Bloor Collegiate Institute

History

The school was founded in 1920 as Davenport High School located in five classrooms on the top floor of the Jesse Ketchum Public School to form the first student body that became Bloor High School. It later became Bloor Collegiate Institute in October 1925, and the original building opened in 1927 had 15 standard classrooms, one lecture room, physics and science rooms.

In the 1970s, the school fielded sports teams in football, soccer, hockey, basketball, cricket, volleyball, rugby, cross-country running, track and field, and archery. Today, sports like Ultimate Frisbee, badminton have been added to the roster. Teams competed in the "junior" level (grades 9 and 10 students), and the "senior" level (grades 11 and 12 students).

In 2011, the school won more gold medals at the Toronto Sci-Tech Fair than any other school, and sent two students on to the national science fair. Both of these students were from the TOPS on Bloor Program.

The school was named as the TDSB secondary school showing the greatest rate of improvement in the 2011-2012 Fraser Institute Report. The school is now (2014-2015 ranking) ranked at 16 out of the 627 secondary schools in the province. Over the previous five years, the school had ranked at approximately 78. The improvement is credited in part to substantial improvements on the EQAO Mathematics Assessment, which is written by Grade 9 students. “That is a tremendous result for a school of modest-means families, where ESL is a strong component and special needs as well,” states Peter Cowley from the Fraser Institute.

Relocation to Brockton

In October 2009, the Toronto District School Board passed the redevelopment plan on Bloor/Dufferin. As a result, two schools were closed after the ARC review: Kent Senior Public School (2012) and West Toronto Collegiate Institute (2010).

The Toronto District School Board will receive capital funding from the provincial government for the school's renovations Meanwhile, the Toronto Lands Corporation, a realtor arm of the school board, declared 7.6 acres of the Bloor and Kent properties surplus and is placed up for sale.

Offers have been made by the Toronto Catholic District School Board to acquire a portion of the property in concert with the City of Toronto.

The province has committed to contributing $20 million toward the development of a new school and community hub on surplus TDSB land at the south-west corner of Bloor and Dufferin streets. TDSB chair Robin Pilkey says the project is the first of its kind. "This announcement is the result of an unprecedented level of cooperation between the TDSB, the Ontario government and the City of Toronto, who agreed to use surplus school land in a way that maximizes value and keeps supporting the community by bringing new services to its residents." The province has proposed a 30,000-square foot community hub for the area, which will include licensed child care spaces. "I look forward to working with the selected developer, local residents and our partners to ensure that this development fits within the character of the neighbourhood and contains the green space, community hub, child care, affordable housing and heritage preservation that our community expects," said Coun. Ana Bailao. A replacement high school will also be built on the site of Brockton High School, which has been closed for a number of years. The proposed space will be the new home for the Bloor Collegiate Institute and Alpha II Senior Alternative School. It will accommodate approximately 900 students. There is no date set yet for the start of construction.

School Culture

In the 1960s and 1970s, the school was predominantly attended by immigrants and first-generation Canadians of immigrants of mostly European origin (especially English, Irish, Ukrainian, Italian, Greek and Portuguese although some students were of Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Tamil background). Currently, 70% of students speak a language other than English at home. Bloor students come from the neighbouring community as well as from communities across the city for the TOPS on Bloor Program.

School motto: "Quod Incepimus Conficiemus" – What We Have Begun, We Shall Finish. (Shared with Colonel By Secondary School, Gloucester, Ontario.)

Student Achievements

Sports

The School provides many sport teams.

Clubs

The School provides students with academic and special interest club opportunities.

(some of the available clubs)

Advanced Placement at Bloor

Bloor CI offers many Advanced Placement courses.

Please visit the AP Canada website for a description of this program (http://www.ap.ca/)

TOPS on Bloor Program

Bloor Collegiate Institute houses a program called TOPS, an abbreviation for "Talented Offerings for Programs in the Sciences". The program started in September 2009 after the board decided to expand the program at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute. Programs at both schools are fully independent from each other. In order to apply to this specialized program, grade 8 students must write an entrance exam covering math, science and writing skills. A student profile and a final grade 7 report card complete the application package. There is a $400 fee which pays for all core field trips and classroom materials beyond the Ontario curriculum, allowing for tremendous enrichment. TOPS on Bloor students have gone on to National Science Fairs, International Business competitions, and much more, thus familiarizing Bloor's name on the international stage. A Bloor TOPS student placed third at the 2012 International DECA competition in Salt Lake City as part of the Ontario DECA Team.

Notable alumni