Unionville High School
Encyclopedia
Unionville High School (known locally as UHS) is a public high school
of the York Region District School Board
. It is located in the community of Unionville
in the town of Markham, Ontario
. The school is located next to the local municipal offices and the Apple Creek Business Park.
Unionville High School is most well known for its enriched arts program, Arts York
. The school was purpose-built to house this regional arts program, therefore it has enhanced arts facilities. Arts York is divided into 4 categories: visual arts, music, dance, and drama. In order to gain entry to these unique programs, grade eight to eleven students are required to audition.
Unionville High School also became the first school outside the United States
to participate in the Apple Digital Campus Curriculum (ADCC) in 2002.
In 2005, Sheila Hetherington and Jerry Berridge, teachers in the history and tech departments, were recipients of the Governor General's Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. In 2006, the same two teachers later won the Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence. For the 2007-08 teaching year, Donna McAdam was a recipient of the Premier's Awards for Teaching Excellence.
The facilities at Unionville High include a visual arts room, communication/new media lab, construction lab, design and technological lab, dance studios, music rooms, music practice rooms, drama rooms, black box theatre, family studies labs, photography blackroom, science labs, resource centre, classrooms, guidance office, two gymnasiums, two outdoor fields, outdoor track, weight room, washrooms and shower facilities, student cafeteria, student council office, yearbook office, student parking facilities, staff dining room, and staff workrooms.
There are approximately 300 computers in the school, divided between 9 computer labs. Notably, two of the computer labs employ Apple computers, as apart of the Apple Digital Campus.
While officially being two separate properties, the school as well as the Markham Theatre are connected via a tunnel. The theatre occasionally hosts school assemblies as well as performances from the Arts York program.
is a four-year program that high school students take concurrently with the mainstream academic program. The high school enrolls students from all over the Greater Toronto Area
. However, in the 2009-10 school year, the program was renamed "Arts Unionville" and will only take students from the Markham area, except for piano and stringed instruments.
The Arts York Music program is separated into four categories: piano, winds, strings, and vocal. Classes are divided into two types: performance and musicianship. In performance classes, students play scales, studies, and other short pieces. In the musicianship classes, components such as music history, rudiments, and harmony are taught. Arts York Music classes are also taught based on a Day 1/Day 2 timetable.
Drama is another strand of Arts York. This is a program where acting is the key. It involves productions and performances.
productions in December staged by the National Ballet of Canada
.
2008-09 Report Card gave the high school a rating of 9/10 on the and a rank of ninth out of 722 schools in Ontario, and fifth out of 690 schools in Ontario over the past five years. When the Fraser Institute originally began publishing report on Ontario secondary schools in 2001, Unionville was rated at 8.9/10 and ranked at 36 out of 568 schools and 21 out of 349 in Ontario over the past five years.
(EQAO). The Mathematics assessment is graded under the Ontario rubric
, where level 3 is considered the provincial standard, and level 4 is considered above the provincial standard. In the 2009-10 academic year:
In addition to the Grade 9 mathematics assessment, EQAO also administers the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
, a standardized test for high school students in Ontario who wish to graduate from an Ontario secondary school and obtain their Ontario Secondary School Diploma
. The test is written every year on the last Thursday of March in all public secondary schools including Unionville. In the 2009 testing:
trivia
game show
and the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA
). Several students representing the school have been sent to represent the province in international DECA competitions, and in some cases, achieving stellar results during the competition. Students also have the opportunity to compete in the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge
(COMC) each year as individuals and as a part of the school team each year.
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
of the York Region District School Board
York Region District School Board
The York Region District School Board, also known as YRDSB, is the English-language public school board for York Regional Municipality located in Ontario, Canada. The York Region District School Board is currently the province's third largest school board, with an enrollment of over 115,000 students...
. It is located in the community of Unionville
Unionville, Ontario
Unionville is a suburban village in Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is located 33 km northeast of downtown Toronto and 4 km east of southern Richmond Hill. Unionville is located between Woodbine Avenue as the western limit, alongside the Rouge River leading to McCowan Road as the eastern...
in the town of Markham, Ontario
Markham, Ontario
Markham is a town in the Regional Municipality of York, located within the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada. The population was 261,573 at the 2006 Canadian census...
. The school is located next to the local municipal offices and the Apple Creek Business Park.
Unionville High School is most well known for its enriched arts program, Arts York
Arts York
Arts Unionville , is a four year program offered at Unionville High School specializing in dance, drama, music and visual arts Unionville High School. The high school, through an application process, takes students from all over the Greater Toronto Area...
. The school was purpose-built to house this regional arts program, therefore it has enhanced arts facilities. Arts York is divided into 4 categories: visual arts, music, dance, and drama. In order to gain entry to these unique programs, grade eight to eleven students are required to audition.
History
In the mid 1970s, Superintendent Stephen Bacsalmsi proposed the idea of an advanced arts program for the region. The Ontario government accepted the idea, but needed to wait for a new high school to be built. When Unionville High School was under construction, the government decided it was a prime opportunity to initiate the program. The school was finished and opened to the public in 1985, with the schools west wing constructed in the Spring of 2002.Unionville High School also became the first school outside the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to participate in the Apple Digital Campus Curriculum (ADCC) in 2002.
In 2005, Sheila Hetherington and Jerry Berridge, teachers in the history and tech departments, were recipients of the Governor General's Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History. In 2006, the same two teachers later won the Prime Minister's Awards for Teaching Excellence. For the 2007-08 teaching year, Donna McAdam was a recipient of the Premier's Awards for Teaching Excellence.
Facilities
There are approximately 300 computers in the school, divided between 9 computer labs. Notably, two of the computer labs employ Apple computers, as apart of the Apple Digital Campus.
While officially being two separate properties, the school as well as the Markham Theatre are connected via a tunnel. The theatre occasionally hosts school assemblies as well as performances from the Arts York program.
Arts York
Arts YorkArts York
Arts Unionville , is a four year program offered at Unionville High School specializing in dance, drama, music and visual arts Unionville High School. The high school, through an application process, takes students from all over the Greater Toronto Area...
is a four-year program that high school students take concurrently with the mainstream academic program. The high school enrolls students from all over the Greater Toronto Area
Greater Toronto Area
The Greater Toronto Area is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, with a 2006 census population of 5.5 million. The Greater Toronto Area is usually defined as the central city of Toronto, along with four regional municipalities surrounding it: Durham, Halton, Peel, and York...
. However, in the 2009-10 school year, the program was renamed "Arts Unionville" and will only take students from the Markham area, except for piano and stringed instruments.
Musical arts
The Musical Arts department is the biggest section of Arts York at Unionville High School. There are four classrooms for music situated in the east wing of the school directly adjacent to the underground link to the Markham Theater. With its strategic placement, it is often said amongst faculty, staff, and students that the Music department is located in its own east wing.The Arts York Music program is separated into four categories: piano, winds, strings, and vocal. Classes are divided into two types: performance and musicianship. In performance classes, students play scales, studies, and other short pieces. In the musicianship classes, components such as music history, rudiments, and harmony are taught. Arts York Music classes are also taught based on a Day 1/Day 2 timetable.
Visual arts
The Visual Arts program provides opportunities for individual creative and imaginative growth as well as development of technical skills. Students of this program will be introduced to experimental and traditional directions in drawing and painting. They will also specialize in sculpture, photography, printmaking (etching and silkscreen), ceramics, textiles, or video. There are also studies in the history of art and critical analyses of one's own work. The student's discovery of individual strengths and directions is a prime focus. For the purpose of developing the aptitudes of talented students interested in the Visual Arts, programs are offered in all four years.Dramatic arts
The Drama Department explores university level dramatic arts. Disciplines such as mask, mime, clown and shakespeare are presented to the actors and explored through self discovery. Many Arts York Drama graduates have gone on to professional careers as actors, singers, comedians and production staff in both film and television as well as studied at top institutions such as the National Theatre School.Drama is another strand of Arts York. This is a program where acting is the key. It involves productions and performances.
Dance arts
Dance arts is another popular program in Arts York. Students in this program are given opportunities to participate in dance programs such as Dance Access, and The NutcrackerThe Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
productions in December staged by the National Ballet of Canada
National Ballet of Canada
The National Ballet of Canada is Canada's largest ballet troupe. It was founded by Celia Franca in 1951 and is based in Toronto, Ontario. Based upon the unity of Canadian trained dancers in the tradition and style of England's Royal Ballet, The National is regarded as one of the premier classical...
.
NewMedia
NewMedia was a program that ran for three years from 2003 to 2006. Although it wasn't as popular as its Arts York counterpart, it was still considered a respectable program within York Region. Students were introduced to, and studied extensively in, Communication Technology and the study of Graphic Design. There was only one class per grade, approximately 30 students per class. The main reasons for the cessation of the program were funding problems and attendance. Finally, NewMedia was only made available to students in the Markham area, unlike the Arts York program, which had then accepted students from all over York Region.Academic achievement
Students at Unionville High School has in recent years performed very well in academics, whether it be in compulsory provincial testing, or in extra-curricular academic competitions. Academically, the Fraser instituteFraser Institute
The Fraser Institute is a Canadian think tank. It has been described as politically conservative and right-wing libertarian and espouses free market principles...
2008-09 Report Card gave the high school a rating of 9/10 on the and a rank of ninth out of 722 schools in Ontario, and fifth out of 690 schools in Ontario over the past five years. When the Fraser Institute originally began publishing report on Ontario secondary schools in 2001, Unionville was rated at 8.9/10 and ranked at 36 out of 568 schools and 21 out of 349 in Ontario over the past five years.
Provincial assessment
Each year, Grade 9 students across Ontario are issued province-wide standardized tests in Mathematics. The tests themselves are administered by the Ontario Education Quality and Accountability OfficeEducation Quality and Accountability Office
The Education Quality and Accountability Office is an arm’s-length Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, Canada, legislated into creation in 1996 in response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Learning in February 1995....
(EQAO). The Mathematics assessment is graded under the Ontario rubric
Ontario rubric
The Ontario rubric is a rubric system used to mark students in the Ontario province's school system.The Ontario rubric is typically a chart with five columns. The first defines the category that is being evaluated, and the other four show levels 1 through 4. Level 1 is 50%-60%, Level 2 is 60%-70%,...
, where level 3 is considered the provincial standard, and level 4 is considered above the provincial standard. In the 2009-10 academic year:
- 35% of Unionville students, enrolled in the academic program, scored level 4 in EQAO Math Assessment (only 10% of all students in Ontario achieved this standard).
- 98% of Unionville students, enrolled in the academic program, scored level 3 or above in EQAO Math Assessment (only 82% of Ontario students achieved this standard).
In addition to the Grade 9 mathematics assessment, EQAO also administers the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test
The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test is a compulsory standardized test for high school students in Ontario who wish to obtain the Ontario Secondary School Diploma. It was established in 2001 by the Conservative government...
, a standardized test for high school students in Ontario who wish to graduate from an Ontario secondary school and obtain their Ontario Secondary School Diploma
Ontario Secondary School Diploma
The Ontario Secondary School Diploma is a diploma granted to high school graduates in the province of Ontario.-Diploma requirements:The Ontario Academic Credit system applies to students from Grades 9 through 12...
. The test is written every year on the last Thursday of March in all public secondary schools including Unionville. In the 2009 testing:
- 91% of Unionville students who were taking the test for the first time passed the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test, (compared to an 78% success rate for the province as a whole).
Extra-curricular competitions
The school itself has also formed extra-curricular clubs or teams to compete in academic competitions such as the national Reach for the TopReach for the Top
Reach for the Top is a Canadian game show in which teams of high school students participate in local, provincial and eventually national trivia tournaments...
trivia
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
and the Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA
DECA (organization)
DECA, also known as Collegiate DECA on the college level) is an international association of students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service . DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing,...
). Several students representing the school have been sent to represent the province in international DECA competitions, and in some cases, achieving stellar results during the competition. Students also have the opportunity to compete in the Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge
Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge
The Canadian Open Mathematics Challenge is a mathematics competition held in Canada that is one of the most often-used ways to determine participants for the Canadian Mathematical Olympiad. It is run by the Canadian Mathematical Society and sponsored by Sun Life Financial...
(COMC) each year as individuals and as a part of the school team each year.
Sport
Besides the school's arts programs, the school also has a respectable athletics program competing in the York Region Athletic Association and OFSAA. Following are some of the sports in which the school participates:- Basketball - Jr./Sr. Boys, Jr./Sr. Girls
- Volleyball - Jr./Sr. Boys, Jr./Sr. Girls
- Ice Hockey - Jr./Sr. Boys, Girls
- Girls Field Hockey
- Girls Slowpitch
- Ultimate Frisbee
- Track and Field
- Curling
- Mountain Biking
- Badminton teams
- Golf
- Boys and Girls Soccer
- Girls Rugby
- Boys Rugby
- Swim
- Ski and Snowboard
- Table Tennis
- Tennis
Clubs
The school is home to many clubs, although the number of clubs and their continuance varies per academic year. Some of the more longstanding clubs would include:- Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
- Amplified
- Badminton Club
- Book Club
- CHARIS Christian Fellowship
- Chess & Go
- Chinese Cultural Association
- Chinese Debating
- Classics
- Community Involvement
- DECADECA (organization)DECA, also known as Collegiate DECA on the college level) is an international association of students and teachers of marketing, management and entrepreneurship in business, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service . DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing,...
- Eco Action
- Family Studies
- Fashion
- Free The ChildrenFree The ChildrenFree The Children is an international charity and youth movement founded in 1995 by children's rights advocate Craig Kielburger. The organization is largely youth-funded, based on the concept of "children helping children." It specializes in sustainable development in countries of Kenya, Ecuador,...
- Knitting Club
- LauxesGay-straight allianceGay–straight alliances are student organizations, found primarily in North American high schools and universities, that are intended to provide a safe and supportive environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth and their straight allies .-Goal:The goal of most, if not all,...
- Library Volunteers
- Math
- Peer Helpers
- Photo
- RoboticsFIRST Robotics CompetitionThe FIRST Robotics Competition is an international high school robotics competition organized by FIRST. Each year, teams of high school students compete to build robots weighing up to , not including battery and bumpers, that can complete a task, which changes every year...
- Sintacks
- Trained RespondersEmergency medical responderEmergency medical responders are people who are specially trained to provide out-of-hospital care in medical emergencies. There are many different types of emergency medical responders, each with different levels of training, ranging from first aid and basic life support to advanced life support...
- Vin et Fromage
- Yearbook
Notable alumni
- Lani BillardLani BillardLani Billard is a Canadian actress who played Busy Ramone on the popular television series Ready or Not from 1993–1997. Before that she was on a show called F.R.O.G. on TVO. Since then Lani has only appeared in Owning Mahowny where she played Tori the Teller...
, actress - Steve ByersSteve ByersSteve Byers is a Canadian actor.Byers was born in Scarborough, Ontario. At a young age he had a passion for acting. Graduating with the top award for Excellence in Drama from the Arts program at Unionville High School, Byers continued his study of the acting craft at the University of Western...
, actor - Christina CoxChristina CoxChristina Cox is a Canadian movie and television actress and stuntwoman.-Biography:Christina Cox was born just outside of Toronto, the youngest of three daughters. Her two sisters are named Tracey and Melissa...
, actress - Emmanuelle ChriquiEmmanuelle ChriquiEmmanuelle Sophie Anne Chriqui is a Canadian film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her role on HBO's Entourage as Sloan McQuewick, as well as the love interest of Adam Sandler in the movie You Don't Mess with the Zohan...
, actress - Hayden ChristensenHayden ChristensenHayden Christensen is a Canadian actor. He appeared in Canadian television programs when he was young, then diversified into American television in the late 1990s. He moved on to minor acting roles before being praised for his role of Sam in Life as a House, for which he was nominated for a Golden...
, actor - Chad DonellaChad DonellaChad E. Donella is a Canadian actor who has appeared in several movies and television shows.-Life and career:He attended the Arts York Drama Program, in which he participated in such plays as Oedipus Rex, Waiting for Godot, and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. He has performed at Toronto's...
, actor - Justin HinesJustin HinesJustin Hines is a Canadian singer-songwriter who was born in Newmarket, Ontario.Hines has a rare genetic joint condition called Larsen's syndrome and uses a wheelchair. He is a strong supporter of charity and has performed at many fund raising events...
, singer-songwriter - Cody HodgsonCody HodgsonCody Hodgson is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre currently playing for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League ....
, ice hockey player - Tim OxfordArkellsArkells are a Canadian rock band, formed in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2006, they signed with Dine Alone Records, the label for other Canadian acts such as City and Colour, Attack In Black, Alexisonfire, and Tokyo Police Club.-Band history:...
, drummer - Emanuel SandhuEmanuel SandhuEmanuel Sandhu is a Canadian figure skater and dancer. He is a three-time Canadian national champion and the 2004 Grand Prix champion.-Personal life:...
, figure skater and dancer - Nathan StephensonNathan StephensonNathan Stephenson is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his starring roles in Radio Free Roscoe as Robbie and in System Crash as James . He has also guest starred on Naturally, Sadie, Dark Oracle and in the TV film Cyber Seduction: His Secret Life. As of 2008 he has a recurring role in...
, actor