St. Mary's High School is a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada. It is operated by the

Calgary Catholic School District Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School District No. 1 or the Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD) is the Roman Catholic separate school board in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It also serves the neighbouring communities of Airdrie, Chestermere, ...

(CCSD). The school is well known in Calgary for its historical significance. It attracts significant numbers of students from throughout the city, even those closer to other Catholic high schools, who wish to take advantage of programs not offered in their local high school. Also, for some, it is a tradition to attend the same school as their parents and grandparents.

History

St. Mary's is the oldest school in Calgary that is still in operation (the school, not the current building, which is relatively new). It was the first Catholic school, in what's now Alberta, to receive full public financial support. The history of St. Mary's School is a major part of the history of publicly funded Catholic education in the Calgary area.

1909–1956

With the construction of a new building, St. Mary's serves as the hub of the district for decades (even with new schools built). Throughout much of this time, the number of young families in the area continues to grow (tapering off later on).

1957 – present

In modern times St. Mary's no longer plays a central role in the district. The number of young families in the area declines (as they move to suburbs) and school progressively relies more on students coming from across the city (outside the immediate area). St. Mary's High School at the 111 – 18 Avenue S.W. location remains an active senior high school, teaching grades ten to twelve. Generally, students from all the "St Mary's" school buildings, are considered alumni of the school, which is seen as a single historical institution, which happened to have multiple buildings over time.

Special programs

*St. Mary's High School is one of a small number of Calgary high schools to offer an International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, which it started in 1986. *The school is also part of the

Action for Bright Children Society Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

Sports

Extracurricular sports: *Team sports:

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

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 ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Field hockey Field hockey (or simply referred to as hockey in some countries where ice hockey is not popular) is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with 11 players in total, made up of 10 field players and a goalk ...

and

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. *Individual sports:

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Track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

, Cross country and

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

Diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

References

Restoration of St. Mary's School
– Information at Alberta Heritage on past efforts to restore the 1909 building (before its ultimate demolition).

– Information on the history of the French-speaking village.

– Discusses Father Lacombe and the village.

– Greater detail on the school's history.

External links

Official site of St. Mary's High School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary's High School (Calgary) Catholic secondary schools in Alberta Educational institutions established in 1885 High schools in Calgary International Baccalaureate schools in Alberta 1885 establishments in the Northwest Territories