Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School
Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School (sporadically known as Loretto Abbey CSS, LACSS, Loretto Abbey, LAT, Loretto Abbey Toronto or Abbey) is an all-girls Catholic secondary school in Hogg's Hollow neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established by the Loretto Sisters in 1847, it is one of Toronto's oldest educational institutions and is part of the Toronto Catholic District School Board (then the Metropolitan Separate School Board) since 1987. Loretto Abbey operates on the non-semestered system offering Advanced Placement, academic and applied courses; approximately 85% of the school's courses are offered at the academic level, educating girls to university-entrance standards. The school offers co-operative education, extended French, Advanced Placement programmes and special education (resource and gifted). History The school was established as an all girls private school in 1847 by Irish Sisters of Loreto (also known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as IBVM, founded in France by the Venerable Mary Ward, an English recusant, in 1609). Ward advocated excellent education for young women, which has always formed part of the ethos of Loretto schools. The Loreto Sisters arrived in Toronto from Rathfarnham, Ireland, in 1847 at the invitation of Michael Power, the first Roman Catholic bishop of Toronto. The school was named after their previous home of Loreto Abbey near Dublin. The first superior of the Toronto community and principal of the school was Mother Teresa Ellen Dease, I.B.V.M. Originally located on Duke Street, Loretto Abbey moved to a Bathurst Street site and then to Bond Street in 1860. In 1867 the school relocated to the former mansion of Attorney General Robert Sympson Jameson on Wellington Street. In 1927, the school moved to its current home, a Collegiate Gothic Tudor style building on Mason Boulevard by architects Findlay and Foulis. The school is attached to Loretto Abbey, the motherhouse of the Loretto Sisters in Canada. At one time, the Mason Boulevard building housed boarders and a private primary school in addition to the secondary school. The primary school, which was also run by the Loreto Sisters resident in the attached convent, closed in 1985. Loretto Abbey under MSSB/TCDSB rule (1967–present) In 1967, at the request of the Ontario Bishops, students in Grades 9 and 10 were placed under the Metropolitan Separate School Board and no longer had to pay tuition. Fees were still charged for Grades 11–13. In 1984, the Ontario government began funding the last three years of high school and the Abbey role as a private school was abolished. On January 1, 1998, the MSSB became the Toronto Catholic District School Board. In 2011, the Loretto Sisters agreed to a sale of the entire Abbey to the TCDSB, with the exception of the infirmary, and this will greatly increase the space available for classrooms and other facilities. The sale to the school board preserves one of the oldest Catholic schools in Canada. Toronto City Council intends to designate the lands and buildings known municipally as 101 Mason Boulevard (Loretto Abbey), under Part IV, Section 29