Governor Simcoe Secondary School

Infobox school
name= Governor Simcoe Secondary School
motto= Sumus Unus
location= 15 Glenview Ave
St. Catharines
Ontario
url= [http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/Schools/GovSimcoe/index.htm Governor Simcoe Secondary School]
schoolnumber= 216
schoolboard= District School Board of Niagara
principal= Mr. Rick Karr
vice-superintendent=Anita Bath
viceprincipal=Mrs. Andrea Jagoe-Lynett
superintendent=Joe Rogan
schooltype= Secondary school
grades= 9-12
language= English
mascot= Redcoat
teamname= Redcoats
colours= Red and black
founded= 1971
enrollment= Approx. 900
enrollment_as_of=

Governor Simcoe Secondary School named after John Graves Simcoe, is a public high school in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is a three-floored school with a theatre attachment. It has an enrollment of about 900 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 outstanding performance of the senior girl's and boy's basketball teams who have won many SOSSA and OFSAA titles within the last 7 years. Also, the rowing team is amongst the top 5 in North America consistently. With two CSSRA championships in 2007, both form the Junior Men, Governor Simcoe placed 4th in North America. The rowing program is also successful on the international racing level with a Stotesbury Cup and SRAA first place finish in the Boy's Lightweight 4+ in 2007.

Fundraising

The Staff and Students of Governor Simcoe recently held its first annual AIDS '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 radio station z101.1 were also there to help Simcoe reach its goal and held a concert behind the school for the staff and students of Simcoe. Governor Simcoe Raised OVER $15,000.00 for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

External links

* [http://www.governorsimcoe.com/ Governor Simcoe]
* [http://www.dsbn.edu.on.ca/ District School Board of Niagara]