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"The Abelard School offers an enriched, intellectually engaging education for students in grades 7 through 12. Our balanced curriculum encourages excellence, from the maths and sciences to the social sciences and humanities. Socratic instruction and our integrated curriculum foster critical thinking and problem solving skills in a friendly, inclusive school environment where students encourage one another to learn and our highly qualified teachers prepare them to achieve remarkable success in university."
At Abelard our small classes offer the opportunity for seminar style Socratic learning in which the students are constantly engaged. They ask and answer questions, and support one another as well as receiving an unparalleled quality of interaction with their teachers, who are specialists in their fields. This allows our students to thrive in our academically advanced and enriched curriculum. By grades 11 and 12 our classes provide ample preparation for students who wish to write Advanced placement (AP) exams, and we are an AP testing site. Our integrated curriculum provides students with an understanding of how the various disciplines are related, and our breadth requirements ensure that each student is prepared to enter any university programme.
Our small class size and overall school enrolment mean that students have a smaller social pool than in other, larger schools. On other hand, we have noticed over the years that our students form exceptionally close bonds with one another, and that there is a positive interaction which develops between students of different grade levels, the older students acting as mentors as well as friends to the younger. Of course, smaller class sizes allow the teachers to know each student very well, and are able to offer additional challenge or support depending on individual need.
Our location means we don’t have an on-site gym for phys ed classes, but we are close to the Central Y, and hold our classes in their facility. Many of our students are involved in team sports outside of the school, and some are even competitive athletes who are still able to thrive academically.
This year we celebrate our 30th anniversary, and we are proud that our founding goal of providing an exceptionally high quality liberal arts curriculum has been a success. The proof lies in our alumni, who have become an integral part of our school community, and who are leading remarkable lives in a large array of professions, including two tech leaders who have been profiled in Time magazine, artists, professors, scientists, lawyers, environmentalists, doctors, musicians, teachers, actors, journalists, and more. The high points of every year for us are the visits from these remarkable people, who act as inspiration, role models, and mentors to our current students. The years to come will constitute a new turning point for us, as we join other educational institutions in drafting a response to the new benefits and challenges posed by AI, but we’re certain that our motto, Sapere Aude— Dare to Think— will never be obsolete.
The students who do well at Abelard are eager to challenge themselves to learn as much as they possibly can across the disciplines. Students who enjoy learning, and who want to know about how the world works and how they can work in the world. Students who think of education as not just preparation for a profession, but as a way to expand the quality of their inner lives, by studying Latin and French, philosophy, literature, psychology, economics, politics, art, and drama, as well as the maths and sciences. Students who love to read, to create new solutions to problems both new and old, who think of learning as a lifelong process, not as a means to an end. Students who want to support others in pursuit of these same pursuits, and who share the goal of helping to make the world a better place.
Our school is small, and our focus is on our students and their education, not on extensive facilities.
Our curriculum is demanding, and students need to be prepared to work hard at school and at home.
We do not have special programmes for students living with learning disabilities.
We don’t offer team sports, so students and parents need to make arrangements for athletics outside the school, if they are interested in these.
Unless they qualify for a professionally documented accommodation, students are not permitted to use a computer in class, and must write notes by hand.
We don’t specialize in one particular area. Our academic programme is equally strong across the maths, sciences, English, and humanities.
Our senior courses are all AP level, but we don’t “teach to the test”— our curriculum is carefully designed to give students the knowledge and skills we have learned by experience will serve them best in university.
Our small class sizes offer individualized attention.
We offer Latin and Classical Greek.
Our grade 12 French students graduate with a certificate of bilingualism.
Our teachers are specialists in their subject. Many have doctoral degrees and either also teach or work in a university, or are affiliated with one.
We are known for the success of our alumni in university and beyond.
University admissions officers, including in the US and abroad, tell us that they know Abelard despite our small size because our alumni do exceptionally well once they are in university, both academically and in terms of adding to the community.
All of our students go on to university, and a large percentage go on to receive graduate degrees.
We are known for having an extremely advanced academic curriculum across the disciplines.
We are known for having a small but extremely close community, and our alumni maintain their friendships with one another and with us after they leave our school.
In addition to our academics, we offer a varied and rich extracurricular life to our students.
This includes clubs such as Model UN, French Language and Culture, Jazz, Robotics, Chess, Debating, Rocket Lab, Film, and Drama.
We involve our students in the cultural life of the city, with many trips to the theatre, galleries, the ROM, the opera, ballet, book readings, and lectures and symposia at U of T.
We have overnight trips to Cedar Glen conservation area where students do rock climbing, archery, and other outdoor activities.
Our Biology students do research at Allan Gardens, and go to the Humber at salmon spawning time.
We take trips to the Riverdale Farm and the Zoo.
Our senior students participate in the Model UN in New York every other year.
Our Grade 11 and 12 students take a trip to Paris over March Break.
We have an annual ski trip.
Our Grade 8 students go on an overnight trip to the Stratford Festival each June.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about our school given the demanding curriculum is the laughter you will hear— both in the hallways and common areas and in the classrooms. We work very hard, and our curriculum is demanding, but we can also have fun while doing it.
Our student council purchased a ping pong table a number of years ago, and its popularity with the students was a surprise to the teachers. At any given moment before and after school and between classes, there is a group of students playing, observing, cheering, and the tournaments organized by student council are a huge success.
We instituted a strict cell phone policy last year which includes use of phones at lunch and during spare periods. This has had a very positive effect on student interaction outside of class.
In our English classes we now require students to handwrite the first draft of their assignments to help them to continue to develop their own writing abilities without the aid of technology. Ideas for essays are increasingly brainstormed in group seminars before students begin the writing process.
On the other hand, in many courses students are learning how to use AI appropriately and where it can be beneficial without interfering with their own academic development.
As is the case for every other school, it is difficult to predict how the development of AI will affect they ways in which we teach for better or for worse, but we are committed to paying close attention to this and to develop and modulate our response.
Our core goal of maintaining an emphasis on the liberal arts tradition delivered through Socratic dialogue will remain.
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