Institut Le Rosey

Institut Le Rosey (French pronunciation: [ɛ̃stity lə ʁozɛ]), commonly referred to as Le Rosey or simply Rosey, is a private boarding school in Rolle, Switzerland. Founded in 1880 by Paul-Émile Carnal on the site of the 14th-century Château du Rosey in the town of Rolle in the canton of Vaud, it is among the oldest boarding schools in Switzerland.

The school also owns a campus in the ski resort village of Gstaad in the canton of Bern, to where the student body, faculty and staff move during the months of January through March. In 2015, Christophe Gudin, son of the fourth director of Le Rosey, Philippe Gudin, became the fifth director. Kim Kovacevic is the headmaster.

Le Rosey is included in The Schools Index of the world’s 150 best private schools and among top 10 international schools in Switzerland.

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 the famous 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 school of 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.”

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. In the 1950s and 1960s, the majority of students were American, Italian, or Greek; in the 1970s the majority was Arab or Iranian; in the 1980s the majority was Japanese or Korean; and in the 1990s the majority was Russian. During the 1990s, the children of Russian oligarchs, who made up a third of the student body, gained notoriety for “terrorizing” other students, something that is disputed, resulting in the withdrawal of at least one non-Russian student.

In 2014, Le Rosey inaugurated the Paul & Henri Carnal Hall, an arts and learning centre for Le Rosey and the La Côte region.