Notre Dame High School (Toronto)

Notre Dame High School is an all-girls Roman Catholic secondary school in Toronto founded by the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame. Notre Dame is one of 31 high schools run by the TCDSB and one of six all-girls schools, and currently has an enrollment of 698 students. The school's patron saint is Marguerite Bourgeoys.HistoryIn 1941, the Congregation of Notre Dame founded Notre Dame High School to provide excellence in education for young Catholic women. Up until recently, the Sisters of the Congregation have been teaching at the school throughout its long history. The school has grown over the years such as in 1963, O’Connor Hall was built as the second building of the school; the first being the main building. In the 1970s, Notre Dame had a total of 1,111 students, and moved into the second and third floors of the neighbouring St. John Catholic School. Currently, the school uses three buildings, but only part of the third floor of St. John’s.In 1967, the school reached an agreement with the Metropolitan Separate School Board (now the Toronto Catholic District School Board), placing the Grade 9 and 10 students would be under the publicly funded separate school system and Grades 11, 12, and 13 would continue by the Congregation. In 1984, the government started funding the last three years of high school and by 1987, Notre Dame was ceased as a private school, joining the board in the process.Notre Dame underwent two accommodation reviews due to excessive overcrowding and its site size of an acre due to lack of playing field and the use of St. John's third floor. First in 2001 when the board attempted to acquire additional land for the construction of a larger school, then again in 2009 when the board attempted to relocate and/or consolidate Notre Dame with either St. Patrick or Neil McNeil with the building demolished and the school yard being expanded back to St. John. Subsequently, the board attempted to relocate the school and Neil McNeil to the closed Midland Avenue Collegiate Institute and the options were unsuccessful.