Vernon Secondary is a public

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 ...

Vernon, British Columbia Vernon is a city in the Okanagan region of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It is northeast of Vancouver. Named after Forbes George Vernon, a former MLA of British Columbia who helped establish the Coldstream Ranch in nearby ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is part of

School District 22 Vernon School District 22 Vernon is a school district in Okanagan region of British Columbia. It includes schools in Vernon, Lumby and Coldstream Coldstream ( gd, An Sruthan Fuar , sco, Caustrim) is a town and civil parish in the Scottish Border ...

Symbols

A panther is the school mascot (closely resembling the Florida Panthers of the NHL) and the institution's recreational teams are thus named accordingly. The school's adopted colors are Navy Blue and Red, primarily, with the secondary color being White. The school's motto is "Pride on the Hill", referring to the hill the school is situated on.

History

VSS was formerly Vernon Senior Secondary School and hosted only grades 11–12, but was later changed to include grades 8-12 thus becoming Vernon Secondary School. The school was originally built in 1967, the new school was rebuilt and opened on January 7, 2013. The $38 million state-of-the-art school is situated on the lower field of the old school's property. The school is a carbon neutral building with a natural light design, water flow reductions, a ground source heat exchanger and geothermal field. During earlier decades of Vernon Senior Secondary School's history (including through at least the earlier 1980s), the school included students in grades 11 and 12 only. Through those decades, all the grade 11 and 12 public school students who resided in the greater Vernon area (including the Coldstream area, but excluding the school district's Lumby, Lavington, and Cherryville areas) attended this school. During those decades, the greater Vernon area's public junior high schools all served grades 8, 9, and 10 students. The area's elementary schools served grades 1 through 7 students and eventually provided kindergarten.

Programs

VSS is the host school of the outdoor school program EarthQuest. Since 1982 Grade 11 students from all high schools of SD22 have had the opportunity to enroll in EarthQuest. Primarily based in nearby Kalamalka Provincial Park, students also attend VSS during the winter months. VSS and its cafeteria program has partnered with Camosun College to offer students Professional Cook Training Level 1 through the ACE-IT Apprenticeship program (Accelerated Credit Enrolment in Industry Training) program.

Academic terms and block scheduling

Vernon Secondary runs on a two semester arrangement (with a 16-day break including New Year and Christmas), the first semester starting from September to January and the second running from February until June.. During the 2020

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic, the school switched to a two quarter system with two classes for each quarter, as opposed to the normal four classes per semester. During this time, grade ten to twelve students have half the normal number of students in each afternoon class and learn from home every other afternoon.

Notable alumni

Daniel Powter Daniel Richard Powter (; born February 25, 1971) is a Canadian musician. He is best known for his self-penned hit song " Bad Day" (2005), which was top of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 for five weeks. Biography Early life Powter grew up in Verno ...

, Singer (graduated in 1989)

References

External links

VSS Official Webpage
Schools in the Okanagan High schools in Vernon, British Columbia Educational institutions established in 1968 1968 establishments in British Columbia {{BritishColumbia-school-stub