School Life
The school mascot is a bear. Sports teams at St. Paul were originally known as the St Paul Bears, but in the early 1990s that name gradually transitioned into the Golden Bears, a name which continues to exist today.
St. Paul has become well known for its arts productions, most notable of which is the major dramatic performance which takes place towards the end of each year, and usually requires the majority of the school year before that to prepare. Performances over the years have included You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, 1873: The Farmer's Revolt, Beaver Tales, Anne of Green Gables, Jitters, Dracula: The Musical?!, But Why Bump Off Barnaby, Little Shop Of Horrors, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and many more. Recently, the school performed a Canadian play, "Unity 1918", capturing the post-war Spanish Flu epidemic in Western Canada. The production won awards for Comic Actress in a Play (Stephanie Fields) and Ensemble in a Play (Caleigh McEachern and Anne Charbonneau) at the 2005-2006 Cappies Awards. During the 2007-2008 year, the school put on a production of Annie Weisman's "Be Aggressive." The school's performance of Unity 1918, capturing the post-war Spanish Flu epidemic in Western Canada won awards for Comic Actress in a Play (Stephanie Fields) and Ensemble in a Play (Caleigh McEachern and Anne Charbonneau) at the 2005-2006 Cappies Awards. The school also received a cappies award in 2008-2009. For best ensemble (Hilary Smith, and Clancy Adami) the play they performed was Arsenic and Old Lace. Other credits include: Jeremy Sanders as Reverend Harper, Natalia Chiarlelli as Off. Klein and Skylor Cloutier as Mr. Witherspoon.
Starting in the early nineties, students at St. Paul started making trips to the Dominican Republic to provide help to people in need there. Starting in the 1994-1995 school year, it began as a yearly event. Approximately 10 students and 2 teachers spent months prior to the March departure learning Spanish, fund raising and getting prepared for the experience. In 1995, students started Casa Cafe, which was a fundraiser organized and operated by the students.
The group would travel for two weeks, landing in Santo Domingo - the capital of the Dominican Republic, and then traveling to San Jose de Ocoa to work in the rural farmland. Some of the jobs worked on by students includes: building a school, building and painting homes, and working on an irrigation/water system. Students initially lived with families (prior to 1995), but it was considered safer for students and teachers to live as a group. Often the students and teachers would stay in a school or church.
Following a week in the mountainous region of the Dominican Republic, the group would travel to Quisqueya where they spent time interacting with the church community and visited the bateyes (villages where the Haitian sugar cane workers live). The students also picked sugar cane and helped load it onto trucks.
Over the years students have raised tens of thousands of dollars and have brought down medical and school supplies. Each year, upon their return, students would put on a multi-media presentation to show the St Paul community the work that they have done.
In recent news, St. Pauls has applied to be an Arts Major High school which would commence next year. The specialties would include intense study on dramatic arts, theatre tech, computer design and music. For the first time this year, the grade 7&8s participated in a production of "High School Musical".
The catholic school board also recently finished their production of "Once Upon a Mattress". The production is cast with all the students in the catholic school bored and also introduces the talent of the elementary school choirs. The show received positive reviews for its sound, lighting, sets and costumes.
Read more about this topic: St. Paul High School (Ottawa)
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