Richmond Hill High 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 '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in the City of Richmond Hill,

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 ...

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. It is the second oldest high school in York Region Municipality (and behind

Newmarket High School Newmarket High School is a secondary school located in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. It is one of four high schools in Newmarket under the jurisdiction of the York Region District School Board and currently educates approximately 1400 students from ...

c. 1843), being established in the mid-19th century. The school is a host to several regional special education programs, including an

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, Alternative Education Program, Cooperative Education Program, Developmentally-Delayed Program, and an Orthopedic Program. The school has a small gifted program along with all other secondary schools in York Region. In the 2016-2017

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rankings, Richmond Hill ranked 19th in the province of Ontario and 7th in York Region, with an overall score of 8.7/10.The Fraser Institute: Report Card on Richmond Hill High School
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History

Richmond Hill High School is one of the oldest secondary schools in the

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, founded on December 2, 1851. It has expanded and changed locations on several occasions including in 1853, 1872, 1897, 1924, 1950, and 2000, having had been located on Yonge St. and Wright St. in 'downtown' Richmond Hill before moving to its present location at 201 Yorkland Street in September 2000. In 1948–9, the Richmond Hill High School Literary Society erected a metal plaque as a list of honour memorial dedicated to the former students of the school who died in service during the First and Second World Wars. The plaque is now mounted on the east wall between the outer and inner doors of the main entrance of the school. In 2005, former president of

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and 1993

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Winner F.W De Klerk visited the school, spoke to students and staff about his part in the end of the

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system, and answered students' questions during an hour-long session.

Building & Site

The current school building on Yorkland Street is a two-story structure measuring , which was completed and opened in 2000. It houses two

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 i ...

nasiums, a fitness and weight training room, a cafetorium including a stage, a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

, a communications technology room including a green and blue screen, vocal and instrumental/band music rooms, two visual art studio classroom/workspaces and six 'pods' with a central

computer lab A computer lab is a space where computer services are provided to a defined community. These are typically public libraries and academic institution Academic institution is an educational institution dedicated to education and research, which ...

surrounded by four conventional classrooms, a science lab classroom and two teaching staff workrooms/offices. The original Yorkland Street building was built to accommodate a student population of 1400 students, but due to continued residential building in the school's catchment area and the strength of the school's academic reputation, the school has consistently enrolled 1600+ students since shortly after its opening. This has necessitated the use of

portables A portable, demountable or transportable building is a building designed and built to be movable rather than permanently located. Smaller version of portable buildings are also known as portable cabins. Portable cabins are prefabricated structu ...

as classrooms, with the number of portables growing to nine as of September 2016. The two older buildings still survive, with the old 1851 building now a coffee shop on Yonge Street, and the 1950 building continuing to operate as the French secondary school "École secondaire Norval-Morrisseau."

'Books' by E.B. Cox

Situated in front of the main entrance of the present Yorkland Street building, in the grass median between the incoming and outbound driveways, is a sculpture entitled "Books" created by renowned and deceased Canadian sculptor E.B. Cox. In 1967, the staff and students of the school raised $4,000 (equivalent to over $28,000 in 2017) to commission the piece as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of

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. It was originally installed at the Wright Street location upon its completion in 1968, and was moved to Yorkland Street when the school switched locations. The sculpture is meant to represent a column of books towering up to the sky, representing the importance of books as a tool of learning.

Notable alumni

* Josh Binstock,

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volleyball player *

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, YouTube gaming celebrity and

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producer also known as VanossGaming *

Michelle Li Michelle Li (born November 3, 1991) is a Canadian badminton player from Markham, Ontario. Li is the 2014 Commonwealth Games champion and the first Canadian to win an individual gold medal in women's singles badminton at the Commonwealth Games. S ...

, Canadian Olympic badminton player *

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veteran, conservationist and author *

Mag Ruffman Margaret "Mag" Ruffman (born 28 February 1957) is a Canadian comedian, actress and television host. She has played roles in films such as ''Anne of Green Gables'' and ''Anne of Avonlea'' and TV series ''Road to Avonlea''. She was reunited with ...

, comedian, actress and television host * Wendy Shon (Seung-Wan ‘Wendy’ Shon), singer and member of South Korean

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girl group Red Velvet * R. H. Thomson, actor and filmmaker * Kathleen Wynne,

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* Norman J. Wildberger, Mathematics Professor at

UNSW The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

and well-known online mathematics communicator * Brian Yang, Canadian Olympic badminton player

References

External links