Mary WardCatholic Secondary School is a Catholic secondary school in Scarborough, a district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board, formerly the Metropolitan Separate School Board. Mary Ward is a unique centre of self-directed learning and a member of the Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning. It is one of only two self-directed learning schools currently in Ontario and seven in Canada. The school was founded in 1985 as a conventional high school between two campuses in northeast Toronto until it moved into a new building at the northwest corner of Kennedy Rd. and McNicoll Ave., designed specifically for its self-directed learning program in January 1992. The school is named after Mary Ward, a seventeenth-century English Catholic nun who founded the Sisters of Loreto.
History
Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School started out as two campuses known as the "Tin Can", one which later became Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts and a demolished relocatable. It was founded on January 23, 1985, during the 400th anniversary of Mary Ward's birth as a conventional high school in northeast Toronto under the leadership of the first principal, Mary Anne O'Leary with 200 students. The school came to existence due to overcrowding population secondary schools at Francis Libermann and Senator O'Connor. The North Campus of Mary Ward was situated on 25 Canongate Trail at Birchmount and Steeles near the current building with 102 students in relocatables and the South Campus is located at the former St. Edward Catholic School on 36 Greenfield Avenue near the Board offices on Sheppard and Yonge with 47 students until they were consolidated in the Canongate campus in 1986 with 400 students. By 1987, another "South Campus" was built with 600 students and 70 portables on the present site at 3200 Kennedy Road in the northwest corner of Kennedy Rd. and McNicoll Ave. where the current parking lot stands next to the Mon Sheong Nursing Home. The modern building for 861 students was built and completed by September 1991 as the school was opened and blessed in January 1992, designed specifically for its self-directed learning program The campus building was designed by Russocki + Zawadzki Architects. By the 1992-93 school year, the school had grown to over 1,000 students. Originally, there was another school that was to be called Mary Ward near St. Elizabeth Seton, that was later changed to Blessed Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School by then-trustee Harold Adams. In 1995, Mary Ward CSS became a founding member of the Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning Schools. The CCSDL is a grass roots organization of secondary schools across Canada that shares a similar vision and philosophy. CCSDL schools strive to build learning communities that embrace several core beliefs about teaching and learning. These beliefs serve as "the pillars and the foundation" of the program. The school, however by 1996, had an independent learning system. Sandra Gionas of the Toronto Star A case of Tuberculosis was confirmed at the school on September 26, 2013. It was said that about 20 people came in direct contact with the person. The school offered to meet with parents about the problem.
Campus
The current Mary Ward campus shares 26 acres of land with the L'Amoureux Community Centre that is also attached to the school. With Mary Ward built for the self-directed learning program, the existing configuration shares with the community centre that has five English classrooms, three mathematics classrooms, five areas of Canadian and World studies, five science labs, three ESL classrooms, six French classrooms, four business and tech studies classrooms, three home economics rooms, five music rooms, a test centre room, a visual arts room also used for the Arts Administration course, a drama room, two religion seminar rooms, four special education classrooms, one gymnasium that can be split into two small gymnasia, an exercise room, a large cafeteria with a couple seats fitted, an atrium, a student services area, several technological labs for communications in the basement, manufacturing, and construction that has three rooms, five video studio lab areas, an Aces room, four computer labs with one for the Inspire program, a circular chapel, and the day care room that is attached. It also has three staircases as well with the students entering and exiting the school using the front entrance. A large parking lot is on the eastern side of the property where the portables previously stood. The school has a 400m race track and soccer/football field with a baseball diamond on the northern side of the school.
Culture
In 2015 Karen K. Ho stated in Toronto Life that the school "was something of an anomaly" since it had "a decidedly bohemian vibe" despite having a "strict dress code" and "the usual high academic standards".
