Notre Dame Regional Secondary School

Notre Dame's old entrance

In the 1950s, under the invitation of Archbishop William Mark Duke, The Sisters of Charity of Halifax accepted the challenge, to help finance a high school for the education of Catholic children in East Vancouver and Burnaby, and in 1953 Notre Dame Regional Secondary opened its doors for the first time.[4]

In 1985, a young Irish priest, Fr. Joe Cuddy, was appointed as the Archbishop's Representative for the school. He immediately realized the need for an improved facility, and he created a three-phase plan for the rebuilding of the school. Although Fr. Joe Cuddy has since died, his dream is now in the 2nd phase of the building program.[5]

On May 6, 2010, the doors opened for the new building. The structure has state of the art geothermal heating, photocell activated lighting and washrooms systems, Wi-Fi wireless connections, and SMART Board interactive whiteboards.

Notre Dame Regional Secondary is classified as a Group 1 school under British Columbia's Independent School Act. It receives 50% funding from the Ministry of Education. The school receives no funding for capital costs.[6] It is under charge of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver.

Notre Dame's Education Committee is made up of two elected representatives from each of the feeder parishes, and three pastors elected by the pastors of these parishes. One pastor is elected as Archbishop's Representative for the school.[7]

Feeder Parishes

The sanctuary of Our Lady (Notre Dame) will be replaced by a grotto dedicated to the Sisters of Charity of Halifax, who founded the school, but no longer teach there.

• Corpus Christi Elementary
• Holy Cross Elementary
• Parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary
• St. Mary's Elementary
• Parish of St. Theresa's
• St. Francis of Assisi Elementary
• St. Helen's Elementary
• St. Jude's Elementary
• Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary
• Parish of Sacred Heart

The uniform is an important part of Notre Dame's standards as it seeks to promote unity in faith. It also helps to remove discrimination.

Students are expected to wear their uniform to and from and while at school.

Along with the school uniform is a dress code, hair and jewelry policy.

Notre Dame's school crest of Know/Love/Serve

Notre Dame is ranked by the Fraser Institute. In 2013, it is ranked 61st out of 289 Vancouver, lower mainland schools.[8]

98.1% of the students graduate[8] and 85%+ of those students go on to study at colleges and universities across the country.

The school sponsors the Notre Dame Balsa Bridge Contest which is open to all Physics 11 & Physics 12 students.

The school courses are developed by the following departments: Business, Christian Education, English, Humanities, Information Technologies (IT), Languages, Mathematics, Performing Arts, Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, & Visual Arts.

Notre Dame's team sports insignia, is modelled after University of Notre Dame's Fighting Irish insignia.

The school competes in the following sports: Basketball, Cross Country, Field Hockey, Football, Golf, Soccer, Track & Field, Volleyball, & Wrestling.

Notre Dame is an associated member of BC school sports and has received championships from the association in:

Recently, Notre Dame has gone on to win high school championships in Soccer,[9][10][11] Volleyball, Wrestling and Football.[12]

The football program has traditionally ranked among the top teams in British Columbia.

• (pre 1975) Shrine Bowl Provincial Championships: Won 6 of 7 appearances[13]
• (post 1975) Frank Gnup AAA Provincial Championships: Won 8 of 11 appearances[13]

During the month of December, Notre Dame used to host the Christmas Classic Basketball Tournament in honour of the story "The Juggler of Notre Dame". But due to conflicts with 1st term exams, the school retired the tournament and replaced it with the Juggler Invitational Basketball Tournament which is open to Bantam, Junior Varsity & Varsity boys and girls teams, during the month of January.

Both the Varsity Boys and Girls basketball teams participate in the BC Catholic Basketball Championship, one of the largest tournaments in the province of BC.

Notre Dame provides students with a variety of performing and non-performing arts. The school provides the following productions in Drama Productions: Concert Band, Jazz Band, Show Choir, Concert Choir, Music, Dance Squad, Photography, Yearbook & Visual Arts.

The theatre has traditionally put on productions that have been a source of entertainment for the community and raised revenue for the Performing Arts at ND.

Sisters of Charity chapel.
The convent beside the chapel became the school's library and IT room.
The chapel & convent will be torn down for reconstruction.
But art pieces will be relocated to the new chapel.

Aside from the students of the Principal's List (Academic achievement of 90%+), First Honour Roll (Academic achievement of 85%+), and Second Honor Roll (Academic achievement of 80%+) there are also the:

• Ushers
• Improv Club
• Ski & Snowboard Club
• Score-keepers Committee
• Pro-Life Committee
• Sacristy
• Grad Committee
• Newspaper Committee
• Legion of Mary
• Student Council
• Yearbook Committee
• Social Justice Club
• Art Club
• Service Club

Notre Dame's new school construction is being built on what used to be the old football practice field.
Many notable alumni who practice on the dirt field, went on to play in the CFL and other professional sports.

• Lui Passaglia, Punter/Kicker – Canadian Football League – BC Lions (Grey Cup 1985, 1994, & 2000)[14]
• Glen Clark – 31st Premier of British Columbia (1996–99)[14]
• Glen Jackson, Linebacker – Canadian Football League – BC Lions (Grey Cup 1985)[14]
• Lauren Diewold, Former Child Actress[15]
• John Malinosky, Offensive Linemen – Canadian Football League – Hamilton Tiger-Cats (Grey Cup 1986)[14]
• Al Cameron, Offensive linemen – Canadian Football League -[14]
• Leo Groenewegen, Offensive linemen – Canadian Football League – Ottawa Rough Riders, BC Lions & Edmonton Eskimos[14][16]
• Glenn Steele, Running Back – Canadian Football League – Winnipeg Blue Bombers & Ottawa Rough Riders[16][17]
• Ante Milanovic-Litre, Running Back- Canadian Football League- Calgary Stampeders (Grey Cup 2018)

old school of Notre Dame Regional Secondary

Notre Dame is one of four, Vancouver, Catholic high schools; the others being St. Patrick's Regional Secondary, Vancouver College and Little Flower Academy.

A permit was granted in February 2007, by Vancouver City Council for the right to build a new school facility on the old football practice field. The new building will consist of classrooms to accommodate 750 students. In July 2010, the old building was demolished to make way for Phase II.

• Notre Dame Regional Secondary
• Physics Balsa Bridge Building Contest
• Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese
• The Fraser Institute School Performance Report Cards
• BC High School Football