Victoria Park Collegiate Institute (commonly known as Victoria Park C.I., Victoria Park, Vic Park, VP, and VPCI); formerly Victoria Park Secondary School, is a

collegiate institute A collegiate institute is an institution that provides either secondary or post-secondary education, dependent on where the term is used. In Canada, the term is used to describe institutions that provide secondary education, while the word is used ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

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. It is located south of

York Mills Road York Mills Road is an east-west route in Toronto, Ontario, Canada named for the historic village of York Mills that was located on the hill immediately north of today's intersection of York Mills Road and Yonge Street. The village of York Mills ...

and west of Victoria Park Ave. in the district of

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

. It is the first publicly funded school in Ontario to host the

International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) is a two-year educational programme primarily aimed at 16-to-19-year-olds in 140 countries around the world. The programme provides an internationally accepted qualification for entry int ...

. Authorized to offer the IB Diploma Programme since July 1987, the programme is taught in English. The school is open to male and female students. Some feeder schools include Milne Valley Middle School and Donview Middle School. The student population of Victoria Park Collegiate Institute is diverse, with a component of English as Second Language students (over 30%).

History

Victoria Park Collegiate Institute was officially opened to students in 1960. Its name derives from the nearby

Victoria Park Avenue Victoria Park Avenue is a major north-south route in eastern Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the western border of Scarborough, separating it from Old Toronto, East York, and North York. The common nickname for it is VP or Vic Park. History ...

. Approximately two decades after its founding, Victoria Park C.I. became the first public school within

to offer the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

Program. In the late 2000s, a fitness centre was opened, the ''Brian Maxwell Fitness Centre''. Between 2016 and 2018, renovations were made to the school, which included remodelling the gym, improving the track field, revamping parking lots. New additions included a resource room, cell phone charging station, and repainted walls and doors. On November 13, 2020, an 11 year boy died after falling through a skylight in the school On November 16, 2021, three students were stabbed, one fatally, during a fight outside the school. The suspect was arrested and later

acquitted In common law jurisdictions, an acquittal means that the criminal prosecution has failed to prove that the accused is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the charge presented. It certifies that the accused is free from the charge of an o ...

in 2024 On May 12, 2022, the school was placed in a

lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

after a

grade 11 Eleventh grade (also known as 11th Grade, Grade 11, or Junior year) is the eleventh year of formal or compulsory education. It is typically the 3rd year of high school. Students in eleventh grade are usually 16-17 years of age. Australia In Aus ...

student was non-fatally shot in the south parking lot of the school

Academical achievements

Provincial assessment

For the year 2023/2024, *Grade 9

EQAO The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO, , OQRE) is a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario in Canada. It was legislated into creation in 1996 in response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Learning in February ...

Mathematics assessment: 59% of all students were at or above the provincial standard (level 3 and above), compared with 56% for the

Toronto District School Board The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

. *Grade 10

Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (OSSLT; or TPCL) is a compulsory standardized test for secondary school students in Ontario who wish to obtain the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. For students who entered Grade 9 in 1999–2000, succe ...

: 84% of first-time eligible students who participated fully successfully passed the assessment, compared with 84% for the

International Baccalaureate program

Victoria Park C.I. was the first public school in Ontario to offer the

Diploma Program, beginning in 1987. Grade nine and ten students are admitted into a pre-IB program at Victoria Park where they are given the opportunity to gauge the IB curriculum. Individuals who wish to apply for the pre-IB program must complete a math test and then write a student application essay of 400-500 words. Afterwards, the applicant must attend an interview with the IB Coordinator in order to complete the application process. IB graduates from Victoria Park C.I. consistently score in the top 10% worldwide, with many individuals in the top 5%. In the graduating class of 2013, 16 students out of 94 achieved a total score of 40 points or above, including one student who scored 44 points.

Sports and Teams

Sports offered at Victoria Park C.I. include: *Baseball :* The Varsity Boys' Baseball offered again in the 2006-2007 school year *Volleyball *Soccer *Archery :* The archery team was started in 2002 and has won a medal every year since 2003. *Tennis *Ultimate Frisbee *Badminton *Rugby :* Resumed in the fall of 2010 after a 15-year hiatus *Basketball *Track and Field *Water Polo :* The Varsity Girls' Water Polo team was the TDSB North Region champion in 2015 and 2016 * Cricket * Cross Country * Co-ed Swim

Clubs

Clubs offered include: * Dance Crew * Announcements * HOSA * Middle Eastern North African Association (MENAA) * Muslim Student Association (MSA) * Tamil Student Association (TSA) * Eco Council * Mandarin Club * Math Club * She Empowers * French Club * Gardening Club * Target Alpha * Ditsy * Protein Club * Stage Crew * Rubik's Cubing Club * MedLife * Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) * Knitting Club * Model UN * Science Olympics * Pride VP * Coding Club * DECA * Debate Club * Literature Club * VP Ambassadors * OXFAM * Prom Committee * Yearbook * Victoria Park Athletic Council (VPAC) * Visual Arts Council (VAC) * Student Leadership Council (SLC) * Mental Health Awareness Council (MHAC) * Music Council * Jazz Band * Strings Orchestra * Choir * Concert Band * Guitar Ensemble * Jetfac ** A drama club that produces yearly performances and musicals, named after the drama room Competitive clubs include: *Chess :*The Senior chess team placed first at the city championships and 2nd overall at the provincial championships in 2009-2010. :*In 2018, the Senior chess team took first place again in the Toronto Secondary School Chess League (TSSCL) Team Championships. The junior team tied for first, but placed second on tiebreak. *Robotics :*The robotics club has mainly two subdivisions, one for

VEX Robotics Competition VEX Robotics is a robotics program for elementary through university students and a subset of Innovation First International. The VEX Robotics competitions and programs are managed by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF). In Apri ...

, and another one for

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 ...

. :*The FIRST team has won several awards since the year of 2014. VictoriaParkCollegiateInstituteSwimmingPool

Library

Victoria Park C.I., like all high schools in the

TDSB The Toronto District School Board (TDSB), formerly known as English-language Public District School Board No. 12 prior to 1999, is the English-language public-secular school board for Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The minority public-secular franco ...

, has a resourceful

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. The library offers over 20 workstations, two computer labs, independent study areas, printing services, and photocopying service. The library is also the home to over a thousand books of all

genres Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other form ...

. The library occasionally holds fundraisers for the Hospital for Sick Children and much more. Some programs on the hundreds of computers (which run on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

) are Turing programming software,

Microsoft Office 2010 Microsoft Office 2010 (codenamed Office 14) is a version of Microsoft Office for Microsoft Windows unveiled by Microsoft on May 15, 2009, and released to manufacturing on April 15, 2010, with General availability release, general availability on ...

, and graphic editors such as

Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Inc., Adobe for Microsoft Windows, Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas Knoll, Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital ...

. The

Accelerated Reader Accelerated Reader (AR) is an educational program created by Renaissance Learning. It is designed to monitor and manage students' independent reading practice and comprehension in both English and Spanish. The program assesses students' perfor ...

software is offered, with which grade nine students are encouraged to read and are tested afterwards on the content of the novel they chose. Victoria Park CI has many carts of laptops which run on

as well.

White Pine at VP

The White Pine high school reading program started in Victoria Park C.I. in the spring of 2003. Every year at the beginning of semester two, a meeting is held in the school library to gather students who are interested in participating in this reading program. All books nominated for White Pine are young adult fictions written by Canadian authors. The ten nominated books are introduced to the students who will have to read at least seven out of the ten selections to be eligible to vote for their favourite book. A meeting takes place every three weeks in the library where students get an opportunity to discuss, with their peers as well as other teachers, about the books they have read. The voting for the favourite book takes place in mid-May at the school. After all the votes from across Ontario have been accounted for, teachers and students of Victoria Park C.I who have participated in the White Pine reading program are then invited to the ceremony where the winning author of the nominated books is announced.

Notable alumni

Students

Katharine Birbalsingh Katharine Moana Birbalsingh (born 16 September 1973) is a headteacher and education reform advocate who is the founder and head teacher of Michaela Community School, a free school established in 2014 in Wembley Park, London. The daughter of ...

, headteacher, educational influencer *

Brian Maxwell Brian Leigh Maxwell (March 14, 1953 – March 19, 2004) was a British born Canadian track and field athlete, track coach, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He founded PowerBar, a maker of energy and nutritional products for athletes. Maxwell ini ...

, athlete, founder of

PowerBar PowerBar is an American brand of energy bars and other related products including sports drinks, gels, and the ''Pria'' bars targeted at women. The company was established in 1986, and was later acquired by Nestlé. History The PowerBar company ...

Pierre Browne Pierre Browne (born January 14, 1980) is a Canadian sprinter of Barbadian descent. He represented Canada for the 100 and the 200 meters dash in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, 2002 Commonwealth Games, and the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics.Bruce Boudreau Bruce Allan Boudreau ( ; born January 9, 1955) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. He previously served as head coach of the Washington Capitals, Anaheim Ducks, Minnesota Wild, and Vancouver Canucks of the National H ...

, Coach of the

Vancouver Canucks The Vancouver Canucks are a professional ice hockey team based in Vancouver. The Canucks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conferenc ...

Paul Quarrington Paul Lewis Quarrington (July 22, 1953 – January 21, 2010) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, musician and educator. Background Born in Toronto as the middle of three sons in the family of four of Bruce Quarrington,< ...

, author and musician *

Dan Hill Daniel Grafton Hill IV (born 3 June 1954) is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. He had two major international hits with his songs " Sometimes When We Touch" and " Can't We Try", a duet with Vonda Shepard, as well as a number of other chart ...

, singer and songwriter *

Michael Coteau Michael Joseph Coteau is a Canadian politician who serves as the Member of Parliament for Scarborough—Woburn in the House of Commons of Canada. From 2011 to 2021, he was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario representing ...

, Ontario MPP and Minister for Citizenship and Immigration * Yuanling Yuan, Canadian WIM Chess Master and founder of Chess in the Library. *

Jowi Taylor Jowi Taylor (born June 15, 1962) is a Toronto-based radio personality, public speaker and originator of the Six String Nation guitar, also known as Voyageur. As a radio broadcaster, producer, writer and host, Taylor is known for his work at CBC Rad ...

, CBC Radio Broadcaster, and Founder of the Six String Nation project

Staff

Yuri Shymko Yuri Shymko (, born September 6, 1940) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, Progressive Conservative Party member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1978 to 1979 representing the down ...

, politician

References

External links

Victoria Park Collegiate Institute's Official WebsiteTDSB School Info
{{Coord, 43.755768, N, 79.321445, W, region:CA-ON_type:landmark, display=title High schools in Toronto North York Schools in the TDSB International Baccalaureate schools in Ontario