Notre Dame High School is a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

intermediate school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school. ...

and

high 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 '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

's west operated by the

Ottawa Catholic School Board The Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB, known as English-language Separate District School Board No. 53 prior to 1999) is a publicly funded separate school board in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarters are in the Nepean area of Ottawa. It e ...

. The school is one of the first in the area to use a uniform. The school is mainly two storeys throughout, except for the northeast corner where it features a basement in which the classrooms are almost exclusively for

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

. It has an

auditorium An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances. For movie theatres, the number of auditoria (or auditoriums) is expressed as the number of screens. Auditoria can be found in entertainment venues, community ...

. It used to feature a single

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

nasium in the centre of the school, but an extra one was built and opened in 2002–2003. Sports teams play under the moniker/nickname "Notre Dame Eagles" (formerly the Notre Dame Silver Eagles). The present site at 710 Broadview was once the site of Highland Park Technical School. Notre Dame High School moved into the 710 Broadview site during the mid-1990s, from their old site on the north west corner of the Holland Ave- Queensway intersection. That site is now Fisher Park Public School. The high school operates on a standard semestered system for grades 7-12. Grade 7-8 students take their classes in a separate wing of the school.

History

Initially, Notre Dame was located on Heron Road and was an all-girls school. In 1968, St Pat's School for boys moved to the campus and shared the chapel, theatre and other facilities with Notre Dame. In 1971, a few classes became blended from the 2 schools. In 1972, the senior grades from both schools were eliminated due to financial constraints, as there was not government funding for Catholic high schools in Ontario. In 1973, the nuns who ran Notre Dame were forced to close the doors. Students from Notre Dame had to attend public schools or go to St. Joes or St. Pius. A "new" Notre Dame was once again created after full funding for Ontario catholic schools was announced and the former St. Joseph and St. Raymond high schools (both grade 9-10) were merged into one school serving grade 9- OAC students. The school was relocated from its previous location on Holland Avenue in 1994. It is a very multicultural school, and houses Grades 7 to 12. The enrollment for the 2020-2021 school year was 270 Grade 7-8 students and 455 Grade 9-12 students.

Uniform

The school has a

uniform A uniform is a variety of clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, se ...

, consisting of either unisex pants, unisex shorts, unisex kapris, white and gray unisex polo shirts, white and gray unisex long sleeved polo shirt, and for girls a

kilt A kilt ( gd, fèileadh ; Irish: ''féileadh'') is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Hi ...

, a wrap-around skirt, a navy skirt and a fitted blouse. The uniforms are manufactured by Top Marks co. for the school, while several other companies provide accessories with the Notre Dame logo, some of which can be used as uniform.

Activities

Senior high school students are offered overseas trips each year usually surrounding the battles of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; more recently students have visited

Vimy Ridge The Battle of Vimy Ridge was part of the Battle of Arras, in the Pas-de-Calais department of France, during the First World War. The main combatants were the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in the First Army, against three divisions of ...

and

Ortona Ortona (Neapolitan language, Abruzzese: '; grc, Ὄρτων, Órtōn) is a coastal town and municipality of the Province of Chieti in the Italy, Italian region of Abruzzo, with some 23,000 inhabitants. In 1943 Ortona was the site of a Battle o ...

with other Canadian high schools. Students also participate in the regional

Cappies The Cappies (Critics and Awards Program) is an international program for recognizing, celebrating, and providing learning experiences for high school theater and journalism students and teenage playwrights. There are currently 13 Cappies programs i ...

competition, and have worked with Nepean High School to gather used

snow suit A ski suit is a suit made to be worn over the rest of the clothes when skiing or snowboarding.OC Transpo OC Transpo, officially the Ottawa-Carleton Regional Transit Commission, is the public transit agency for the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It operates an integrated hub-and-spoke system including light metro, bus rapid transit, conventional ...

bus pass is given to Grade 7-8 students who live more than 1.6 km away and Grade 9-12 students who live more than 3.5 km away from the school.

References

Sources

150 years of Catholic Education in Ottawa-Carleton 1856-2006, Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board, 2006
{{OCCSB High schools in Ottawa Catholic secondary schools in Ontario Educational institutions established in 1968 1968 establishments in Ontario Middle schools in Ottawa

History

Uniform

Activities

See also

References

Sources