Northcote Campus

Welcome to Northcote Campus

Northcote Campus is a 160-acre farm (located just north of our main campus) that was generously donated to Lakefield College School in 2007 by Gretchen and Donald Ross '48. The campus sits on a drumlin that extends from beyond Clear Lake all the way to Chemong Lake. The property has 7,000 feet of shoreline and is a habitat for a diversity of flora and fauna. Rich in historical significance for both settler and Indigenous peoples of the area, Northcote Campus also has many ties to the history of Lakefield College School.

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Providing Authentic Learning Opportunities
Outdoor and Climate Education for Action
Integrating academic disciplines with nature and other real-world experiences provides our students with meaningful ways to participate directly in climate action, and leads to truly authentic learning and fulfillment.

LCS offers a breadth of learning opportunities at Northcote through its curricular, co-curricular and Summer Academy programs including hands-on experiences in:
- Planting and maintaining our polyculture vegetable garden
- Ecology
- Green technologies
- Natural tea harvesting and wellness talks
- Natural dye workshops using botanicals grown on the farm
- Understanding the difference between regenerative and industrial farming
- The science of soil health and testing
- Building projects for the farm
- Orienteering
- Outdoor Education
- Wilderness skills including cooking and bushcraft
- Leave-No-Trace wilderness camping
Strengthening Community First
Our beautiful 160-acre property at Northcote provides a stunning backdrop and location for a variety of community building events, including:
- Activities which see House groups planting, harvesting, cooking and connecting together as a community, outside and on the land
- Our Annual Winter Carnival, filled with tobogganing, horse-drawn sleigh rides, bonfires, and classic Canadian winter treats such as maple taffy, s'mores and beaver tails
- Fall Fair, Harvest and LCS Community Events (e.g. Special Dinners and Trustee Days)
- Local community partner events (e.g. Big Bothers Big Sisters Peterborough, and Adventures in Understanding)
Promoting Outdoors Every Day
With its biodiversity and changing landscape, Northcote provides the perfect setting for a variety of outdoor pursuits. Whether it be at its waterfront, fields, forests or trails, LCS students and staff enjoy a variety of outdoor recreation activities such as:
- Camping activities in the fall, winter and spring
- Canoeing
- Trail Walking
- Bush Walks
- Cross Country Skiing
- Snow-shoeing
- Dog Walking

A Vision for the Future

LCS is exploring a long-term vision for Northcote. To that end, we held a series of webinars to educate ourselves and the broader LCS community, inviting an array of passionate and talented people from educational institutions that have farms to speak with us, including three excellent American boarding schools that, like us, specialize in educating teenagers. The series has inspired excitement and optimism - about growing our own food and about sustainability and we are looking forward to realizing our plans for for the future.