St. Patrick's Catholic High School
Welcome to St. Patrick’s Catholic High School steeped richly in tradition not just in the Sarnia/ Lambton area but across the province of Ontario. This is the home of the ‘Fighting Irish’ for we are a school that stands up for what we believe and what we believe rests solidly on our Catholic faith for we abide that we are called to build a safe and inclusive Catholic learning community by living our faith.
Now in its fifth location in the city this is a school that fights to keep alight the flame of Catholic education at the secondary level. With its humble beginnings in 1935 on the top floor of Our Lady of Mercy School, St. Patrick’s began under the tutelage of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Moving to its new home on Essex Street and then later on Bright Street saw the amalgamation of St. Patrick’s and the former St. Patricia’s High School into one student body with the sisters now joined in staff by the Brothers of St. Louis. As the school grew in size including staff which included lay teachers, St. Patrick’s swelled in size requiring new accommodations. Moving for the fourth time, St. Patrick’s shifted to the vacant former Sarnia Central High School site in 1984 growing yet again to the point when there were more classes outside – in portable classrooms – than inside paving the way for a new Catholic high school in Sarnia Lambton – St. Christopher’s – which opened in the fall of 1996, establishing its own rich and valued traditions for 18 years. As conditions changed the decision came to amalgamate the two high schools. While renovations and new construction was underway, it brought together the students and staff of both schools at St. Patrick’s on East Street during the school year of 2014 – 2015. One year later, the big move was on again as St. Patrick’s, for the fifth time, found a new home on Rapids Parkway. The former St. Christopher’s building was completely refurbished, renovated, and updated and a new two-storey wing was added. St. Patrick’s fights on as it opened its doors to the ‘new’ school during the 2014- 2015 school year.
We are the staff that fights to educate all of our students. Offering a broad range of classes and classroom experiences, all the staff reaches out to all the students for we are a staff that has as its goal to promote educational achievement and innovation.
This the school that fights to foster stewardship, leadership and social justice. You will experience this on a daily basis in the way that we encounter each other throughout the day in the countless “Irish Moments” – acts of kindness. You will see this hundreds of times throughout the year as student leaders take on volunteer roles from mentoring fellow students to assisting local charities. You will experience this time and time again as students spread their concern for others in numerous ways including helping at the local soup kitchen to the extraordinary efforts canvassing the entire city twice yearly on food drives.
We are the Fighting Irish!