Governor Simcoe Secondary School named after

John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. He founded Yor ...

, 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 ...

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2016, it has an area of , 136,803 residents, and a metropolitan population of 406,074. It lies in Southern Ontari ...

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 ...

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 to ...

. It is a three-floored school with a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perfor ...

attachment. It has an enrollment of about 859 students. Its campus contains a football/soccer/field hockey field and a three-story building. The building includes two full gymnasiums with multiple changing rooms with showers, a weight room, an elevator, and a 500-seat auditorium. The school also is fully wheelchair accessible.

History

Governor Simcoe opened its doors in 1971; it was the first open concept high school in the Niagara Peninsula. The first principal was Bob Hayes. Since then, the open concept has been replaced with individual classrooms. In 1995, the Grantham Theatre was added to the east end of the school, while originally designed to seat 1000 people, due to budget, it was only built to seat 500.

Academics

During the 2007/08 school year, Governor Simcoe changed to a Multi-Subject Instructional Period (MSIP) Schedule. This schedule consists of five classes instead of the regular four. The Five-Period Day consists of four instructional periods of 60 minutes and a multi grade supervised MSIP period of 60 minutes. The MSIP class is created by reducing each of the instructional periods from 75 minutes to 60 minutes. The MSIP class is essentially made up of ‘bits’ of instructional time (4 x 15 = 60 minutes), thus its name Multi-Subject Instructional Period.

Athletics

The "Athletic" Program provides students with the opportunity to compete at the highest level possible. The underlying goal of such competition is developed within each student life skills such as dedication, teamwork, group dynamics, a sense of belonging, and the importance of hard work. Notably dominant sports at GSSS have been the performance of the senior girls' and boys' basketball teams who have won many SOSSA and OFSAA titles, as well as the Lightweight Men's rowing crews, which are always some of the top in the country.

Robotics

The

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

Team 1114
Simbotics
at Governor Simcoe is an international championship winning program. They have won the

FIRST Championship The FIRST Championship is a four-day robotics championship held annually in April at which FIRST student robotics teams compete. For several years, the event was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia, but moved to the Edward Jones Dom ...

in 2008, came in second in 2010, and have been champions at many regional events (Greater Toronto Regional 2005-2010; Waterloo Regional 2006-2008, 2010, 2011; Pittsburgh Regional 2010, 2011; Midwest Regional 2008; Great Lakes Regional 2006; Long Island Regional 2004). Team 1114 also participates in the

VEX Robotics VEX Robotics is a robotics program for elementary through university students, and a subset of Innovation First International. The VEX Robotics competitions and programs are managed by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF). In ...

Competition. They have won three VEX world championships in 2006, 2007, and in 2011.

Fundraising

In 2007, the Staff and Students of Governor Simcoe held their first annual

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

'Walk-a-thon' and raised money for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which helps to ease the pain of people living with HIV and AIDS. Toronto Bands Crush Luther and Grand:PM as well as the radio station z101.1 were there to help the school reach its goal by holding a concert behind the school for the staff and students. Governor Simcoe raised over $15,000.00 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

References

External links

Governor Simcoe

District School Board of Niagara
{{Authority control High schools in the Regional Municipality of Niagara 1971 establishments in Ontario Educational institutions established in 1971 Buildings and structures in St. Catharines