"A Small School for a Big World! Located in Kitchener, Ontario, just one hour west of Toronto, Rockway Mennonite Collegiate focuses on academic excellence, service, and peace-making through a diverse learning community of students in grades 7-12 with rich leadership and extracurricular opportunities . Rockway is an inclusive and supportive community that embraces academics, the arts, and athletics to help students to become well-rounded, responsible, global citizens."
Rockway’s vision is to establish a culture where young people not only reach their academic potential but are also driven to act with justice, integrity and compassion in the face of global challenges. A robust academic program creates space and time for critical reflection on basic questions about what is good, fair and just. We are committed to helping students put values into action through service and peacemaking with an awareness of our obligation to creating a more just and compassionate world. Our holistic approach to education and our small size, promotes a fun, friendly learning environment, ensuring that students are seen, heard and known. A wide range of extracurricular and leadership opportunities including the Arts, Humanities, Robotics and Athletics, offers an outlet for almost every interest. Our alumni have excelled in every field imaginable, including medicine, law, science, ministry, athletics, engineering, technology, education and business.
Choosing to remain a small school is a strategy that works with our focus on community-building and our effort to ensure that every student is seen, heard and known. While some prospective students are somewhat wary of this, or would rather be anonymous, parents are comforted that their student won’t get lost in the crowd like they could in a larger school. Once they start here, students soon realize the benefits of being known by their teachers as well as the quality of relationships with their peers, is an enriching part of their Rockway Experience.
In September 1945, Rockway opened on one of the first farmlands in the Region. The first grade 9 & 10 classes were held in a farm house and moved to a renovated barn soon after. Life at Rockway was pretty exciting for a couple of decades, and the school grew - adding grades 11 & 12, bringing our student population to nearly 100. The early 1970s were a very difficult time for our school and we nearly closed our doors. Thanks to a new leadership model, and students rallying to save their school, Rockway persevered! In 1980, the school became known as Rockway Mennonite Collegiate as a way to more accurately show the community that we offered a full high school program. During this decade, grades 7, 8 and 13 were added, raising the student population and further defining who we were as an educational institution. When the Ontario Ministry of Education discontinued grade 13, we brought grade 6 to our school for a short while, but soon determined our perfect age range was grade 7-12 school.
Students who are curious learners and are interested in becoming well-rounded individuals, focused not only on their academic potential but also their leadership and collaboration skills, will do well at Rockway. Our students are encouraged to explore their passions and skills by participating in a wide variety of extracurricular activities and by getting involved in the school community. Rockway isn’t just for students, it is also for families. In fact, our parents have consistently told us that they want to get to know each other and to connect socially with the parents of the classmates of their child. As a response, we have facilitated the creation of grade parents groups which has made our parent community stronger. We also encourage parents to contribute to the school by volunteering at community events, supporting extracurricular programs by sharing their time and expertise as they are able.
While Rockway is equipped to service students who have mild to moderate academic support needs, we do not have the personnel to support students who are working below grade level and/or require intensive, one-on-one learning support. Our academic program is rigorous and students need a certain level of independence to guarantee success.
Our holistic approach to education means that our students are well-prepared for post secondary. They are consistently accepted into, and find success in, some of the most competitive programs in the country. This is not a result of an exclusive focus on academics. Rather, a combination of rigorous academics and an intentional effort to support the social and emotional well-being of our students. It’s providing opportunities for students to explore their interests and passions, and encouraging them to consider how they will use their skills to make a positive impact on the world. Families choose Rockway because they value our academics, small classes, inclusive school culture and sense of community. Families stay at Rockway because they see a difference in their child. Our caring and dedicated teachers allow students to feel a sense of belonging and their children are happy, eager to come to school every day. Please visit the video section to hear parents share why they chose Rockway.
We are known in the community for having a strong academic program, with a focus on values as well as character and faith formation. Our students are known for being thoughtful, articulate and responsible young people who care about others and are interested in the world around them.
While some aspects of our facilities may not be as shiny as they once were, what makes Rockway so unique is not the building, it is the people and our programming. When you walk into our school, you will immediately feel an energy that is undefined. Some people may also underestimate what is possible in a school with only 300 students and 50 faculty but we have 26 competitive sports teams, 22 co-curricular clubs, 12 music and drama groups, and robotics for grades 7-12. We truly have something for everyone.
Our unexpected quality can be perfectly summed up in this quote from one of our newer parents, whose family moved to the Kitchener area so their children could attend Rockway: “One of the things I wasn’t expecting when my son first started grade 7 was that he would be exposed to, and friends with, and supported by, students all the way up to grade 12…we never hear complaining about school because he just loves it, and that wasn’t our experience before.”
We recently made some changes to our timetable that allows students and families more choice regarding course selection, provides more time for students to get academic support and facilitates teacher collaboration.
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