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Boarding in Toronto

Choice, variety, resources — Toronto is Canada's gateway to the world

On this page we cover boarding schools in Toronto and the GTA. This includes boarding schools in downtown Toronto (such as the Annex and Bloor West), midtown (such as St. Clair West and Forest Hill), North York, Scarborough, Vaughan, Mississauga, Etobicoke, Markham, Thornhill, Richmond Hill, Newmarket, and Aurora.

|For a complete guide to boarding in Canada, including information about admissions, please see our introductory guide.

2. Choosing a school

Our boarding school guide has advice specific to finding boarding schools in Canada. For insights that are more general (on how to evaluate school options) we recommend you review our hub on choosing a school. You can also read our guides to questions to ask private schools and questions students get asked at school interviews.

Private school expos

Private school expos are ideal launching pads for your school-finding journey. The Toronto private school expo allows you to speak with administrators from leading boarding schools. If you live in the west end of the GTA, we also host an expo for Halton-Peel, where schools from that region exhibit. Both expos are held in the fall.

Parent discussion forum

Word-of-mouth is another powerful tool in your school-finding arsenal. The Our Kids private school discussion forum allows you to discuss your options and debate topics around gifted education. You can use our community of parents, educational experts, alumni, and schools to help answer your questions and stimulate your thinking.

Upcoming open house events

Attending open houses is obviously a great way to learn more about a school and get a feel for the environment. For some advice on open house visits, go here. For questions to ask that are specific to boarding programs, refer to our main boarding school hub.

3. Tuition

Broadly speaking, the cost of boarding reflects the cost private school tuition in general, though with premiums added to cover housing and meals.

Many schools offer financial aid, including scholarships and bursaries. Financial aid is needs-based, and financial aid programs are created as a means of broadening the student base and attracting students, independent of means, who will contribute most to the culture of the school. Generally speaking, the larger and more expensive schools provide the most aid.

You can read more about financial aid and scholarships in our dedicated guide.

Below you'll find the range of costs at Toronto boarding schools:

Institutional metrics

Academics

Special needs support

Course pedagogies

Extracurricular clubs

Extracurricular sports (competitive)

Toronto is home to some of Canada’s foremost and longest-running educational institutions as well as some of its newest and most innovative. Upper Canada College, Ontario’s oldest independent school, dates from a time when Canada was still a collection of British colonies. Columbia International College, the largest boarding school in North America, is in Hamilton, just a short drive away.

It is also home to four colleges and four universities, including both the largest and and the third largest in the country. Within them are some of Canada’s premier business schools and arts institutions. The public and private schools of the city rightly make frequent use of all the educational resources that the city provides, including partnerships with local universities, colleges, galleries, museums, and archives.

Toronto is the financial capital of Canada and, in many ways, it’s the country’s cultural capital as well. The Toronto Stock Exchange is here—one of the largest stock exchanges in the world—as is the CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster, the National Ballet of Canada, and a wealth of national and international corporate headquarters. The Royal Ontario Museum is home to Canada’s most extensive natural history collection and hosts international exhibitions from around the world. These are just a hint of the vast cultural resources found scattered throughout the city.

The city is Canada’s gateway to the world, hosting a broad range of international festivals, congresses, and events, including the renowned Toronto International Film Festival held throughout the city each fall. It’s also the country’s foremost a major international transportation hub, proximate to the two largest customs ports between Canada and the United States, and home to the largest and busiest airport in the country. Toronto is also within a few hours drive to some of the most pristine and affecting natural environments in North America, including Algonquin Park and the Niagara Escarpment region.

Graduation Requirements

The Ontario Ministry of Education legally requires all private schools in the province to register and provide annual statistical reports, and every Ontario private school must file a yearly Notice of Intention to operate. While private schools are considered businesses or non-profit organizations, the provincial ministry inspects all private secondary schools annually in order to authorize them to award credits toward completion of the Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD).

High school graduation requirements are set by the Ontario Ministry of Education, not the federal government. To earn a high school graduation diploma in Ontario students are required to complete at least 30 credits in grades 9 through 12. A credit represents the completion of an entire course, not a portion of it.

The provincial ministry requires that all students complete 18 mandatory credits which represent the core of the high school curriculum: English, math, science, history, geography, arts, health and physical education, French, career studies, and civics.

The remaining 12 credits are subject to students’ discretion and chosen from a list of recognized courses. These include technology and computer studies, graphic and performing arts, world studies, international languages, social studies, and cooperative education. These discretionary credits allow students to design a course of study that reflects their interests and to prepare for their post-secondary career.

In addition to course work, students are required to complete 40 hours of volunteer community service activities over the course of their four-year high school career.

Many boarding schools impose their own graduation requirements in addition to those outlined by the province. At Columbia International College, for example, students must complete 36 credits in order to graduate. At Appleby College, students are required to study at least one international language, that is, a language other than French and English, the two official languages of Canada. Many private schools also choose to exceed the provincial service requirement, over and above the hours of volunteer service than mandated by the provincial board.