Grey Highlands Secondary School
| Grey Highlands Secondary School | |
|---|---|
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| Location | |
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Flesherton, Ontario, N0C 1E0 Canada |
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| Coordinates | 44°15′24″N 80°32′38″W / 44.25673°N 80.54375°WCoordinates: 44°15′24″N 80°32′38″W / 44.25673°N 80.54375°W |
| Information | |
| School type | Coeducational secondary |
| Founded | 1968 |
| School board | Bluewater District School Board |
| Principal | Andrea Tang |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Enrollment | 950 (2016) |
| Language | English |
| Website | www |
Grey Highlands Secondary School is a Grade 9-12 high school located in Flesherton, Ontario, Canada, in rural Grey County. It was built in 1967 as part of a province-wide upgrade of educational facilities. Unlike typical rural high schools of the time that were designed only to graduate matriculation students, it was envisioned as a multi-disciplinary facility for students of all educational paths. Designed for 900 students, the building has been expanded several times; approximately 750 students now attend.
Grey Highlands Secondary School (GHSS) was built in 1967 as one of the many new school construction projects undertaken by Education Minister Bill Davis in order to modernize and centralize rural elementary and secondary schools. When it opened in September 1968, it became the central high school for students from three smaller district high schools, covering a collection area of 195,000 hectares (750 square miles). Those smaller high schools were converted to elementary schools, which in turn replaced the many one- and two-room school houses that were still in operation until that time.
Until that time, the curriculum and facilities in Ontario's rural high schools were designed solely for academic students destined for post-secondary education. Students needing a level of education necessary for the trades, business or a non-academic career inevitably dropped out of high school.
E. Murray Juffs, the first principal of Grey Highlands and the main driving force behind the design of the school, envisioned Grey Highlands as a multi-discipline school encompassing opportunities for education in all streams, from occupational training as a car mechanic or short-order cook, to business office training, to a liberal arts education suitable for university preparation.
To this end, the original school incorporated four science laboratories, a greenhouse, six technical shops (auto, machine, carpentry, electrical, general, drafting), a double gymnasium, a smaller gymnasium and weight training room, an auditorium with a full proscenium arch stage, a music room with sound-proofed practice rooms, several typing and business machine labs, two home economic kitchens, a languages lab, a library with study rooms, a quarter-mile (400-metre) cinder track and football field/soccer pitch, and classrooms.
In addition to education, student involvement in intramural and varsity sports and other activities was expected. For the first ten years, a spring musical was a major school project under the direction of mathematics teacher Eleanor Juffs that involved most students and staff. In addition to several dozen students who appeared as cast members for productions such as My Fair Lady, Oliver!, Brigadoon, Anything Goes, Camelot, and Annie Get Your Gun, there was a full pit band, the sets were built by carpentry students, special effects were generated by the science department, and other students were in charge of audio, publicity, photography, ticket sales, ushering and backstage direction. Each musical ran for three nights, often playing to almost 3,000 people from the surrounding region.
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