Westmount Collegiate Institute - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Westmount Collegiate Institute is a high school in the Thornhill, Ontario

Thornhill, Ontario

Thornhill is a community in the Greater Toronto Area of Southern Ontario, Canada, located on the northern border of the city of Toronto. Once a municipal village, Thornhill is now a community and postal designation geographically split into two municipalities along Yonge Street, the city of...

district of the greater city of Vaughan

Vaughan, Ontario

Vaughan is a city in York Region north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Vaughan is the fastest growing municipality in Canada achieving a population growth rate of 80.2% between 1996–2006, according to Statistics Canada having nearly doubled in population since 1991. Vaughan is located in Southern...

. It opened its doors in 1996, as part of the multi-purpose Benjamin Vaughan Complex, named for Benjamin Vaughan

Benjamin Vaughan

Benjamin Vaughan MD LLD was a British commissioner whose role was to smooth negotiations between Britain and the United States during the drafting of the Treaty of Paris....

, the diplomat for which the city is named. The complex contains the high school, Rosemount Community Centre, and the City Playhouse, to which the school is given limited access. The school is part 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...

. Westmount is one of the 29 secondary schools in the board which comprises 191 schools altogether. Westmount is known for its arts program and its strong academic program. Many awards have been given to recognize the art, drama, dance, and music program known as ArtsWest. Mathematics and Science was also recognized with York Regional awards.

Rosemount Community Centre

The community centre

Community centre

Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...

, which is attached to the school, contains an arena

Arena

An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

, a split gymnasium, and recreational rooms used for different events and programs, such as playing bridge. The name of the community centre was created by merging the names of two nearby elementary schools and subdivisions, Rosedale and Westmount. The school is given access to the gym and arena throughout the years.

City Playhouse

The City Playhouse is a community-based theatre with a wide variety of professional, community and school productions. It also serves the community as a rental house. The box office is on the south side of the theatre facing New Westminster Avenue. Similar to the community centre, the high school is given access to the theatre for use in assemblies as well as theatrical and bi-annual musical productions. Some plays include Romeo & Juliet, Afternoon In The Park, Grease, Oklahoma, and As You Like It.

Nursery

Attached to the west side of the complex, a preschool exists for children younger than the age of four. There has been a mutual relationship between this nursery's daily functions and Westmount's student body. It is called the Butternut Children Center

Building

The complex was built by MCW Consultants in 1995, who later built a similar complex in Newmarket, Ontario

Newmarket, Ontario

Newmarket is a town in Southern Ontario located approximately 50 km north of downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area and is connected to Toronto by freeway, and is served by three interchanges along Highway 404. It is also connected to Highway 400 via Highway 9...

, Newmarket High School

Newmarket High School

Newmarket High School is an Ontario secondary school located at 505 Pickering Crescent, off Mulock Drive in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. It is one of four high schools in Newmarket under the jurisdiction of the York Region District School Board and currently educates approximately 1214 students from...

. It too contains a similar attached community theatre

Community theatre

Community theatre refers to theatrical performance made in relation to particular communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community...

. The older Milliken Mills High School

Milliken Mills High School

Milliken Mills High School is a high school in the town of Markham, Ontario, Canada. It is one of 29 high schools in the York Region District School Board....

in 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...

, built in 1988, has a similar layout on the inside to the two; however, it contains a very different façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

and décor. All three schools contain a large open atrium

Atrium (architecture)

In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...

with a grand staircase

Stairway

Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...

that handles the highest volume of students getting to and from class. Even though these schools are in three different cities, they are all part of the York Region District School Board

York Region District School Board

Arts West

In 2009, Westmount started to offer an arts

ARts

aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....

program called ArtsWest, where the applicant can either major in Music (Instrumental), Dance, Visual Arts or Drama in the following school year. ArtsWest is the fourth Arts program within the York Region.

Synagogue