First Avenue Public School
Encyclopedia
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Built in 1898 it is one of only three survivors of a group of school houses built in Ottawa in the late nineteenth century. The nearby Mutchmor Public School
Mutchmor Public School
Mutchmor Public School is an elementary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located in The Glebe neighbourhood at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Lyon. It is run by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board...
being another. The building is today an officially designated heritage structure. A classic example of institutional architecture from the period it was designed by Edgar L. Horwood. It is in the Richardson Romanesque style. In 1907 a third storey was added to the structure. In 1980 the Ottawa Board of Education
Ottawa Board of Education
The Ottawa Board of Education was the public school board for Ottawa from 1970 to 1998. The board was created as part of a province-wide reorganization of the public education system. Previously, elementary schools had been supervised by the Ottawa Public Board of Education, while secondary...
threatened to close the school and tear it down, but protests by parents in the area caused it to remain open. Instead, funds were granted for it to be renovated, and a gym
Gym
The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, that mean a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men...
nasium and a library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
were built at the rear. It is located in The Glebe
The Glebe
The Glebe is a neighbourhood in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is located just south of Ottawa's downtown area, with its northern border being demarcated by the Queensway highway. It is bounded by the Rideau Canal to the south and east. Many maps show the western edge as Bronson Avenue, but some also...
neighbourhood at the corner of First Avenue and O'Connor. The rear of the building looks out upon Patterson Creek
Patterson Creek (Ottawa)
Patterson Creek is a small body of water in the middle of Ottawa, Canada. The creek was originally a small stream flowing east through a swampy area to the Rideau River. The construction of the Rideau Canal blocked the creek causing it to become much larger in size. The Creek originally ran from...
, where students take field trips in the winter to skate. The school is home to about 550 students, almost all of whom are enrolled in Early French immersion
French immersion
French immersion is a form of bilingual education in which a child who does not speak French as his or her first language receives instruction in school in French...
, except for the English junior kindergarten programme that is offered.the school has almost 40 teachers. The school is also home to a bilingual program. First Avenue has recently been twinning with Kagoua School in Mali, and having fundraisers to support them. In EQAO testing for the grades 3 and 6, First Avenue Public School used to be within the top 60 schools in the province, but test results have sharply declined since. The school did place in a list for 2007 based on 'Overall Academic Achievement' based on results from historically recent data.