Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School (Virginia)
   HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School (Virginia)
OR:
Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School (Virginia) on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Saint John Paul the Great Catholic High School is a
private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
, college preparatory,
coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...
al
Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
in
Dumfries, Virginia Dumfries, officially the Town of Dumfries, is a town in Prince William County, Virginia. The population was 4,961 at the 2010 United States Census. Geography Dumfries is located at (38.567853, −77.324591). According to the United States ...
led by the
Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia The Congregation of St. Cecilia, commonly known as the Nashville Dominicans, is a religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a member of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, one of the ...
. As a diocesan school of the Diocese of Arlington, it is accredited by the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...
. In 2012 it was included in the
Cardinal Newman Society The Cardinal Newman Society is an American 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization founded in 1993 whose stated purpose is to promote and defend faithful Catholic education. The organization is guided by Cardinal John Henry Newman's ''The Ide ...
's Top 50 Catholic High Schools list. It was placed on the list again in 2014. In 2013 it was chosen by the editors of ''
Virginia Living ''Virginia Living'' is a glossy bimonthly regional lifestyle magazine with a focus on all things Virginia. Founded in 2002, it is the only statewide lifestyle magazine in Virginia. The magazine features articles on topics such as food and drink ...
'' magazine as a 2013 Top Virginia School.


History

The school broke ground in September 2006 as the newest high school in the Diocese of Arlington with a construction cost of a state of the art facility at $60 million, funded by bonds, donations, and a capital campaign. The school was built on 40 acres of land, valued at $14.5 million, that was given to the diocese. In October 2007, the Diocese announced that the school would be named after
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...
. The school is led and taught by the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, commonly known as the Nashville Dominicans, a teaching order of religious sisters known to be much younger on average than other Catholic religious orders. The newly constructed school opened to incoming 9th and 10th graders in August 2008. The school's first graduating class graduated in 2011. Graduates from the Class of 2012 and 2013 were accepted into universities, including Ivy League schools, military appointments, Catholic institutions, and other Virginia schools. Combined, these students earned more than $12 million in academic scholarships to the universities of their choice. In August 2013 the school opened with more than 600 students. The school intends to have an eventual capacity of 1,000 students. In May 2014 it was announced that, following John Paul II's
canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of ...
the previous month, the name of the school would be changed to Saint John Paul the Great. In September of 2020 the school was one of the first in its area to reopen to a half virtual, half in person class schedule in wake of the
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...
pandemic. The school is the only high school in the U.S. to offer a 4-year Catholic Bioethics Curriculum, and has a
House system The house system is a traditional feature of schools in the United Kingdom. The practice has since spread to Commonwealth countries and the United States. The school is divided into subunits called "houses" and each student is allocated to on ...
(Aquino, Castello, Diego, Dominic, Gianna, Martin, More, Ruiz), with eight Houses named after Roman Catholic Saints. Houses compete against each other throughout the month to earn the title "House of the Month" and eventually, "House of the Year".


Sports

The school offers 17 sports. In 2009, the varsity football team completed their second season with a record of 9-1 and was the first team to represent the school in a state playoff tournament. The junior varsity boys basketball posted the first winning record for a basketball team with nine wins and three losses. In the 2010-2011 school year, both JV soccer and JV basketball went undefeated with soccer having an 11-0 season and basketball a 14-0 season. In 2012, John Paul the Great's boys Track & Field team won the Virginia Catholic State Championship, the first state championship won in the school's history. The boys' track and field team won the Catholic State Championship again in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, and 2021. The girls Track & Field team won the Virginia Catholic State Championship in 2015. The boys Cross Country team won the Virginia Catholic Schools State Championship in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022, and had individual champions in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2021. In 2021, the boys team won the VISAA Cross Country Championships. Since 2012, there have been 17 individual All-State performances at the VISAA Cross Country Championships. Since 2012, there have been 9 individual All-State performances on the girls Cross Country team at the VISAA Cross Country Championships. In 2015, The Varsity boys football team produced a good record at 7-3 and once more clinched the State Playoffs. They lost in the first round to Bishop Ireton, who went on to lose to the State Champions, the Benedictine School.


See also

*
WJPN-LP WJPN-LP is a Locally-based Catholic Religious formatted broadcast radio station licensed to Prince William, Virginia, serving Dumfries, Montclair, Quantico and Triangle in Virginia. WJPN-LP is owned and operated by Saint John Paul the Great Cat ...


External links


School Website


Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:John Paul The Great Catholic High School Catholic secondary schools in Virginia Schools in Prince William County, Virginia Educational institutions established in 2008 Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington Dominican schools in the United States 2008 establishments in Virginia