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Message from the Head of School

I welcome you to explore our wonderful school through the pictures and stories you will find here. For more than 150 years, The Bishop Strachan School has been shaping and animating young women from Toronto, Canada, and around the world. Our history is bound up with our bold mission - to "inspire girls to be fearless; educate them to be leaders" - and we continue to do that today.
Dr. Terpstra reads from book with diverse student leaders
Being a Junior Kindergarten to Grade 12 school has incredible benefits. We can shape the trajectory of a student’s academic growth with challenging learning experiences, a myriad of opportunities for enrichment both in and out of the classroom, and dedicated, experienced and inspiring teachers and staff who take pride in building lasting relationships with their students.

Now, more than ever, a sophisticated education is needed to help our young people navigate the complex world they will live, work, and engage in for their lifetime. We at BSS are continually renewing our program to prepare our students for a life of public and personal purpose that helps our students make more of themselves and of their lives. This is the heart of our community.

To find their place in the world, students need to know how to think, to challenge ideas including their own, with a focus on the central intellectual skill of knowing how to sort through ideas, to identify one’s own perspective and willingness to engage respectfully with others. Our Culture of Powerful Learning articulates the what and the how of this program.

Students need to not only think, but also to do. They need to be making, be creating, be listening, and be engaged. Our curricular and co-curricular activities provide them with a remarkable array of opportunities to develop the skills of making and doing, so as to shape and animate their learning in tangible ways. Our Signature of a BSS Girl is a research-based articulation of the key attributes that we believe will nurture engaged, reflective and ethical students who will become those transformative leaders.

In joining BSS, you not only get an education, but you join a community. We expect our students to be involved in our rich and diverse school life, and we support them through resources and mentoring so that they can learn those leadership capabilities for now and the future. This community is diverse in perspectives, ethnicity, socio-economics and culture, and that only makes us stronger.

Shaping girls to be fearless leaders is a lofty goal. We want our students to be dazzled by what they can do, and to lift each other up - that is the power of belonging and the lifelong preparation of an exceptional education.

Sincerely,

Dr. Angela Terpstra
Head of School