First Avenue Public School

First Avenue Public School is an elementary school in Ottawa, Ontario Canada. Built in 1898 it is one of only three survivors of a group of school houses built in Ottawa in the late nineteenth century. The nearby Mutchmor Public School being another. The building is today an officially designated heritage structure. A classic example of institutional architecture from the period it was designed by Edgar L. Horwood. It is in the Richardson Romanesque style. In 1907 a third storey was added to the structure. In 1980 the Ottawa Board of Education threatened to close the school and tear it down, but protests by parents in the area caused it to remain open. Instead, funds were granted for it to be renovated, and a gymnasium and a library were built at the rear. It is located in The Glebe neighbourhood at the corner of First Avenue and O'Connor. The rear of the building looks out upon Patterson Creek, where students take field trips in the winter to skate. The school is home to about 550 students, almost all of whom are enrolled in Early French immersion, except for the English junior kindergarten programme that is offered.the school has almost 40 teachers. The school is also home to a bilingual program. First Avenue has recently been twinning with Kagoua School in Mali, and having fundraisers to support them. In EQAO testing for the grades 3 and 6, First Avenue Public School used to be within the top 60 schools in the province, but test results have sharply declined since. The school did place in a list for 2007 based on 'Overall Academic Achievement' based on results from historically recent data.