Glebe Collegiate Institute


Glebe Collegiate Institute is a high school in the Glebe neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Administered by the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Glebe Collegiate Institute has approximately 1,700 students. Glebe CI is the district's largest school.
Students and sports teams are referred to as "Gryphons". The Gryphons' performance has led to Glebe Collegiate Institute being consistently ranked as number one amongst the premier athletics schools in Canada. The Gryphons' impressive record includes Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championships in ice hockey, track and field, cross-country running, tennis, alpine skiing, soccer, volleyball, Nordic skiing, and rowing.
Glebe was selected as one of Canada's best schools in the August 23rd, 2004 edition of Maclean's news magazine.
The school offers specialized programs, such as French immersion, English as a second language, bilingual, gifted, and a learning disability and special education learning centre.
It has an excellent academic standing and one of the best music programs in the city, including a unique, five-time gold award-winning, unconventional percussion group called Offbeat. Glebe's excellence in the arts has also been demonstrated in the dramatic arts by their Improv Teams, who have twice placed within the Canadian Improv Games National Finals. Glebe's robotics program participates in US FIRST international robotics competition, and won the SKILLS Canada STEM and Controls competition in 2015.
In 2008 and 2010, a group of four science teachers from Glebe placed second in Canada in the Discovery Channel's Iron Science Competition.
Notable former students include NHL hockey players, including Hall of Famer Syd Howe, singer Alanis Morissette and CBC news icon Peter Mansbridge.

History

The school was founded not as an independent entity but as an expansion of the Ottawa Collegiate Institute. In 1919 the Adolescent School Attendance Act had made attending school compulsory until age 16, leading to a dramatic rise in secondary school enrollment. The OCI had outgrown its existing facility and constructed a new facility on what was then the outskirts of the city. The construction of "Ottawa Collegiate Institute, Glebe Building" was a slow process, and classes began in 1922 before it was complete, causing some inconveniences for students. Symbols of the OCI continue to adorn the entrance to the school. The building was officially opened in 1923.
The rivalry between Glebe and Lisgar Collegiates commenced soon after the division of the OCI. In one incident, a banquet was held at the Glebe building that included student clubs from both schools. In the middle of the meal, a food fight erupted between the two groups and only an enraged principal could persuade students to stop.
In 1974, Glebe Collegiate Institute concert and stage bands produced an album, Something gold... Something blue, and in 1978 produced a second album, Glebe Stage Band, on which a third album is suggested, all under the direction of music teachers Stan Clark Sr. and John Nichols.
As of 2012, Glebe's population was 1,700 students and 150 teachers.
Glebe Collegiate Institute was used in the filming of the 2008 Canadian-American drama film The Perfect Assistant.
In the 2012–2013 school year, $9,000 was raised for cancer research, more than $17,000 for the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario as well as the largest food donation ever to the Centre Town Emergency Food bank.
On October 19, 2017 Glebe Collegiate Institute went into lockdown after a gun and a bullet were found on school grounds. A young man was arrested, but there were no injuries.
On April 20, 2018, Glebe Collegiate Institute's Reach for the Top trivia team won the Ottawa Regional Championships for the first time in the school's history. This qualified Glebe Collegiate's Reach for the Top team for the 2018 Provincials, where they placed 11th out of 38.

Facility

Constructed in the early 20th century, the school has an old-fashioned architectural style that has been kept consistent despite additions to the building. The school has recently gone through extensive renovations in its science department to make the labs the most modern in the school district. Notable features of the building include an underground swimming pool, an auditorium with balcony seating, a subbasement dedicated wholly to an orchestral music room, instrument storage, and the music teachers' office, and a small greenhouse on the roof, which few students have been to. The school is a Wi-Fi hotspot, and all students and teachers have access to the internet via wireless devices and computers. However, apart from the computer labs, Glebe still lacks air conditioning.

Notable alumni and students