Governor Simcoe Secondary School, named after

John Graves Simcoe Lieutenant-General (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British army officer, politician and colonial administrator who served as the lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 u ...

, is a public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. It is a three-floored school with a

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

attachment. It opened in 1971. It was the first open concept high school in the Niagara Peninsula; the open concept has since been replaced with individual classrooms.

Theatre

In 1995, the Grantham Theatre was added to the east end of the school. While originally designed to seat 1000 people, due to budget constraints, it was only built to seat 500. The school has had its own productions of musicals. In 2017, students performed ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

.'' 66 students were a part of the cast. In 2019, students performed ''

Into the Woods ''Into the Woods'' is a 1986 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. T ...

''. The musical production for the year of 2025 is Freaky Friday and is set to be run in the middle of April with a date not confirmed.

Robotics

The school currently has a

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition operated by ''FIRST''®. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work to build robots capable of competing in that year's game. Robots c ...

robotics team, registered as Team 1114 - Simbotics. The team was initiated in 2003 along with that years robotics season game being launched, Stack Attack. In 2012, the team won th
''FIRST'' Impact Award
formerly known as the ''FIRST'' Chairman's Award. Th
video
submitted awarded them a blue banner, a ten year auto-qualification term into the ''FIRST'' Championship, and induction into th
''FIRST'' Hall of Fame
Some notable team events include 2017 when two students on the team were photographed with the prime minister of Canada,

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...

. In 2022, they won the ''FIRST'' Robotics Ontario Provincial Championship and then moved on to compete in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Robot History

Throughout the years, since documented from 2011 on th
Simbotics website
the team has continued to name their robots with the prefix of "Simbot". This notable prefix has lasted for over the past decade and is paired along with a majority of the robot names starting with the character "S". Although most bind by this rule, there are a handful of robots on Simbotics that are named not following this rule to tribute to the passing of team members, are a notable figure in society at the time, or are more fitting for the robot name for the year.

Athletics

In 2014, students from Governor Simcoe won 11 medals in provincial championships for the Special Olympics. The school has a football team with mixed grade students. In 2022 and 2023, the team made it to the regional semifinals.

Incidents

In 2019, an 18 year old student went missing. The school honoured him in their graduation ceremony for that year and gave the

Ontario Secondary School Diploma The Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) is a diploma granted to secondary school graduates in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is part of the publicly funded province-wide school system. It is awarded to all students who complete the Ont ...

to his family. He was later found dead. Foul play was not suspected. In 2023, a teacher was charged with sexual assault of a student.

References

External links

Official website

Simbotics
the robotics team website {{Authority control High schools in the Regional Municipality of Niagara 1971 establishments in Ontario Educational institutions established in 1971 Buildings and structures in St. Catharines Education in St. Catharines