Fieldstone Day School began with 8 students in Kindergarten through Grade Six in the basement of a church in midtown Toronto in 1997.
From the founding of Fieldstone, our determination was to build a school in which expectations of students would be higher than at other schools. Research leading up to the opening of Fieldstone, brought to light the work of E.D. Hirsch, an American educator and proponent of Cultural Literacy, an educational approach that emphasized the acquisition of key worldly knowledge that would ensure that students could participate in the broader conversations of their culture. Fieldstone took Hirsch’s curriculum, Core Knowledge, added French and otherwise Canadianized the topics, and established Global Knowledge. We believed that beyond the educational advantages of Global Knowledge, our students’ self-esteem would be positively affected through the mastering of difficult academic challenges within a caring and supportive environment. It was the twin founding principles of Global Knowledge and the creation of a warm and nurturing environment that led to Fieldstone making its early mark within the Toronto private educational landscape.
After two years in that church basement, the school moved to an above-ground church facility where it continued to thrive and grow to 150 students and added its first high school students.
As it continued to develop a strong reputation for its dynamic curriculum and nurturing environment, Fieldstone needed to find a more permanent and appropriate home. In September of 2001, the school moved into a proper school building in Northwest Toronto complete with sufficient classroom space as well as a gymnasium, art, music and drama rooms. It was here that Fieldstone established a full high school programme and it was on its way to being a complete Junior Kindergarten to Grade Twelve institution. In June 2003, Fieldstone’s first high school graduates received their diplomas and moved on to university.
After more than a decade as a top private school in Toronto, Fieldstone had firmly established itself as a leader in both elementary and secondary education. Its lower school continued to thrive within its twin philosophy of Global Knowledge and a caring, nurturing environment, and the upper school became known as a top university-preparation institution, sending its graduates to the top universities in Canada and abroad. In 2009, in its ongoing pursuit of dynamic and global-focused curriculum, the school began a relationship with Cambridge International Examinations, through which it offered Cambridge courses from Grade Six through Twelve. As part of this adoption of the Cambridge curriculum, the upper school was renamed Fieldstone King’s College School. The move to the Cambridge curriculum was a huge success, and in 2015, Fieldstone adopted this curriculum from Kindergarten right through to Grade Twelve.
From a handful of students in that church basement to a thriving JK-12 school in just a few years,
Fieldstone’s rise within the Toronto private educational environment has been rapid and complete. From Global Knowledge through Cambridge International, Fieldstone’s focus on combining rich curriculum with nurturing teachers has been consistently strong over time. Fieldstone and its students are now making their mark in Canada and around the world.