Type Public secondary Status Demolished 2011 Grades 10–12 Founded September 1942 | Established September 1942 Closed June 2007 Website www.qeh.ednet.ns.ca Color Blue and Gold | |
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School board Halifax Regional School Board Motto "Facere faciendo discimus" | ||
Queen Elizabeth High School was a secondary school in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "QEH" was well known for its high academic standards, competitive sports teams and distinguished extra-curricular activities such as its annual model parliament and musical productions. Its Reach for the Top team won the CBC-TV national championship in 1975. Queen Elizabeth High School was part of the Halifax community for 65 years, and offered many services and facilities including a 1280-seat performance auditorium that opened in 1951. Legendary Canadian rock and roll band April Wine recorded their 1974 live album there.
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History
The school opened in September 1942 at the corner of Bell Road and Robie Street, on Camp Hill. The gymnasium and auditorium were opened in 1951. More classrooms were added in the late 1950s, but the school remained overcrowded into the 1960s. The authorities discussed a variety of options to deal with the problem including adding another storey to the school, building a new high school in the north end, or building an extension to QEH. They finally settled on the latter option, and in February 1969 the Board of School Commissioners opened an addition along Bell Road that more than doubled the school's size.
Queen Elizabeth High School's facilities included a library, art rooms, music rooms, technology education shops, science laboratories, computer laboratories, family studies rooms, a reading resource room, a learning support centre, an ESL centre, a gymnasium, an auditorium and a full-service cafeteria - all of which were accessible to the physically challenged.
Queen Elizabeth was also registered as a designated school for children of the United States Armed Forces and Diplomatic Corps, and had a long tradition of attracting students from other parts of Canada as well as from overseas.
Queen Elizabeth High School was merged with nearby St. Patrick's High School to form Citadel High School. The new school is located across the street from the former site of Queen Elizabeth, adjacent to Citadel Hill. Ground breaking for Citadel High School took place in April 2006, and the final classes at QEH finished in June 2007. Queen Elizabeth closed as the academically top ranked high school in Nova Scotia (based on the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies' annual rankings of high schools). The building was demolished in 2011, and its former land was transferred to the Province of Nova Scotia. Over the short term, a community garden has been developed on the site and includes a walking path from Robie Street to Bell Road. In the future, the land is slated to be developed by Capital Health as an expansion to the neighbouring Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre.
Model Parliament
Queen Elizabeth High School had one of the oldest running high school model parliaments in all of North America, with over fifty years of history. This became one of the most prized traditions of the school and continues at Citadel High School.
Previous Opposition Leaders and Prime Ministers
Note: 1994 Reform Party won the largest majority in the history of the school's model parliament, however the kidnapping of NDP Leader, Zimmer, caused strife in the reform party and the party never re-formed.
Basketball
At the Nova Scotia high school level during the 1980s, QEH was the most dominant high school team in the province, winning several provincial titles as well as other tournaments across Canada. Bob Douglas, who has become a local basketball coaching legend, headed the team. Douglas died in 2008, but his coaching success at QEH spanned three decades and he coached or influenced perhaps most of the best players that came from Nova Scotia over that period. In the 1980s alone, the QEH Lions won four consecutive provincial titles and Douglas was officially recognized by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The Nova Scotia high school league in general was very competitive, and by the midpoint of the 1980s, basketball had become the most popular sport for both girls and boys at the high school level.
Football
The QEH Lions football team had a storied history, and ranks amongst the most successful high school programmes in Canada. Head Coach Mike Tanner was the 1999 recipient of the NFL Canada Youth Coach of the Year Award. Tanner, a former QEH Lions player himself, also taught High School Physical Education throughout his career as head coach of the football team. Many other former Lions players also returned as coaches including Jeff Lawley, who coached defense from the 1990s until the programme was merged with that of Saint Patrick's at Citadel High. Queen Elizabeth Lions provincial football championships include:
Notable alumni
Reunions
Queen Elizabeth High School has hosted numerous successful reunions in its history and one final reunion, the "Last Chance Reunion" took place from July 27–29, 2007.