| Abbey Park High School | |
| Address | |
| 1455 Glen Abbey Gate Oakville, Ontario, L6M 2V7, Canada |
|
| Public transit access | Oakville Transit |
| Information | |
| School number | 913715 |
| School board | Halton District School Board |
| Religious affiliation | none |
| Superintendent | Patricia Dyson[1] |
| Area trustee | Kathryn Bateman-Olmstead[1] |
| Principal | Maria McLellan |
| Vice Principals | Helen Pociurko & Paul Daignault |
| School type | Public High school |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Language | English |
| Mascot | Joe Eagle |
| Team name | Eagles |
| Colours | blue & white |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Enrolment | 1,282[2] (May 2010) |
| Feeder schools | Abbey Lane Public School, Heritage Glen Public School, Pilgrim Wood Public School |
| Homepage | http://aph.hdsb.ca/ |
Abbey Park High School is a secondary school located in the Toronto suburb of Oakville in Ontario, Canada. The school is commonly known by its acronym "APHS" in the community. Abbey Park High School was opened at its present location in the wake of the closure of Queen Elizabeth Park High School, which was previously operating at its Bridge Road location, in Bronte. Abbey Park has more resources available to their students than other schools in the region because it inherited Queen Elizabeth Park's resources when it was closed. This allowed for the initial opening budget to be spent on new equipment. Students have open access to a weight room, library, and track. Abbey Park High School is also situated beside the Glen Abbey Community Centre, which houses the Glen Abbey branch of the Oakville Public Library.
Abbey Park has been recognized as a very charitable school taking part in many annual fundraisers including the Terry Fox Run, Halloween for Hunger (H4H), and Pencils for Kids. The various educational departments within the school are Arts, Business, English, Math, Physical Education, Science, Social Science, Special Education and Technology. Abbey Park also has a Cluster Program for Academically Developed Students, and is beginning to offer Advanced Placement courses in 2011.
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The dramatic arts program at Abbey Park attracts many students to participate in its clubs and productions.
Every year, Abbey Park organizes a team to compete in the Canadian Improv Games, a national tournament for high school improv. Abbey Park's teams have been consistently strong over the years, and won the silver medal at the 2009 National Tournament, and placing 15th nationally in 2008.[3]
Scripted dramatic productions are also very popular at Abbey Park. Each November, Abbey Park puts on a dramatic production (known as Fall Production within the school). A group of less formal productions are organized in the spring for Abbey Park's Show of Hands Drama Festival, where any group of students may perform.
Abbey Park has many different bands that perform at various shows throughout the year:
Abbey Park has an Arts Club that any student is welcome to join. The club meets on a weekly basis throughout the year and focusses on creating visual art pieces for portfolios of students intending to apply to a post-secondary program where a portfolio of artwork is necessary.
Abbey Park's cheerleading team competes in the large Senior Advanced All-Girl division, which is the highest possible division for high school teams. The team won the titles of Regional, Provincial and National Champions in 2010. In 2011, the team has placed first at Regionals, Provincials and Nationals. They also won the award for "Top Team Tumbling" at both the 2010 and 2011 Nationals.
"Abbey Park's rugby program was founded in 2005 (the school's inaugural year) by accolaed coach and former Canadian Legends player Tyler Leggatt. In this year the schools only team, the Bantam Grade 9 team achieved great success, earning their first birth in the provincial championships by beating the perennial favorites and future rivals, Oakville Trafalgar High School. The next step in Abbey Parks success came with the qualifying and eventual finals birth in the Barbarian Cup Bantam championship by the 2007 Bantam Eagles. Losing in the final to Uxbridge. No provincial championship birth was earned until 2009 when the Bantam team went on to win both the Red Hot Bantam Invitational and the Barbarian cup in dramatic fashion. In this same year the senior team went on to their first Halton Finals birth in only their 3rd year of fielding a senior team lead by designated Irish import Shaz Cole (Ulster) and co captain Craig Leveridge. The same Bantam team, now Juniors would go on to post a finals birth in the 2010 Junior OFSAA finals where they were eventually defeated after a stellar year lead by Canada Rugby prospects Djustice, Chris Woodhead and Sawyer Heron. In the same the Abbey Park seniors rugby team for the first(and only) time elected a grade 11 captain in starting fly half Matthew Jones. This senior team would go on to post a second straight finals against OT, the only team to do so since Blakelock High School. 2011 saw the senior Abbey Park team rise to the occasion, qualifying for their first OFSAA Senior rugby championship, after a 3rd straight Halton Final defeat to OT, however as the event was held in Oakville, Abbey Park received the extra birth for the championship. Abbey Park went on to put forth one of the greatest runs at a provincial Championship by ANY Abbey Park team since the 2005 Abbey Park Senior Boys soccer who made it to the AAA/AAAA finals only to loose in dramatic fashion. The Eagles went on to win their round robin games, setting up an elimination quarter final game against second seeded Streetsville High School. The game was a bruising affair with many lead changes and questionable calls on both sides of the book, with the final score being decided via penalty kicks where Dan Mathie and Jamie Leveridge took the spot and went 3-3 while Streetsville missed narrowly by hitting the post. Arguably the closest game in OFSAA and ABBEy park rugby history. In the semi finals Abbey Park would go on to loose to the eventual champions Uxbridge in a game where AP battled back after a 15 point deficit at half time to bring the difference within one score. By losing Abbey Park set up probably the most important game of their history facing their bitter rivals OT who faced a significantly easier but equally tumultuous route to the 3rd place game. The game was highlighted by a standout performance by OT scrum half Mike Turnbull, in spite of numerous on field fits thrown out of frustration. OT would go on to win the game and continue the traditional rivalry expected to last many years into the future." -Andrew Harvey, Associated press
Abbey Park also started a Varsity Girls Rugby team in the 2009 season. A stunningly impressive first season led the girls to victories in tournaments and against rivals Blakelock High School and Loyola Catholic School. Many players continued on to lead the team to an impressive second year, reaching the Halton Finals. Many girls have since gone onto play for universities across Canada as well as Rugby Canada Junior teams.
Boys and Girls Eagles Basketball teams compete in the Halton Secondary School Athletic Association (HSSAA). The Midget Boys basketball team won the Halton Region Championship in the school's first season in 2005.[4]
Abbey Park's Arts Council plans many art-related events, makes posters for these events, and recycles any posters which may be of future use.
Abbey Park's Student Government plans many events for the student body.
Abbey Park's Environmental Council is committed to improving the quality of the environment in and around the school, namely through recycling.
Abbey Park's Executive Council is a meta-council consisting of leaders from each other council & club. The Executive Council meets semi-annually.
The Quill is Abbey Park's school newspaper. Any student can join, and can be a writer, editor, photographer and or layout editor. The newspaper is published semi-annually at the end of each semester.
Social change is a group open to all students dedicated to prospective change in the world. This groups works to promote social awareness and equality, and address various concerning issues.
Young Women in Leadership is a group for young women in the school that discusses the aspects of feminism, and holds contests to promote awareness.
The business department at Abbey Park runs a DECA chapter for the school. Abbey Park competes at DECA Ontario's Hamilton Regional Competition in November[5], and a large percentage of competitors move on to the provincial competition in February in Toronto.