St. Joseph High School (Ottawa)
Encyclopedia
St. Joseph High School, referred to as St. Joe's by the local community of Barrhaven, Ontario
Barrhaven, Ontario
Barrhaven is a rapidly growing suburban neighbourhood in the southwest of the urban area of the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, about southwest of downtown Ottawa. Prior to amalgamation with Ottawa in 2001, Barrhaven was part of the City of Nepean. Its population as of the Canada 2006 Census was...

, is a Roman Catholic high school run by the Ottawa Catholic School Board
Ottawa Catholic School Board
The Ottawa Catholic School Board runs 85 schools in the greater Ottawa area, with a total student population of approximately 39,000.-See also:*List of schools of the Ottawa Catholic School Board*Ottawa-Carleton District School Board-External links:**...

. In athletics, the school teams are referred to as the St. Joseph Jaguars and the school mascot is a jaguar
Jaguar
The jaguar is a big cat, a feline in the Panthera genus, and is the only Panthera species found in the Americas. The jaguar is the third-largest feline after the tiger and the lion, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere. The jaguar's present range extends from Southern United States and Mexico...

 named McJagger. St. Joe's has an enrollment of approximately 1425 students, ranging from grades 7 to 12, as well as 115 staff members.

History

St. Joseph High School opened on 11 October 2002 to account for the recent growth of the Ottawa, Ontario suburb, Barrhaven. The only other Catholic high school in the area, Mother Teresa High School
Mother Teresa High School
Mother Teresa High School is a Catholic secondary school in Nepean, Ontario, Canada. It supports grades 7-12. The name of its sports team is the 'Titans.' The motto of the school is "Amor et Dignitas" or "Serve .....

, was desperately overcrowded when St. Joe's opened for the 2002-03 school year. Bearing the name of another high school existing in the region during the late 1950s, the school began with an enrollment of over 1000 students. By 2005, this number had exceeded 1500 students.

Facilities

The building of St. Joseph High School followed the design of Edward J. Cuhaci, mimicking Holy Trinity High School
Holy Trinity High School (Bradford)
Holy Trinity High School is a small Catholic high school in Bradford West Gwillimbury, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1985, at which time the "school" was spread over several buildings in Bradford...

 and many other local schools. St. Joe's has three floors, which include a chapel, two gymnasiums, five computer labs, a library, an exercise room, two art rooms, and laboratories for chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

, biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

, and general science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

. There are 18 portables outside the school, as well as two football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...

 fields, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 nets, and a 400-metre track.

Athletics

St. Joseph offers a wide variety of over 25 sports teams, ranging from football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...

 to badminton
Badminton
Badminton is a racquet sport played by either two opposing players or two opposing pairs , who take positions on opposite halves of a rectangular court that is divided by a net. Players score points by striking a shuttlecock with their racquet so that it passes over the net and lands in their...

. In its beginning 3 years alone, St. Joe's sent 6 teams to the Ontario Federation of Secondary Schools Athletic Association provincial championships, with the 2005-06 Junior Cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...

 team even placing first in 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....

. Every year since its opening, the school has won the CAHPERD award for its educational programs.

Arts

St. Joseph offers Art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

, Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, and Drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 classes to students in all grade levels. Photography
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...

 classes are offered to students in grades 10 through 12. In grade 12, the Drama class becomes a production class, in which, students put on a play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...

. This play is usually entered in the Cappies Critics and Awards Program. There is also an Improv
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...

 Club, a 7/8 as well as a high school band, and after school music lessons. St. Joseph hosts an annual Coffee House, Arts Night, and a Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bands
Battle of Bands is a contest in which two or more bands compete for the title of "best band". The winner is determined by a panel of judges, the general response of the audience, or a combination. The winning band usually receives a prize in addition to bragging rights. Traditionally, battles of...

 to showcase the school's talent.

Intramurals

Grade 7 and 8, as well as Grades 9-12, are offered lunch-time intramurals in sports such as volleyball
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.The complete rules are extensive...

, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, or dodgeball
Dodgeball
Dodgeball is any of a variety of games in which players try to hit other players on the opposing team with balls while avoiding being hit themselves. This article is about a well-known form of team sport with modified rules that is often played in physical education classes and has been featured...

. For their efforts, St. Joseph has been given the CIRA award for its programs.

External links

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