Cawthra Park Secondary School

Cawthra Park Secondary School, also known as CPSS, is a public high school built in 1972 located in Southeast Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is one of two regional arts schools in the Peel District School Board. Cawthra Park provides instruction to students from grades 9 to 12.

Cawthra Park Secondary School
Address
1305 Cawthra Road

Mississauga
,
Ontario
,
L5G 666

Canada
Coordinates43.576081°N 79.573497°W / 43.576081; -79.573497
Information
School typeProvincial, High school
Motto"Learning the art of Living...Living the art of Learning"
Founded1972
School boardPeel District School Board
SuperintendentPaul Da Silva
Area trusteeJohn Marchant
School number(905) 274-1271
PrincipalMarcia McCurdy-Fagan
Vice principalBarbara Gordon
Sian Evans
Grades9–12
Enrolment1,300 (Sept 2023)
LanguageEnglish
Colour(s)Purple, Orange and White    
MascotPanthers
Websitewww.cawthrapark.com

Cawthra Park offers a Regional Arts Program, which Peel students may audition to attend, and a mainstream option for locals students. CPSS is one of the few secondary schools in Mississauga with an active and operational public pool facility owned and operated by the City of Mississauga. Starting in 2023, a new pool aquatic program and facility will open at the Carmen Corbasson Community Centre (on the same land of the school) and Cawthra Park Pool will be decommissioned.

The principal is Marcia McCurdy-Fagan, and the vice principals are Barbara Gordon and Sian Evans as of October 2023.

Arts

Cawthra Park is home to Peel's Regional Arts Program (RAP), for which students audition to study music, dance, dramatic arts or visual arts. Approximately two-thirds of Cawthra's students are in the RAP program, with the remaining students coming from the local area.

Cawthra offers a Specialist High-Skills Major (SHSM) in Arts & Culture, allowing students to complete additional certifications and training.

Academics

In 2017–2018, the school exceeded provincial averages for both the EQAO and OSSLT test scores.[1]

Music

The music department has performed over the years at various venues, including mass at the Vatican City, onstage at Disney's Magic Kingdom, Austria, and for the former American ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins.

The music department runs many choral and instrumental ensembles, including Jazz Lab, Guitar Ensemble, Momentum, and the Junior and Senior Concert Bands. The Ritz, a concert choir with over 360 members, is the largest in North America.

In May and June 2013, the Cawthra Park Chamber Choir performed with The Rolling Stones in the Air Canada Centre.[2]

Every ensemble has achieved gold status at MusicFest, and has received awards at national competitions.

Dramatic arts

Cawthra's drama facilities include three studios and an auditorium that seats 667. Approximately sixty drama students are accepted per year. The program introduces its students to theatre production, musical theatre, and set and costume design.

The drama department produces the school's spring play and monitors the school's annual participation in the National Theatre School Drama Festival. The department also shares directorial responsibilities with its music and dance counterparts for the fall musical.

Visual arts

The visual arts department offers courses to students both in the art program as well as to students pursuing other disciplines. Courses include traditional, modern and post-modern art, desktop design, media arts and photography. The department also has ties to other departments at Cawthra Park such as fashion and communication technology.

During the annual Visual Arts SpringFest, the school is transformed into an art gallery. Senior visual arts students partake in an art-focused week-long class trip to New York City.

Dance

The dance curriculum includes ballet, modern dance, musical theater and jazz. Students are also required to study a theoretical curriculum that includes the history of dance, kinesiology, composition, criticism and social issues relating to the dance community such as eating disorders and arthritis. The department offers elective dance courses for students not enrolled in the dance program, and dance opportunities for all students. Major events for the dance department include Dance Springfest in early April and Dance Mosaix in late May.

Productions

The school also puts on a fall musical and a spring play annually.

Fall Musical Spring Play
2023-2024 Into The Woods
2022-2023 Something Rotten! Concord Floral
2021-2022 N/A (COVID-19 Pandemic) Something Rotten! (Spring Musical Showcase)
2020-2021 N/A (COVID-19 Pandemic) Matilda! (Online Spring Musical)
2019-2020 Chicago N/A (COVID-19 Pandemic)
2018-2019 Legally Blonde Our Town / Girls Like That
2017-2018 Billy Elliot[3] Hamlet
2016-2017 Guys and Dolls Sense & Sensibility
2015–2016 Hairspray Julius Caesar
2014–2015 Ragtime Summer and Smoke
2013–2014 The Drowsy Chaperone Macbeth[4]
2012–2013 The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee Agamemnon
2011–2012 Sweet Charity Leaving Home
2010–2011 The Scarlet Pimpernel Romeo and Juliet
2009–2010 Footloose[5] Mad Forest
2008–2009 Jesus Christ Superstar[6] The Miracle Worker
2007–2008 Cabaret Les Belles-sœurs
2006–2007 Merrily We Roll Along One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
2005–2006 West Side Story The Laramie Project
2004–2005 Into the Woods Doctor Faustus
2003–2004 The Sound of Music A Midsummer Night's Dream
2002–2003 Les Misérables A Streetcar Named Desire
2001–2002 Carnival! Auntie Mame
2000–2001 Godspell Dark of the Moon
1999–2000 The Apple Tree Servant Of Two Masters
1998–1999 N/A (Ontario Teachers Strike of '98–'99) N/A (Ontario Teachers Strike of '98–'99)
1997–1998 Once Upon A Mattress The Crucible
1996–1997 Guys and Dolls A Midsummer Night's Dream
1995–1996 Fiddler on the Roof Look Homeward, Angel
1994–1995 Oliver! Charley's Aunt
1993–1994 Pippin The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
1992–1993 The Pajama Game 1949
1991–1992 Into The Woods[7] Twelfth Night
1990–1991 Bye Bye Birdie Tartuffe
1989–1990 Cabaret You Can't Take It with You
1988–1989 Damn Yankees The Crucible
1987–1988 Sweet Charity[8] (performed in spring) Nurse Jane goes to Hawaii
1986–1987 Guys and Dolls[9] (performed in spring) Brighton Beach Memoirs
1985–1986 Oklahoma! Our Town
1984–1985 Annie The Pajama Game°
1983–1984 Grease Fiddler on the Roof°
1982–1983 Oliver! Li'l Abner°
1981–1982 Take Me Along°∆ Waiting For The Parade∆
1980–1981 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Carousal°
1979–1980 Macabaret Oliver!°
1978–1979 I Remember Mama Sweethearts°
1977–1978 Guys and Dolls A Gift of Song°
1976–1977 Grease Blossom Time°

° = These musicals were performed by the Clarkson Musical Theatre at the school in spring (and not students) before the tradition of the spring play came into place.

∆ = The school choose to delegate the fall spot to the Clarkson Music Theatre for their musical so they could instead prepare the school's first attempt at a spring play.

The above list was compiled by Daniel Lis ('14) by collecting information from yearbooks available in the school's library.

Athletics

Sports teams at Cawthra Park include both boys and girls basketball, golf, swimming, volleyball, table tennis, badminton, ultimate frisbee, soccer, tennis, hockey, cross country, track & field teams, and a boys' baseball team. Unlike many high schools, Cawthra is known for not having a tackle football team.[10]

The 2012 Cawthra Panthers Ultimate Frisbee team in their second season reached the ROPSSAA finals, placing second to John Cabot SS[11]

Notable alumni

See also

References
  1. "Cawthra Park Secondary School".
  2. "Rolling Stones to rock with Mississauga choir". cbc.ca. 24 May 2013.
  3. "BWW Feature: BILLY ELLIOT at Cawthra Park Secondary School".
  4. "Student play channels Macbeth as tormented Canadian soldier". mississauga.com.
  5. "GTA can't get enough of Footloose". thestar.com. 23 November 2009.
  6. "Superstar". Archived from the original on 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
  7. "Preview unavailable". ProQuest. ProQuest 436515019.
  8. "Preview unavailable". ProQuest. ProQuest 435737309.
  9. "Preview unavailable". ProQuest. ProQuest 435545212.
  10. "Teams - Cawthra Physed". sites.google.com.
  11. "Cawthra Clips Summer 2012" (PDF). schools.peelschools.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-04-21.
  12. queen, official; Freddie Mercury; Brian May; Roger Taylor; John Deacon. "Erica Peck Returns To WWRY Toronto". queenonline.com.
  13. "Erica Peck is older, wiser but still rocking". thestar.com. 1 May 2014.
  14. "Former "bad boy" named to prestigious Top 20 Under 20 list". utm.utoronto.ca.
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