Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School

History

TASSS is named after Thomas Alexander Stewart (1786-1847). Thomas and his wife, Frances Browne Stewart (1794-1872), emigrated to Canada with their children and Thomas' brother-in-law and former business partner, Robert Reid, and his family. The party of 27 set sail from Belfast Lough on June 1, 1822. Seven weeks were spent on the ship before reaching Quebec. From Quebec they travelled to Kingston, and then on to York, where Stewart and Reid were each granted 1,200 acres (4.9 km²), provided they settled in an township. Douro Township in Peterborough County was suggested as a promising region. On September 9, 1822, Stewart and Reid travelled to the area with surveyor Richard Birdsall, and each chose land on the Otonabee River. Thomas and Frances developed their home, "Auburn," on Lot 2, Concession XII, raising a family of 10 children to adulthood and assisting other settlers. Thomas Stewart became a prominent and influential citizen in the area until his death in 1847 from typhoid fever.

The school opened in 1967 as Thomas A. Stewart Secondary School and Auburn Vocational School. The vocational school later closed. The office for Auburn became the guidance office, cafeteria became a dance studio, and the library became the head office for the Peterborough Regional Integrated Arts Program (PRIA). The integrated arts program moved to TAS in 2012 after the closing of PCVS.

Campus and facilities

The school is located on 29 acres (120,000 m²) bordering on the Otonabee River. TASS is a 219,238 sq. ft. building containing 59 classrooms. The auditorium can hold 800 students. It was designed by architects Craig, Zeidler and Strong to house between 1200 and 1400 students comfortably, but has held in excess of 1600 students during the early 1980s.

Indoors

Its indoor facilities include:

Outdoors

Outdoors, the school boasts:

Students

Students come from an equal mix of rural and urban homes. TAS has students from the communities of Ashburnham, Douro, Keene, Otonabee, Emily, and a small percentage from the Hiawatha Lake Reserve on the shore of Rice Lake. Approximately 74% of the students are bused to school.

Amigos Program

This high school project is designed to:

"At the beginning of class, I saw the disability first, now I see the person."

Amigos are students without disabilities. They are matched with students from Learning and Life Skills classes on the basis of mutual interests. The goal is to develop mutually satisfying friendships.

Amigos and students spend at least one hour a week together over the lunch hour - hanging out with friends, having lunch, attending a school activity, participating in whatever is going on. The whole group gets together once per month.

Amigos have the chance to make a difference in someone else's life, appreciate someone for who they are, and at the same time make their school a more inclusive, accepting place.

House system

A house system was established in 2004. There were originally 8 houses. This number was reduced to 4 houses at the beginning of the 2006-2007 school year. The house system was designed to create and encourage positive spirit at Thomas A. Stewart. The House program included activities in athletics, arts and academics. The house system was discontinued at the end of the 2008-2009 school year. However, the house system was re-established during the 2012-13 school year, following the integration with PCVS. They adopted the new houses from PCVS.

The four current ex.PCVS houses are:

The four original TASSS houses and their corresponding colours were:

Peterborough Petes

High-school age members of the Peterborough Petes Major Junior A Hockey Club attend the school. Some notable Petes who attended TAS include: