Morinville Community High School (MCHS) is a

Catholic high school Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. , the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school syste ...

located in

Morinville Morinville is a town in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada. It is approximately north of Edmonton along Highway 2. History Morinville was settled by Jean-Baptiste Morin, a priest and missionary of the Missionary Oblates of ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

, Canada. It is part of the Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools. MCHS is the only high school serving the Morinville community.Morinville Community High School About Us
/ref> The

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compu ...

was founded in November 1994 and teaches students from grade 9-12. Their athletic teams are called the "Prairie Wolves," or just the "Wolves."

History

Morinville was for a long time served by high schools in neighbouring towns: the much older and larger settlement of St. Albert to the south, and the small agricultural village of

Legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

to the north. The

Grey Nuns The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founde ...

had established a small convent, schoolhouse, and hospital in what was to become the settlement of St. Albert in 1864. The Catholic Church continued to dominate education in the region even after the first public school boards were formed, as most of the population was Catholic. In the earliest days, each school had its own board, and St. Albert had a school board as early as 1885 when both St. Albert Roman Catholic Public District no. 3 and nearby Bellerose Roman Catholic Public District no. 6 were both formed to operate

one-room schools One-room schools, or schoolhouses, were commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Spain. In most rural and ...

that went up to grade 8, the legal requirement at the time (Bellerose School was later moved to

Fort Edmonton Park Fort Edmonton Park (sometimes referred to as "Fort Edmonton") is an attraction in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Named for the first enduring European post in the area of modern-day Edmonton, the park is the largest living history museum in Canada by ...

where it still stands). The first school district founded in the Morinville area was the Thibault Roman Catholic School Public District. The school was named after the founder, Father Thibault who started a mission and a school in 1892. Nearby

Legal, Alberta Legal is a town in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada within Sturgeon County. It is east of Highway 2 on Highway 651, approximately north of Edmonton. Legal was established in 1894 as a Francophone community, and is name ...

got its school district in 1907, and later a secondary school: St. Emile High School. Morinville then had the same schooling situation for several decades, with elementary in town, and high schools to the north and south. The most notable change of that period was in 1980 when

French immersion French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which students who do not speak French as a first language will receive instruction in French. In most French-immersion schools, students will learn to speak French and learn most subjects s ...

was officially offered in the Morinville schools, reversing decades of "English-only" policy in what that originally been a francophone settlement. In 1993, Legal's St. Emile High School closed. The Thibault School District opened Morinville Community High School on November 3, 1994. The first principal of MCHS was Paul O’Dea. On January 1, 1995, the three main schools in Legal and Morinville were joined into the Greater St. Albert Catholic Regional Division or GSACRD as part of a wave of school board consolidations across Alberta at that time. When MCHS was first opened the grade 9 hallway was not part of the school. It was only added later when the number of grade 9s in G.H. Primeau School was too high.

Courses and programs

Morinville Community High School offers many different Courses, including all courses required by the Province of Alberta, plus a wide selection of options. It also provides programs called iLearn and RAP. Quite a few of these courses are offered in French as well.

Core program

The core studies include Mathematics,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

Language Arts Language arts (also known as English language arts or ELA) is the study and improvement of the arts of language. Traditionally, the primary divisions in language arts are literature and language, where language in this case refers to both lingu ...

, Social Studies,

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

(including

Biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditar ...

, Chemistry,

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

and Forensic Science), and

Optional studies

Students are provided the option to study *

Art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

Drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

Computer Graphics Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great deal ...

** Media and Communications ** MCTV *

Music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

** Band ** Chorus ** Guitar ** Instrumental instruction *

Construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

Home Economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

** Foods ** Fashion ** Cafeteria prep * Early Child Care *

Cosmetology Cosmetology (from Greek , ''kosmētikos'', "beautifying"; and , ''-logia'') is the study and application of beauty treatment. Branches of specialty include hairstyling, skin care, cosmetics, manicures/pedicures, non-permanent hair removal such as ...

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in ...

Leadership Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets v ...

Religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural ...

Film Studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies ...

* Legal Studies * Medical Studies *

Sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, ...

Sport Medicine Sports medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with physical fitness and the treatment and prevention of injuries related to sports and exercise. Although most sports teams have employed team physicians for many years, it is only since the ...

* Learning Strategies * Work experience

Athletics

Western Canadian Challenge

The Western Canadian Challenge (WCC) is an annual

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

tournament that is hosted each October by Morinville Community High School. The tournament's sponsors are ASICS,

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

, United Cycle, Mizuno, and the Morinville

Lions Club The International Association of Lions Clubs, more commonly known as Lions Clubs International, is an international non-political service organization established originally in 1916 in Chicago, Illinois, by Melvin Jones. It is now headquarte ...

. The tournament has been every year since 1995, and has hosted as many as 96 teams from all over Canada and the United States, as well as a few teams from other countries.

School Mascot

The school teams play under the name "The Prairie Wolves" or simply "The Wolves". The school mascot is a wolf named Big Bad Joe.

Team Sports

MCHS supports teams in the following sports: * Volleyball * Basketball * Badminton * Curling * Golf * Track and field teams * Cross Country * Cheerleading (Stunt)

Intramural Sports

MCHS Moriniville community high school offers a number of

intramural Intramural sports are recreational sports organized within a particular institution, usually an educational institution, or a set geographic region. The term, which is chiefly North American, derives from the Latin words ''intra muros'' meaning " ...

sports as well. These vary from year to year, and have included: * Floor Hockey * Basketball * Soccer

Student Activities

MCHS offers students a variety of

extracurricular activities An extracurricular activity (ECA) or extra academic activity (EAA) or cultural activities is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school, college or university education. Such activities a ...

: *

Student Council A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...

* Students Against Drinking and Driving *

Drum Circle A drum circle is any group of people playing (usually) hand-drums and percussion in a circle. They are distinct from a drumming group or troupe in that the drum circle is an end in itself rather than preparation for a performance. They can range ...

* Garbage Crew *

Yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

Committee * Interact Club (a student-organized charitable works group) * MCTV (a TV show inside the school run by students and Greg Boutestein)

Arts

;Drama MCHS annually produces a musical drawn from the standard

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

repertory. ;Coffee House Students may partake in an annual "coffee house" style talent show. ; Other arts MCHS hosts a band, chorus, and jazz ensemble.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Morinville Community High School

Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools

Greg Boutestein
High schools in Alberta Educational institutions established in 1994 1994 establishments in Alberta