Cawthra Park Secondary School


Cawthra Park Secondary School, also known as CP, is a public high school built in 1972 located in Southeast Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
Cawthra Park provides instruction to students from grades 9 to 12 and is under the jurisdiction of the Peel District School Board.

Arts

Cawthra Park is home to Peel's Regional Arts Program, for which students audition to study music, dance, dramatic arts or visual arts. Approximately two thirds of Cawthra's students are in the RAP program, with the remaining students coming from the local area.
Cawthra offers a Specialist High-Skills Major in Arts & Culture, allowing students to complete additional certifications and trainings to prepare for their career path.

Academics

Cawthra Park also offers a full standard academic program so that students complete all compulsory subjects and graduate with an Ontario Secondary School Diploma.
In 2017-2018, the school exceeded provincial averages for both the EQAO and OSSLT test scores.
The school boasts competitive academic classes which match or exceed the quality of other academic programs in Peel, including a SHSM program in Arts and Culture. The school features a renowned humanities department, with numerous accomplished extracurricular programs such as the Mock Trial team.

Music

The music department has performed over the years at various prominent venues, including mass at the Vatican City, onstage at Disney's Magic Kingdom, Austria, and for the former American ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins.
The music department includes many different choral and instrumental ensembles, made up predominantly of 'music majors,' but also including students not enrolled in the music program. The Ritz, a concert choir with over 360 members, is the largest in North America. Other ensemble groups include Chamber Choir, Les Belles Classiques, Singsation, Jazz-A-Peel, Momentum, Mississauga Transit, Jazz Lab, Guitar Ensemble, and the Intermediate and Senior Concert Bands.
Each year the music department organizes a trip in the spring as an opportunity to perform outside of the GTA, open to any student involved with the department. Locations have included Disney World, Italy, Boston, Chicago, Nashville, Austria in 2012, and New York City in 2015.
In May and June 2013, the Cawthra Park Chamber Choir performed with The Rolling Stones in the Air Canada Centre.
Every ensemble has achieved gold status at MusicFest, and has received frequent invitations and awards at National competitions.

Dramatic Arts

Cawthra's drama facilities include three studios, as well as a large, professional auditorium. Approximately sixty drama students are accepted per year, giving each year two classes with around thirty students each. Course contents range from practical scene studies and stage combat to more theoretical concepts including a unit on 'great acting teachers' and theatre's roots in Ancient Greece. This program also introduces its students to many new aspects of theatre including theatre production, musical theatre, and set and costume design.
The drama department annually spearheads the school's spring play and monitors the school's annual participation in the National Theatre School Drama Festival each February due to the aforementioned competition being primarily student run. The department also shares directorial responsibilities with its music and dance counterparts for the fall musical – a widely praised and highly anticipated spectacle drawing thousands annually.
The Drama department used to go on senior trips, some destinations have included, Greece, Rome, Chicago but with most recent trips being solely to New York City. This trip is open to any interested grade 11 and grade 12 theatre students; recent New York Trips have included viewings of many acclaimed Broadway shows such as Cabaret, The Realistic Joneses and Hedwig and the Angry Inch. In recent years the Drama department has paused the regular senior trips to the United States due to difficulties with border crossing.

Visual Arts

The Visual Arts Department offers a wide variety of courses available to students both in the art program as well as to students pursuing other disciplines. Courses include traditional, modern and post-modern art, desktop design, media arts and photography. The department also has ties to other departments at Cawthra Park such as fashion and communication technology. One major event for the Visual Arts department is the annual Visual Arts SpringFest where the school is transformed into an art gallery. Senior Visual Arts students also partake in an art-focused week-long class trip to New York City.

Dance

Throughout the four-year program, students refine their technical skills and develop their creativity in dance. Dance forms that are studied include ballet, modern dance, musical theater and jazz. Besides practical experience, the students are also required to study a theoretical curriculum that includes topics such as the history of dance, kinesiology, composition, criticism and social issues relating to the dance community such as eating disorders, and arthritis. The department provides the opportunity for students with and without formal training to develop dance skills through the Regional Arts Program. The department also offers elective dance courses for students not enrolled in the dance program, as well as dance opportunities for all students regardless of their arts discipline. Major events for the Dance Department include Dance Springfest in early April and Dance Mosaix in late May.

Productions

The school also puts on a fall musical and a spring play annually.
Fall MusicalSpring Play
2019-2020ChicagoN/A
2018-2019Legally BlondeOur Town / Girls Like That
2017-2018Billy Elliot Hamlet
2016-2017Guys and DollsSense & Sensibility
2015–2016HairsprayJulius Caesar
2014–2015RagtimeSummer and Smoke
2013–2014The Drowsy ChaperoneMacbeth
2012–2013The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeAgamemnon
2011–2012Sweet CharityLeaving Home
2010–2011The Scarlet PimpernelRomeo and Juliet
2009–2010FootlooseMad Forest
2008–2009Jesus Christ SuperstarThe Miracle Worker
2007–2008CabaretLes Belles-sœurs
2006–2007Merrily We Roll AlongOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2005–2006West Side StoryThe Laramie Project
2004–2005Into the WoodsDoctor Faustus
2003–2004The Sound of MusicA Midsummer Night's Dream
2002–2003Les MisérablesA Streetcar Named Desire
2001–2002Carnival!Auntie Mame
2000–2001GodspellDark of the Moon
1999–2000The Apple TreeServant Of Two Masters
1998–1999N/A N/A
1997–1998Once Upon A MattressThe Crucible
1996–1997Guys and DollsA Midsummer Night's Dream
1995–1996Fiddler on the RoofLook Homeward, Angel
1994–1995Oliver!Charley's Aunt
1993–1994PippinThe Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1992–1993The Pajama Game1949
1991–1992Into The WoodsTwelfth Night
1990–1991Bye Bye BirdieTartuffe
1989–1990CabaretYou Can't Take It with You
1988–1989Damn YankeesThe Crucible
1987–1988Sweet Charity 'Nurse Jane goes to Hawaii
1986–1987Guys and Dolls 'Brighton Beach Memoirs
1985–1986Oklahoma!Our Town
1984–1985AnnieThe Pajama Game°
1983–1984GreaseFiddler on the Roof°
1982–1983Oliver!Li'l Abner°
1981–1982Take Me Along°∆Waiting For The Parade∆
1980–1981Guess Who's Coming to DinnerCarousal°
1979–1980MacabaretOliver!°
1978–1979I Remember MamaSweethearts°
1977–1978Guys and DollsA Gift of Song°
1976–1977GreaseBlossom Time°

° = These musicals were performed by the Clarkson Musical Theatre at the school in spring before the tradition of the spring play came into place.
∆ = The school choose to delegate the fall spot to the Clarkson Music Theatre for their musical so they could instead prepare the school's first attempt at a spring play.

Athletics

The 2017-2018 girl's volleyball team completed a perfect season, not giving up a single set on their way to capturing the ROPSSAA championship.
Din Selmanovic won the 200 m Freestyle with a time of 1:55.20 at the 2014 OFSSA Swimming Championships in Brantford, Ontario.
Athletic courses as of the 2015–2016 school year include both boys and girls basketball, golf, swimming, alpine skiing, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, ultimate frisbee, soccer, tennis, hockey, cross country, track & field teams, and a boys' baseball team.
The Cawthra Panthers Baseball Team won the 2007 ROPSSAA Tier 1 Baseball Championships for the first time in the school's history with a 6–2 win over Mount Carmel. The Cawthra Park Hockey Team reached the ROPSAA finals on several occasions.
The 2012 Cawthra Panthers Ultimate Frisbee team in their second season reached the ROPSSAA finals, placing second to John Cabot SS

Notable alumni

Past students of Cawthra Park include: