Institut Le Rosey

Overview

The school offers a bilingual and bicultural education with the language of instruction being French or English depending on the student's academic programme.{{cite web |access-date=2007-08-02 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928002742/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlScolaire/bilinguisme.html |archive-date=28 September 2007 | access-date = 2007-07-16 |access-date=2007-07-14 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927090401/http://www.ecis.org/directory/Directory_Page.asp?School_ID=LEROS1 |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date = 2007-07-16 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083001/http://www.weltwoche.ch/artikel/?AssetID=16556&CategoryID=91 |archive-date = 29 September 2007 |url-status = dead |access-date=2007-07-16 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704055935/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlRosey/originalites.html |archive-date=4 July 2007

Students at Le Rosey are nicknamed "Roséens" (in French) or "Roseans" (in English), and former students are labeled "Les Anciens Roséens".{{cite web | access-date = 2007-07-17 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070630223410/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlEcole/esprit.html | archive-date = 30 June 2007 | access-date = 2007-07-16

History

Château du Rosey, a feudal chateau located on Le Rosey's main campus at Rolle, dates to the Middle Ages and houses the school's central reception area. In 1880, the site of Le Rosey's campus was chosen by the school's founder, Paul-Emile Carnal, "a lover of nature, history and the countryside". The school's campus at Rolle is situated adjacent to Lake Geneva. In 1911, the founder passed the ownership of Le Rosey to his son, Henri-Paul Carnal. In 1917, the school began to go to Gstaad in the German-speaking canton of Bern for the winter months to escape the dense fog that settles in on Lake Geneva.

In 1931, Lucien Brunel, a former member of the International Red Cross and former director of the Institut Haccius at the Château de Lancy (Geneva), also known as the Grand-Lancy Castle, took on by demand of Henri Carnal, the direction of Rosey until 1949. In 1947, the third generation of directors, Louis Johannot and Helen Schaub, assumed ownership of Le Rosey. Under the same ownership, Le Rosey admitted girls for the first time in 1967 and opened a separate girls' campus. In 1980, the current owners, Philippe and Anne Gudin de la Sablonnière, became the fourth generation of directors at Le Rosey. Louis Johannot, in an interview with Life Magazine in 1965, made a comment that received considerable attention: "The only reason I always try to meet and know the parents better is because it helps me to forgive their children."{{cite web | access-date = 2007-07-18 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071107012020/http://www.bartleby.com/63/64/2564.html | archive-date = 7 November 2007

Prior to the introduction of the 10% quota, wherein no more than 10% of the student body may come from one country, different nationalities made up the majority of students at Le Rosey.{{cite news | access-date = 2007-07-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070711163554/http://members.forbes.com/global/1999/0705/0213126a.html | archive-date = 11 July 2007 | url-status = dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122212442/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n40_v11/ai_17625033 |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 January 2009 |access-date=2007-08-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225043226/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200702/ai_n18621914 |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 December 2008 |access-date=2007-08-08

In 2014, Le Rosey inaugurated the Paul & Henri Carnal Hall, an arts and learning centre for Le Rosey and the La Côte region.{{cite web | access-date = 2007-07-17 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070808015033/http://www.rosey.ch/pdfWeb/20062007/carnalHallJuin07.pdf | archive-date = 8 August 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120207214907/http://www.24heures.ch/layout/set/print/(contenu)/143998/ | url-status = dead | archive-date = 7 February 2012 In 2019, Le Rosey became involved in a legal case with billionaire parents Radhika and Pankaj Oswal. The parents allege that "the standards of the school have dropped in recent years, and it is now fast becoming just a playground for rich students to do as they please," and that it failed to protect their daughter from being "mocked and taunted" by schoolmates about her ethnicity.

Accreditation

Swiss

Le Rosey's (upper) secondary education (Middle and High School) is not approved as a Gymnasium by the bureau for gymnasial and vocational education MBA (Mittelschul- und Berufsbildungsamt MBA), administration for education (Erziehungsdirektion), canton of Bern, nor by the Swiss Federal State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI).

International

Institut Le Rosey is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the International Baccalaureate, the Ministry of National Education of France and the Council of International Schools. Le Rosey is also a member of the European Council of International Schools.

Academic curriculum

Institut Le Rosey's academic curriculum is designed to "provide education of breadth, depth and quality for an international student body."{{cite web |access-date = 2007-08-02 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070819124001/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlScolaire/esprit.html |archive-date = 19 August 2007 | access-date = 2007-08-02 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070822203934/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlScolaire/programmeJunior.html | archive-date = 22 August 2007 | access-date = 2007-08-02 | archive-date = 4 February 2012 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120204190140/http://www.internationalprimarycurriculum.com/ | url-status = dead

Le Rosey students in Classes 6–2 (US 6th–10th grade) choose their principal language and continue their studies in French or English.{{cite web | access-date = 2007-08-02 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070822203901/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlScolaire/programmeBilingue.html | archive-date = 22 August 2007 | access-date = 2007-08-02 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070824035104/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlScolaire/bacInter.html | archive-date = 24 August 2007

Facilities

Rolle campus

Le Rosey's main campus, near Rolle, is on 28 ha adjacent to Lake Geneva. It is divided into two campuses, one for boys situated on the main campus and one for girls called La Combe. The boarding houses contain a total of 179 bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, and all together the academic buildings contain: 53 classrooms, eight science laboratories, 14 specially-equipped rooms, 48 apartments for Le Rosey teachers, two infirmaries, a library/media centre with about 20,000 to 30,000 literary and reference works, a theatre, three dining rooms and two canteens, an auditorium, two gyms, and an ecumenical chapel. Sports and arts facilities at Le Rosey include: ten clay tennis courts, a 25 m indoor pool and wellness centre, a 25-metre outdoor pool, three football pitches, a synthetic rugby pitch, a wood chip running track, a shooting and archery range, an open-air theatre, and a computer-regulated greenhouse. Off-campus Le Rosey owns a private equestrian centre housing 30 horses, an indoor riding school, a dressage area, and a clubhouse. Also off-campus is the Le Rosey sailing centre equipped with ten dinghies, three motorboats, three yawls and a 38 ft yacht.{{cite web | access-date = 2007-07-16 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070717062228/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlVieRoseenne/infrastructures.html | archive-date = 17 July 2007

Gstaad campus

The school's winter campus, at the ski resort of Gstaad in the Bernese Oberland, is composed of several traditional chalets within the town. The girls' campus, at Schönried, is situated a 10-minute train ride away from Gstaad and is composed of five chalets used solely for boarding and dining. The students utilise local facilities, including: swimming pool, fitness centre, tennis courts, ice hockey rink, a bowling alley, curling, 250 km of alpine ski slopes and 120 km of cross-country ski tracks, 65 km of snowshoeing trails, climbing walls, and via ferratas.{{cite web | access-date = 2007-07-16 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070613160551/http://www.rosey.ch/en/htmlVieRoseenne/campusGstaad.html | archive-date = 13 June 2007

Tuition fees

, the annual boarding and academic fees are CHF 125,000 (approximately US$133,000), without extra fees such as those for sports, etc. The Rosey Foundation, which oversees the financing of Le Rosey's Carnal Hall, makes scholarships possible to "particularly deserving" students, and the four-member Rosey Scholarship Committee allots them to the approved students.{{cite web |access-date = 2007-08-02 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070822050355/http://www.aiar.ch/history.htm |archive-date = 22 August 2007 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20150507065313/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1/7401162c-6690-11dc-a218-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=eeb79658-6054-11dc-8ec0-0000779fd2ac.html |url-status = dead |archive-date = 7 May 2015 |access-date = 2007-08-02

Associations

L'Association Internationale des Anciens Roséens (AIAR), the International Association of Former Roseans, is Le Rosey's alumni association, the members of which have been major contributors to 20th-century world history.{{cite web | access-date = 2007-07-17 | access-date = 2007-07-17 |access-date = 2007-07-17 |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070822050355/http://www.aiar.ch/history.htm |archive-date = 22 August 2007

Institut Le Rosey is fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the International Baccalaureate, the Ministry of National Education of France and the Council of International Schools.{{cite web |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927090401/http://www.ecis.org/directory/Directory_Page.asp?School_ID=LEROS1 |archive-date=27 September 2007

Notable alumni

Main article: List of alumni of Institut Le Rosey

Institut Le Rosey has over 5,000 former students. It has educated generations of dynastic families, including members of the Hohenzollern, Cavendish, Rothschild, Koskull, Metternich, Borghese, Hohenlohe, Molson, Rockefeller, Niarchos, Safra, Du Pont and Radziwiłł families.{{cite web |access-date=2007-07-26

The school has educated royalty and high society from around the world, such as Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, the Muhammad Ali Dynasty of Egypt, the House of Glücksburg of Greece and the House of Savoy of Italy.

Le Rosey has educated several monarchs, including the Aga Khan IV, King Albert II of Belgium, King Baudouin I of Belgium, King Fuad II of Egypt, King Ntare V of Burundi, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Persia and Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

Other notable alumni include Princess Ashi Euphelma Choden Wangchuck and Prince Dasho Ugyen Jigme Wangchuck of Bhutan, Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Prince Amyn Aga Khan, Princess Fawzia-Latifa of Egypt, Marie-Chantal, Crown Princess of Greece, her sisters Pia Getty and Alexandra von Fürstenberg,{{cite web |date=17 February 1993 |url=http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/02/17/swis.php |title=In Switzerland, Democracy at the Summit |access-date=2007-07-14 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070705095952/http://www.iht.com/articles/1993/02/17/swis.php |archive-date = 2007-07-05}} John Lennon's son Sean Lennon, the Swiss entrepreneur Eugenio Losa, rewilding advocate Randal Plunkett, 21st Baron of Dunsany, heiress Tatiana Santo Domingo, CIA director Richard Helms, The Strokes' Julian Casablancas, Albert Hammond Jr. and actress Tracee Ellis Ross.

In fiction and popular culture

In fiction, the school is most commonly mentioned in novels relating to the rich and famous, and usually takes the role of being the choice of education for different characters.{{cite book | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20 | url-access = registration | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20

In non-fiction, alumni Michael Korda and James Laughlin have written about their experiences and memories at Le Rosey.{{cite book | access-date = 2007-08-20 | access-date = 2007-08-20 | url-access = registration |access-date=2014-02-15 | access-date = 2010-01-08

Plans to leave Gstaad

In January 2008, Swiss economics magazine Bilanz, a subsidiary of Edipresse, published an interview with Le Rosey Director-General Philippe Gudin that revealed the school is seeking to sell its Gstaad winter campus and build a new campus in another location. Gudin is in negotiations with the local authorities in Schönried, a suburb of Gstaad located a few minutes away, to construct a new main campus on an undeveloped piece of land, and this has run into difficulties due to zoning restrictions. Reasons for moving to a new campus, according to the Director-General, include the fact that the school's personnel, who typically live on campus, are at maximum capacity, and that the student body can no longer increase in size due to the lack of space. Gudin stated that for the moment the new winter campus location will be in Switzerland, and he has not ruled out the French Alps. The 100 ha of prime real estate that the school occupies on Ried Hill in the centre of Gstaad is estimated to be worth several hundreds of millions of USD, considering the International Herald Tribune reports that the price per square meter in Gstaad starts at 20,000 CHF (19,000 US$) and can rise to 45,000 CHF (43,000 US$). Gudin asserts that the high value of the Gstaad winter campus has nothing to do with its planned sale.

References

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