A. Y. Jackson Secondary School is a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

for grades 9 to 12 in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. It was opened in 1970 by the

North York Board of Education The North York Board of Education (NYBE, commonly known as School District 13), officially the Board of Education for the City of North York is the former public school board for the former city of North York in Ontario, Canada. In 1998, the prov ...

, and is now operated by its successor, the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

. The school was named after

A. Y. Jackson Alexander Young Jackson LL. D. (October 3, 1882April 5, 1974) was a Canadian painter and a founding member of the Group of Seven. Jackson made a significant contribution to the development of art in Canada, and was instrumental in bringing toget ...

, a Canadian painter and one of the founders of the

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an intergovernmental political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non-enumerated member". It is official ...

History

A.Y. Jackson was opened in 1970 under the North York Board of Education, as a grades 10 to 13 school. However, as part of the 1998 amalgamation of North York into the City of Toronto, the Toronto District School Board now operates A.Y. Jackson. In 2016, as part of a TDSB board decision, the school underwent more changes, with the school now supporting grade nine students and the Gifted program.

Student life

Academics

The school offers three Specialist High Skills Majors (SHSM) in the fields of Biotechnology, Business, and Information Communications Technology. It also offers three dual credit courses in Forensic Science, Introduction to Marketing, and Composition & Creativity, in collaboration with Seneca College. The school also serves as the giftedness program secondary school for much of east North York, as well as parts of Scarborough. In the 2018–2019 school year, 90% of grade 9 students achieved the provincial standard in academic math and 50% achieved the provincial standard in applied math. In addition, in the 2018–2019 school year, 87% of grade 10 students achieved the provincial standard for Literacy on their first attempt. More recently, in the 2021-2022 school year, A Y Jackson ranked 1st among all TDSB schools on the EQAO math assessment with 93.2% of students achieving the provincial standard.

Sports

Currently, A.Y. Jackson has the following sports teams: * Aquatics * Badminton * Basketball * Cross country * Curling * Flag football * Table tennis * Soccer * Ultimate frisbee * Volleyball * Ice hockey * Field hockey

Clubs

In the 2021–2022 school year, A.Y. Jackson has 52 different clubs, councils and ensembles, including 5 related to the arts, and 13 related to the STEM fields.

Student demographics

The student population of A.Y Jackson is diverse, with a large component of students living in Canada for five years or less (about 14%), and around 92% of the population speaking a primary language other than English. As of 2020, 14% of the students are enrolled in the gifted program and 25% of students live in lower-income households. There were 263 females and 290 males in the school in 2020, making A.Y. Jackson's total student body 653 as of June 30, 2021.

Notable alumni

Henry Lau Henry Lau (; ko, 헨리; born October 11, 1989), often mononymously referred to as Henry, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor based in South Korea and China. He debuted in 2008 as a member of Super Junior-M ...

, singer, musician, actor, and ex-member of

Super Junior-M Super Junior-M (stylized as SJ-M), an initialism for Super Junior-Mandarin, is a Chinese sub-unit of the South Korean boy band Super Junior. The sub-unit is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both ...

Alex Lifeson Aleksandar Živojinović, (born 27 August 1953), known professionally as Alex Lifeson (), is a Canadian musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Rush. In 1968, Lifeson co-founded the band that wo ...

, guitarist for the rock group Rush *

Sorel Mizzi Sorel Mizzi (born April 16, 1986 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian professional poker player. Mizzi plays online poker under the names of "Imper1um" and "Zangbezan24". , information gathered by Cardplayer.com's database states Sorel Mizzi has l ...

, professional poker player *

Daniel Negreanu Daniel Negreanu (; born July 26, 1974) is a Canadian professional poker player who has won six World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) championship titles. In 2014, independent poker ranking service Global Poker Ind ...

, professional poker player *

Merrill Nisker Merrill Nisker (born 11 November 1966), better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electroclash musician and producer. Born in Ontario, Peaches began her musical career in the 1990s as part of a folk trio, Mermaid Cafe. In 1995, sh ...

(better known as

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), electronica musician *

Monita Rajpal Monita Rajpal (born 20 February 1974) is a Canadian journalist. She is a former news presenter for Citytv and CNN International. At CNN, she anchored '' CNN Today'', ''World One'', the art programmes ''Art of Life'' and ''Icon'', ''CNN NewsCente ...

, CNN International news anchor *

Gerald Eaton Gerald Eaton (born November 22, 1971) is a Canadian R&B singer-songwriter and music producer, also known by his stage name Jarvis Church. Career Eaton is the lead singer for the R&B-pop group The Philosopher Kings, which reached its peak popula ...

, producer, lead singer of The Philosopher Kings

References

External links

A. Y. Jackson Secondary School website
{{Toronto High Schools High schools in Toronto Schools in the TDSB Educational institutions established in 1970 1970 establishments in Ontario