page_title: Upper Canada College
section_title: Student body
hierarchical_section_title: Upper Canada College / Student body
caption_attribution_description: Parkin Building of en:Upper Canada College
context_page_description: Upper Canada College in Toronto, Ontario is an independent school for boys between Senior Kindergarten and Grade Twelve, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The secondary school segment is divided into ten houses; eight are for day students and the remaining two are for boarding students. Aside from the main structure, with its dominant clock tower, the Toronto campus has a number of sports facilities, staff and faculty residences, and buildings for other purposes. UCC also owns and operates a campus in Norval, Ontario, for outdoor education.
  UCC was founded in 1829 by Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Sir John Colborne, based upon Elizabeth College, Guernsey. It is the oldest independent school in the province of Ontario and the third oldest in Canada. UCC is widely described as the country's most prestigious preparatory school, and has produced many notable graduates. After facing closure by the government on more than one occasion, UCC became fully independent in 1900, nine years after moving to its present location.
context_section_description: UCC is a non-denominational school with approximately 1,000-day students and 88 boarders; Senior Kindergarten to Grade Seven students, approximately 400 boys, attend the Preparatory School (the Prep), after which a boy may move on to the Upper School, which consists of Grades Eight to Twelve. The Upper School years are known as follows:
  Grade Eight: Year Eight (formerly called Year One)
  Grade Nine: Year Nine (formerly called Year Two)
  Grade Ten: Year Ten (formerly called Foundation Year)
  Grade Eleven: Year Eleven (formerly called IB1)
  Grade Twelve: Year Twelve (formerly called IB2)
  While Prep students are divided into forms, UCC, like several other schools in the Commonwealth of Nations, divides its Upper School students into houses. The house system was first adopted in 1923, consisting of only four houses until the late 1930s, after which the number increased the present ten. Eight of these—Bremner's, Howard's, Jackson's, Martland's, McHugh's, Mowbray's, Orr's, and Scadding's—are for day students and the remaining two—Seaton's and Wedd's—are for boarders.
   The houses compete in an annual intramural competition for the Prefects' Cup and the boarders also take part in weekend events and trips with boarders from neighbouring girls' schools.
  Martland's was named for John "Gentle" Martland, a master at the College who was most well known for his reform of the boarding houses, making them into something more than simple residences. He toned down the rigid study regimes, cold dormitories, bland menus, and bullying, fostering instead more tolerating discipline, swift punishment for serious offenders, the occasional feast, and organised recreation. Wedd's is the one the oldest of the ten houses at UCC and is named for William Wedd, formerly first classical master.
  The school's student government, created in 1892 and known as the Board of Stewards, represents the students at events, such as Association Day and Winterfest, and relays their wishes, during times of change or concern, to the upper administration. The group comprises 17 elected members of the Leaving Class: one steward for each house (the heads of houses) plus seven—the Head Steward and six stewards with portfolio—chosen by the majority of the whole student body. In addition to the stewards, students can enter the prefects program, requiring them to show leadership through their senior years to be awarded the title of Prefect upon graduation, the highest recognition UCC offers "for citizenship and leadership."
  Though Upper Canada College has accepted ethnic minorities since the first black student (Peter Gallego, the son of a former American slave) enrolled in 1831 and First Nations boys, such as Francis Assikinack (son of the Ojibwe leader Jean-Baptiste Assiginack) in 1840, their representation within the student body was initially disproportionate to the same within the city's population and the school developed a reputation as a "WASP bastion". Michael Ignatieff considered the school's ethnic makeup during his time there, between 1959 and 1965, reflective of the culture of Toronto in general; according to him, "basically Tory, Anglican and fantastically patrician." Peter C. Newman, who attended UCC a decade before Ignatieff, and himself Jewish, said anti-semitism was "virtually non-existent." According to school historian Richard Howard, UCC transformed its culture during the 1970s, as it began to offer assistance to the less affluent and made attempts to attract boys from visible minorities, becoming what he called "a small United Nations" that echoed Toronto's emerging ethnic variety (today, students from over 20 different countries and regions attend UCC), though, as recently as 1990, there were references in College Times editorials to anti-semitism and sexism. These aspects of college life came to light in 1994, through James T. Fitzgerald's book Old Boys, which published some alumni's recollections of the school. In it, Peter Dalglish noted that while the student body was more racially diverse, it was still predominantly populated by the upper middle class, 
caption: The Parkin Building, part of the Prep School, which houses Kindergarten through Grade Seven
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