PACE at Peterborough Collegiate, formerly Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School, is a public secondary school located in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and is a member of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board. It is one of the oldest public schools in the country and was the only public high school in the city of Peterborough until the opening of Kenner Collegiate Vocational Institute in 1952. Regular student programming ended at Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School in June 2012. The building was renamed Peterborough Collegiate and in August 2012 opened as a re-purposed facility offering alternative and continuing education (ACE).
Peterborough Collegiate was founded in 1827 as the Peterborough Government School on the former property of Central Public School. Since then it has been moved to different locations throughout the central part of the city with various names and types of programming. It reached its peak enrollment in 1959 with 1402 students and used additional buildings to accommodate the students of the baby boom. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the trend of declining enrollment had reduced the school student population to 800 students with approximately one third in the Integrated Arts and English Language Learners programs.
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History
Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School (PCVS) is one of the oldest schools in Ontario.
Peterborough Government School
Reverend Samuel Armour opened the first school in Peterborough on May 1, 1826. The school, originally known as the Peterborough Government School was first located in the back playground of present-day Central Public School on Murray Street in Peterborough. It functioned as a public elementary school and the early Victorian equivalent to a public high school. As the population of Peterborough increased, public school students moved into smaller schools while the Grammar School high school students stayed in the original school building.
The Union School
By 1854 the school trustees had leased an old church, on the corner of Hunter and Sheridan Streets, to hold the school but the student population soon grew too large. In 1855 plans to build a new school had begun. The new building was completed in 1859 and was intended to be used by both common and grammar school students. It was located where the present day Central School is built. The new school was known as the Union School. By 1868 the principal of the school asked that girls be allowed to attend grammar school. A new building was constructed west of the Union School to allow for the increased student population.
Peterborough Collegiate Institute
In 1871, with a government bill abolishing the term grammar school and replacing it with collegiate, the Union School became the Peterborough Collegiate Institute (PCI). Due to overcrowding and various moves within the buildings it soon came time for the Collegiate to have its own building, separate from the public school. On August 1, 1907, the cornerstone for the new school was laid. The new school opened in 1908 on the corner of Aylmer and McDonnel Streets near the Armouries.
PCI implemented the four house system to encourage school spirit and foster a positive school environment. The four houses were Keswick, Caernarvon, Warwick and Wiggin, each represented by a colour: Blue, Yellow, Red, and Green respectively. Each house had one male and one female house leader, who represented their membership on the Student Activity Council. They organized events such as dress-up days, bulletin board displays, and lunch events where participants could earn house points. At the annual Christmas (Winter) Assembly, the houses performed a skit for a competition judged by a selection of faculty members, preceding the Teacher Skit. The House Award honoured the house with the most points at the end of the school year. The house system continued until the school was re-purposed in 2012.
Peterborough Collegiate Vocational School
In 1927 a vocational school was added to the PCI and became Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Institute (PCVS). This new section included the Upper Gym, Cafeteria and Library. At the turn of the century, the school enrolled about 800 students with 200 as part of the Integrated Arts program. A tradition of extracurricular athletics included basketball, volleyball, rowing, field hockey, tennis, badminton and track teams. The PCVS Ladies Choir was ranked in the Top Ten choirs in Canada. In 1995, PCVS was listed by Maclean's magazine as one of the top five high schools in Canada in the category of Student Leadership. PCVS was also the first school in Peterborough to establish a gay–straight alliance, which was featured provincially in Professionally Speaking magazine. In 2008 the school celebrated the 100th anniversary of the school building on May 17 by hosting a Gala/Reunion with entertainment talent featuring PCVS alumni including Sean Cullen, Lawrence Cherney, Rick Fines and Graham Rowat among others.
There was a tradition at PCVS that the principals would have their photographs taken at the end of their tenure. The photographs were framed and mounted above the balcony doors of the auditorium on the foyer's second floor to maintain the leadership's history of the school. The first portrait features H.R.H. Kenner and the last portrait, mounted in 2012, features Denise Severin, the last principal of PCVS. Caroline McNamara, appointed interim principal after the sudden death of Rick Essex, was not included in this tradition.
Beginning in the 1940s, the Student Councils of Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School, with the encouragement of their art teacher Zoltan Temesy, bought original Canadian art works for the enjoyment of students at their school. These works are currently on permanent loan to The Art Gallery of Peterborough. Artists include: Andre Bieler, A.J. Casson, Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Manley MacDonald and Henri Masson. Reproductions of these paintings now hang throughout the school.
The English as a Second Language (ESL) program started in the 1980s. These students were new immigrants to Canada who settled in Peterborough, International Students, whose parents or national governments paid tuition for their children to learn English in Canadian schools, and exchange students from International community groups, such as Rotary International.
Peterborough Collegiate
In August 2012, PCVS was renamed Peterborough Collegiate and became the new location for the Peterborough Alternative and Continuing Education (PACE). The re-purposed facility houses the Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) program, Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition (PLAR), Independent Learning Program (including correspondence and e-Learning), Dual Credit Program, the School for Young Moms (SYM), and the registration office for International Languages Continuing Education courses.
Alternative and Continuing Education Programming
The LBS program is an employment skills program to help students prepare for employment, earn their Ontario Secondary School Diploma, or apprenticeship. Students 19 years or older must possess literacy and numeracy skills to meet everyday needs and find and maintain employment. In addition, there is a focus on computer skill development and preparation for General Educational Development.
Students over 18, who have been off of a day-school register for 10 consecutive months, are PLAR eligible. The program requires students to have at least 30 credits (based on current OSSD requirements), pass a Literacy Test or Ontario Literacy Course, and complete 40 hours of community service to graduate.
There is a Junior PLAR based on four assessments in English, math, science, geography/history where students can earn a maximum of 16 credits authorized by the Principal. A Senior PLAR is available for a maximum of 10 additional credits, based on an application of prior learning that has occurred outside of the classroom setting.
Dual credits began in Ontario in 2005 and give selected secondary school students the opportunity to experience a college environment. Students take a college credit taught by a college faculty member and must meet the requirements to pass. If successful, students earn an elective credit at secondary school and are issued a college credit on a college transcript. The course will be recognized at college if they choose to attend a program for which the course is a requirement. Dual credits are available in a variety of apprenticeship and trade related areas.
The School for Young Moms enables pregnant teens and mothers under the age of 21 to continue their high school education, develop their parenting skills, address their emotional, social, and physical needs, and receive onsite care for their infants. This is achieved with the assistance of professional staff and volunteers from a variety of community organizations, with Monday to Friday attendance expectations.
International Languages are offered to develop students' awareness of the spoken, written, and cultural aspects of several languages. These programs may connect the learners to their cultural roots or nurture an interest and skill base for learning languages in general.
Campus
The building is an example of restrained Richardsonian Romanesque architecture. The limestone used in the building was provided by the Longford quarries. Peterborough Collegiate consists of many regular classrooms as well as specialized rooms for certain classes. PCVS has four computer labs as well as a Resource Centre, a library, two gyms, a music room, two drama rooms and enough space for the sewing machines, video editing suites, art rooms and other special equipment for the various classes. PCVS is centrally located in the heart of downtown Peterborough across from City Hall, with easy access by public transportation. The school is used by numerous community groups after hours and on weekends.
The current school building was erected in 1908 and is historically significant to the community and was recently upgraded with emphasis on maintaining its architectural beauty. The walls of PCVS bear plaques that honour students who served and died in both World Wars and they are honoured every November 11 by current City of Peterborough as well as the Pagans Rugby Club.
Notable alumni
Les Ascott, CFL offensive guard with theToronto Argonauts, winner of five Grey Cups, had his number 52 retired and had his name added to the Wall of Honour at Toronto's Rogers Centre in 2004
Jim Balsillie, chairman and co-CEO of Research In Motion
Nicholas Dominic Beck, lawyer, the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Alberta (1908–1926), served as a judge on the Alberta Supreme Court (1921–1928)
Gary Botting, lawyer, legal scholar, playwright, and poet who while a student at P.C.V.S. won top honors at the Ontario and U.S. National Science Fairs for his exhibit on hybridizing moths.
Alexander Francis Chamberlain, anthropologist, linguist, received the first PhD ever granted in the field of anthropology in the United States
Lawrence Cherney, Artistic Director of Soundstreams Canada
Seán Cullen, comedian
Peter Demos, Emeritus Professor of physics at MIT, nuclear physicist, who served as a science advisor to President John F. Kennedy
Charles Dorrington, Canadian Anglican bishop and choirmaster
Evelyn Hart, Canadian ballerina and former principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, member of the Order of Canada
Hugh Kenner, Canadian literary scholar, critic and professor
Robert Richard Hall, lawyer, a Liberal member of the House of Commons of Canada 1904–1908
Sir Frederick William Alpin Gordon Haultain, the first premier of Canada's North-West Territories
Notable staff
Fern Rahmel, writer, playwright and regular contributor to CBC Radio