Collège Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur is a subsidized, private

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

co-education secondary school in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. Collège Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur shares its name with the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

, which was also founded by the

Congregation of Holy Cross The Congregation of Holy Cross (), abbreviated CSC, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in 1837 by Basil Moreau, in Le Mans, France. Moreau also founded the Marianites of Holy Cross for women, n ...

. ''Notre-Dame'' means "Our Lady" in French and refers to the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

. ''Sacré-Cœur'' means "

Sacred Heart The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...

", which refers to the physical heart of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

as a symbol of Divine love. It is generally considered one of the best French-language secondary schools in the city. School fees for the 2020-2021 school year were $4,591. They are able to maintain low tuition due to the large average class size of 34 as well as subsidies from the Quebec government of roughly $4,500 per student. The school is right in front of

Saint Joseph's Oratory Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal ( French: ''Oratoire Saint-Joseph-du-Mont-Royal'') is a Roman Catholic minor basilica and national shrine located at 3800 Queen Mary Road in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood on Mount Royal's Westmount S ...

. In fact, Saint André Bessette, who built the Oratory, was the school's doorkeeper.

History

* 1869: Purchase of the Hôtel Bellevue and foundation of the College. * 1881: Construction of the wing 1881. * 1888: Construction of the chapel. * 1929: Construction of the wing 1929. * 1951: Construction of the 4th floor of wing B. * 1955: Construction of the Notre Dame Center. * 1962: Construction of the Lefebvre Pavilion. * 1974: Construction of the arena. * 2008: Development of the Jacques-Gauthier Stadium and the Guillaume-Descormiers athletics track. * 2015: Development of the Reine Marie synthetic pitch. * 2020: Beginning of the construction of the future gymnasium. The school was founded in 1869 by the

and was administered by

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priests A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, ...

and brothers. Originally a boys-only school, it decided to allow female students in 1982 in grades 7 and 8 and then progressively became completely co-educational. In recent years, the institution has come into the public eye for a multitude of sex abuse cases and cover-ups spanning the better part of the second half of the 20th century.

Sporting Team

The football team, the Cactus, was created in 1958 and is playing in Quebec's AAA league. It has won fifteen provincial championships (87, 88, 89, 90, 94, 96, 01, 02, 05, 09, 10, 11, 13, 15, 21) and is largely regarded among football analysts to be one of the great dynasties in Canadian Football. The Cactus now offer several sports: *

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

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 ...

Futsal Futsal is a variant of association football played between two teams of five players each on a court smaller than a football pitch. Its rules are based on the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game of association football, and i ...

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate frisbee (officially simply called ultimate) is a non-contact team sport played with a disc flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by Joel Silver, Buzzy Hellring, and Jonny Hines in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate rese ...

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 ...

Ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

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 ...

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 ...

Cheerleading Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...

Flag football Flag football is a variant of gridiron football (American football or Canadian football depending on location) where, instead of Tackle (football move)#Gridiron football, tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or ...

Extracurricular Activities

Art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

Chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

club *

Cooking Cooking, also known as cookery or professionally as the culinary arts, is the art, science and craft of using heat to make food more palatable, digestible, nutritious, or Food safety, safe. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from ...

courses * Génie en herbe *

Robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

Theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

classes *

Improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

classes * Music classes

Uniform

Since its inception,

school uniform A school uniform is a uniform worn by students primarily for a school or otherwise an educational institution. They are common in primary school, primary and secondary schools in various countries and are generally widespread in Africa, Asia, O ...

s have been compulsory at Collège Notre-Dame and must be worn at all times on school property. The dress code consists of a white or blue polo shirt and marine pants and/or a blue kilt for girls. Older polos might be colored yellow but these polos are not tolerated anymore since they are considered too marginal. The collar of the polo is coloured blue with yellow and royal blue stripes, which was the uniform until 2012. Since then, the polo is fully white, with a marine logo, and the marine polo now has white horizontal stripes. The gym uniform consists of a grey or blue T-shirt and a pair of blue shorts or cotton sweat pants; all have the school's emblem printed on them.

Facilities

The school library has over 20,000 books of all genres. It has three student-played orchestras. The computer labs have over a hundred computers. Teachers have recourse to technology whilst teaching: every classroom is equipped with a projector, a touchscreen board as well as a computer. An indoor hockey arena, which seats around 400 spectators, is located behind the school. Collège Notre-Dame possesses a grandiose auditorium. In addition, this institute has an indoor swimming pool, a football field, a soccer field, two fitness rooms, a race track and an indoor basketball court. The school is currently extending its building. In fact, in 2020, Collège Notre-Dame began building its very own sportive complex, at the costs of twenty million dollars. The school is composed of three buildings, the “Old Building”, the “C Building” and the “P Building”. All three buildings are five stories high. The C Building has two huge study halls, which are both equipped with desks. The rooms are used by the students during their study periods.

Music

Music classes are mandatory in grade 7 and grade 8. The class lasts 5 months, which equals to a semester and is then replaced by ERC (religious class) for the second semester of the same school year. Students can choose from wind instruments, percussion or double bass. Students playing the bassoon, oboe or double bass will benefit from one private lesson per week with a specialist, since those instruments are particularly difficult for beginners. Depending on their performance, they can participate in a music concert at the end of the semester. Every year, the different orchestras participate at the ''Festival des Harmonies et des Orchestre Symphoniques du Quebec'' held in Sherbrooke. There, the OAV (Orchestre à Vent, which stands for wind orchestra in French, and is the highest level ensemble of the school) plays different pieces (usually one warm-up piece and two competition pieces) and they are graded according to the orchestra's level. Musicians can also participate in the ''Concours Solistes et Petits Ensembles'' from the FHOSQ (Fédération des Harmonies et des Orchestres Symphoniques du Québec) in Victoriaville. If they achieve a greater distinction mark, they win a prize, usually a certain amount of money for a specific music summer camp.

Improvisation

Collège Notre-Dame has an

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

team in the ligue d'improvisation scolaire. It has won the Calembour cup twice. The school is represented in the "Cadet" category by the CoiNciDence, which has won the regional championship in 2013 and the "Juvenile" category by the inCaNDescence.

Notable alumni

* François Arnaud, actor ''The Borgias'' * Mathieu Brodeur, hockey player * Grégory Charles, singer * J. P. Darche, NFL football player * Mathieu Darche, NHL hockey player * L. P. Ladouceur, NFL football player *

Jean-Luc Mongrain Jean-Luc Mongrain (born July 16, 1951, in Sherbrooke, Quebec) is a Canadian journalist, television host and news anchor. He was the news anchor of his own show called ''Mongrain'' on LCN (owned by the TVA network) until 2012. Background Mongra ...

Éric Perrin Éric Perrin (born November 1, 1975) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre who last played for JYP Jyväskylä in the Finnish Liiga. As of December 2017, he is the highest scoring foreign player in the history of Liiga. Playing ...

, hockey player * Émile Proulx-Cloutier, actor * Serge Robert, (Mononc' Serge) *

Martin St. Louis Martin St. Louis (French spelling Martin St-Louis, ; born June 18, 1975) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player who is the head coach for the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). An undrafted player, St. ...

, NHL hockey player *

Amélie Saintonge Amélie Saintonge (born 1980) is a Canadian astrophysicist, a professor of astrophysics at University College London in England, and a director at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. Her research involves the use of r ...

, astrophysicist; see biographical sketch, p. iii * Alexandre Tagliani, racecar driver * Mathieu Betts, CFL football player

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:College Notre-Dame Du Sacre-Coeur Holy Cross secondary schools Catholic secondary schools in Quebec Private schools in Quebec High schools in Montreal Educational institutions established in 1869 Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce 1869 establishments in Quebec