London Central Secondary School

London Central Secondary School is located at the corner of Dufferin Avenue and Waterloo Street in downtown London, Ontario. It is a member of the Thames Valley District School Board. It has approximately 1000 students in full attendance, ranging from grades nine to twelve. The school mascot is the Golden Ghost.

Being the oldest school in the city, Central has a history that can be traced back to a Grammar School of 1826-1926 near the forks of the Thames River. When this Grammar School became too small, a Union School was erected. The Union School was renamed Central School in 1865; however, the school was razed in 1890 when other schools were able to accommodate Central students.

London Collegiate Institute was constructed on its present site in 1877; the school was destroyed by fire in 1920.

In 1922, the new London Central Collegiate Institute was officially opened. It was enlarged in 1962 and again in 1968. Central celebrated its centennial in 1977. Construction of an addition including new weight room, elevator and conference room was completed in August 1993. Further extensive renovations took place during 1995-1996 which fully modernized Central’s building, made it mostly wheelchair accessible, and incorporated a school-wide computer network for students. The school's gym has recently been renovated, replacing the original tile flooring with hardwood. Instead of just taking out the old floor and putting the new one in, the school ran into a dilemma. The old tile flooring was literally the ceiling for the basement. So instead, they placed the new wood flooring over the old tile flooring making it look as if they did in fact remove the tiles. Once the school found out they were putting the new floor over the old, students and teachers came into the gym at random times throughout the day, and drew messages to a late student, Alex Vlach, who had died from cancer earlier in the year.

From 1979 until 1999, London Central was the host to the Module scolaire de langue française (MSLF) - the first public French first language high school in London, Ont. Before the 1998-1999 school year, the MSLF became École secondaire Gabriel-Dumont and it moved into a new Le Centre Desloges (CDL) for the start of the 1999-2000 school year. Until the move the students in the MSLF had been fully integrated in life at Central, participating as Golden Ghosts in music, drama and sports. Students from the MSLF were often elected to Central students’ council, including student council president.

London Central has a long tradition as being one of the strongest public high schools in the country. Central's Reach for the Top team has won the national championships in two of the past three years. The music program is nationally recognizable, with both wind, string, and jazz ensembles placing in the top three in provincial competitions. Additionally, the Senior Jazz Ensemble has earned Gold Standings at the National MusicFest on numerous occasions. London Central was recently ranked the number one public high school in the province of Ontario, based on standardized test scores.