
Havergal College is the ideal place for girls of Toronto to situate themselves on their educational journeys to becoming young women. The campus boasts extensive facilities and provides the setting for our excellent academic programs and co-curricular activities. Havergal students enjoy verdant playing fields, tennis courts, landscaped quads, woodland paths, and ample space to walk, run, think, talk and learn.
Furthermore, Havergal is where generations of young women have built the foundation upon which their many successes have grown. Celebrated thinkers and cultural contributors such as Mariko Tamaki, Jane Urquhart, Margot Kidder, Linda Frum, Rachel Blanchard, Claire Mowat, and Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, among many others, have matriculated at Havergal.
But celebrity and aesthetic do not build generations of excellence. That comes from 125 years of a unique understanding of the privilege and responsibility of educating young women. As Havergal’s Executive Director of Strategic Enrollment Management, Maggie Houston-White, notes: “We know how to motivate girls
(which is different than how you motivate boys). Even our athletic coaches are trained in this way. Being in an all-girls school means that you continuously have female role models all around you. The Captain of the Chess team is a girl. The Captain of the Soccer team is a girl. The Captain of the Robotics team is a girl. It allows you to see that you can be anything that you want. And the girls grow up here not even realizing that it’s just the way that it is. It gives them the confidence so when they leave here, they don’t question anything. They just do.”
