École secondaire catholique de la Vérendrye (ESCDLV) is a French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 Catholic

Separate school

In Canada, separate school refers to a particular type of school that has constitutional status in three provinces and statutory status in three territories...

 high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 located in Port Arthur

Port Arthur, Ontario

Port Arthur was a city in Northern Ontario which amalgamated with Fort William and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Port Arthur was the district seat of Thunder Bay District.- History :...

, Thunder Bay

Thunder Bay

-In Canada:Thunder Bay is the name of three places in the province of Ontario, Canada along Lake Superior:*Thunder Bay District, Ontario, a district in Northwestern Ontario*Thunder Bay, a city in Thunder Bay District*Thunder Bay, Unorganized, 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....

. It is part of the Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales

Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales

The Conseil scolaire de district catholique des Aurores boréales oversees 10 French language Catholic schools in Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada...

, a French Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 school board serving Northwestern Ontario

Northwestern Ontario

Northwestern Ontario is the region within the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north and west of Lake Superior, and west of Hudson Bay and James Bay. It includes most of subarctic Ontario. Its western boundary is the Canadian province of Manitoba, which disputed Ontario's claim to the...

. The school opened in 2004 on the site of the former Prospect Avenue Public School. The construction of the French language high school faced opposition from Thunder Bay's Anglophone

English Canadian

An English Canadian is a Canadian of English ancestry; it is used primarily in contrast with French Canadian. Canada is an officially bilingual state, with English and French official language communities. Immigrant cultural groups ostensibly integrate into one or both of these communities, but...

 majority. The school is named after Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye

Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye was a French Canadian military officer, fur trader and explorer. In the 1730s he and his four sons opened up the area west of Lake Superior and thus began the process that added Western Canada to the original New France in the Saint Lawrence basin...

, a french explorer. La Vérendrye has a high graduation rate, and its enrollment has increased annually since it opened, and the building will be expanded in the near future. There is a total of 37 employees at La Vérendrye as of January 2009 (excluding school board).

Sports

La Vérendrye has the best athlete/student ratio for high schools in Thunder Bay. The school is known for volley ball having won 6 championships and 5 tournaments since 2004, and for the first time on November 21, 2008 the senior boys volley ball team beat Atikokan in the NWOSSAA "A" championships, bringing them into provincials (OFSAA) were they finished 12th in Ontario for "A". Teams from La Vérendrye also participate in golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, curling

Curling

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...

, 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...

 and running

Running

Running is a means of terrestrial locomotion allowing humans and other animals to move rapidly on foot. It is simply defined in athletics terms as a gait in which at regular points during the running cycle both feet are off the ground...

. Due to a lack of students, la Vérendrye could not have Basketball or senior girls volley ball teams for the 08-09 SSSAA season.

"OFSAA A Volley ball Ranking"

2004 - Did Not Qualify

2005 - Did Not Qualify

2006 - No Team

2007 - Did Not Qualify

2008 - 12th

2009 - 9th

External links

• Official site