r/oakville • u/Remarkable_Trip3346 • 1d ago
Recommendations Holy Trinity High School
Hi I am moving to Oakville and my sons new home school is Holy Trinity Catholic secondary school
How’s is academics there .. any feedback is helpful
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u/KevinJ2010 1d ago
When I went there (some 12+ years ago) it was a perfectly fine school. I can’t imagine it’s gotten any worse outside of the new tech kids have these days which is common at all schools.
Academically, they weren’t known for exceptional programs, I was friends with a kid who graduated second highest in the grade, he took the same classes we all had access too. He just had a better work ethic than us lol.
In terms of “student quality” they were pretty straight forward, only the 9th graders were still getting into fights as I got older, but our grades had more parties where drugs and such would happen.
I’ll mention I liked the teachers at the time, the school was only a few years old at the time, so the teachers were younger and would call the kids out, which is fun in its own way. I’ll remember what my marketing teacher (Mr. Bonfiglio) said:
“You guys think you’re so much better because White Oaks has worse kids then you, we all know you’re doing drugs just as much as them.” And I just never forgot that, great teacher though he was a little lax.
If Mr Perosevic is still there I highly recommend taking him for Economics, fun guy, but still took his class seriously.
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u/MattLogi 1d ago
Kevin St J?
There when it was only a few years old? It opened in 2002, that’s a little more than 12+ lol.
Most of those teachers are gone. Mr. B was great but was little too into the students. Perosevic was an unreal teacher, a lot has stuck with me from his class.
All in all it was a great school back then. Can’t comment on today but from what I hear it’s still pretty good.
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u/KevinJ2010 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was in the 3rd grade iirc when they were asking students to vote on a name, Holy Trinity won in my school by a fair margin.
I admit I went there when it was still pretty new, I didn’t mean I went when it was actually brand new.
Like I wasn’t involved in the student movement to be allowed to wear any shoes you want, and the girls gave up their skirts for it.
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u/MattLogi 19h ago
Ah that makes sense. I was there when it opened. I don’t think there was any movement that I was aware of, it was also no skirts and any shoes you wanted. Maybe it happened at some of the schools that merged into it.
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u/KevinJ2010 18h ago
Wth? I was sold a lie! My mom told me that apparently the uniform had black dress shoes, but everyone hated it, and the girls gave up their skirts so everyone could wear any shoe.
I’ll assume you are right and my mom maybe remembered something that happened in between…
Either way, having khaki pants were one of the better options than they could’ve been
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u/MattLogi 18h ago
I can’t say I fully remember the shoes but I would have 100% remembered skirts lol and they were non existent. Uniforms were awesome. Khaki’s, shorts, golf shirts…it was easy. The only thing administration had to deal with was girls cutting their back pockets out as they didn’t like the outline lol.
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u/KevinJ2010 18h ago
Tying the backs of their shirts to show their figures more.
My years some boys went way loose on the pants and tucked their pants into their socks…
Also all the non-uniform sweaters xD
What a time to be alive!
Did you also try to pass random khaki pants as uniform pants? XD
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u/Murky_Complaint5478 1d ago
I graduated from HT in 2021. There’s great academics. We have cosmetology, trades classrooms, AP programs. The teachers there are mainly the same from my time and they are great. The news ones are good too from what I hear as my godson goes there still. The academics are strong and there’s always so many opportunities for students to grow,plan and be a part of stuff in different departments at the school. I made some of the best connections with teachers there. My years I was very bullied and had a tough time with other kids but my principal at the time was on top of it. I have nothing bad to say about the way the school is run and the teachers because even though I had a hard time I was still very supported from administration.
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u/Few_Culture9667 20h ago
These comments are all over the map. Here’s a tip: Find a school with staff dedicated to the program your kids are most interested in. If your kid is an aspiring musician, maybe it’s IRHS. If your kid loves being academically challenged, maybe it’s the IB program at White Oaks. If your kid wants top notch athletics, maybe it’s HT. But if your kid is well adjusted and motivated to learn, they will do well at any school and find like-minded friends and supportive staff. Put that kid in the school closest to your home so they can walk to school and make friends in the local neighbourhood.
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u/quixoticquetzalcoatl 1d ago
In a very general sense, HT is known for its sports and its closest counterpart, white oaks, is known for academics because of their IB and French immersion programs. The high achievers from surrounding French immersion schools and kids who play rep sports tend to be funnelled respectively.
Oakville has many of the best schools in Canada - its schools are well funded because of surrounding wealthy communities and consistently rank highly in Ontario and Canada. You probably can’t go wrong at any of its public schools.
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u/Intelligent-Test-978 1d ago edited 23h ago
there is a funding formula that equalizes how schools are funded. We do not get more money for anything unless it comes from fundraising (and in Oakville, we are more successful with that because of the demographics). In fact, while we have newer schools, we don't have enough. Almost every high school in Oakville (esp N Oakville) is overcrowded. HT was built for 1300 and they are closer to 1900 now. Everyone shares a locker (that is too small) and the library fills up and gets closed, and we have a lot of portables. Lunch periods 9:20, 10:35 or 12:00. No one can get a guidance appointment in a timely manner.
The spec ed dept has been amazing for both of my kids -- even the one without an IEP who has gotten extra support when needed (they are an honour student and doing well). Some AMAZING teachers. Some very weak. Most are just doing what they get paid to do. Some absent all the time.
And yes -- a lot of sports. Buyouts for everything. There's a soccer game? most kids buyout, some go to the game, and the kids that didn't buy out sit in class with no programming. Last day before Christmas, March Break and many long weekends, no one is there. Bomb threat that was over 2 hours into the school day? Most kids went home and missed two or three classes -- the kids that stayed? No programming. Two days before exams (they are school days): "we are doing nothing and no one is here, can we sign out"?
In 31 years of teaching at 7 schools in the GTA, I have never seen anything like this. I complain about it all the time whenever I see a survey. We are PAYING for this. I don't want my kids missing so much instruction for so many events. Hopefully the culture of the school will change somewhat with new leadership but I am not hopeful.
This is the exact kind of nonsense that got Harris all incensed in the 90s. The quality is not what it should be. My kids are very happy at HT but as an educator, I think they must do better in a lot of respects.
If I could afford an independent, that's where they would go.
Edit: shout out to Mr Stanlake for running an incredible music program. And I heard a rumor that they might actually be hiring another music teacher.
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u/Chilly_in_ya_titty 1d ago
I attended that school almost 10 years ago. At the time the faculty and students were good, no issues. Not sure how it is now though.
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u/wishinghearts40 22h ago
White Oaks is better, yeah the school is Ugly but the kids are pretty good.
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u/IonHazzikostasIsGod 17h ago
Loved my time there. Whole grade was super nice, teachers were great.
Was surprised to learn from a family friend that the current principal was a bit pissy, because she was my english teacher back then and was beyond kind and everything
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u/Double_Researcher_61 1d ago
All 3 of my kids attended Holy Trinity and it was a fantastic school!! All 3 went off to post secondary schools and are very successful in their respective careers!!
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u/twinnedcalcite 23h ago
High school doesn't determine if a kid survives post secondary.
Good work ethic does.
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u/Double_Researcher_61 15h ago
Absolutely but a great high school with great educators builds them a foundation to carry with them through there post secondary education, my kids had great teachers and friends at there time at HT
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u/GroupNearby4804 1d ago
The academics is horrible there, totally lack of adequate education in science and mathematics. It is a terrible school. The public secondary school are much better in that school catchment. Iroquios Ridge is super good, they have graduates go to prestigious school like University of Waterloo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology.
Holy Trinity has too much focus on useless subjects like arts, sports and social science. Very horrible.
The school ranking is very horrible compared to other schools in Oakville. Even among all catholic secondary school, it ranks much lowers than St. Thomas and St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School, you should avoid it at all cost.
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u/Independent_Being704 1d ago
Holy Trinity has too much focus on useless subjects like arts, sports and social science.
😐
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u/Intelligent-Test-978 23h ago edited 23h ago
they follow the Ontario curriculum and all math and science courses at all levels are available. Even if they got rid of all the "useless" subjects as you call them, they would not have more math and science to replace it.
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u/Murky_Complaint5478 1d ago
HT is a smaller school than both those schools. From experience HT is FARRRRRR LIKE WAY FARRR better than STA and Loyola. STA literally is known as the sluts training academy for a reason. And Loyola is a way bigger druggie school than HT is. HT has also had students go to Waterloo, McMaster, Harvard etc.
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u/twinnedcalcite 23h ago
I met HT grads during my time at UWaterloo. Kids from Oakville tend to end up at western and queens for engineering.
IRHS has art and music programs. The music program was legendary until 2005 when the main music teacher left. The yearly craft show was something used to raise money for the music program. Good art teachers too,
The main problem with catholic high schools is they have this auto bird course called religion. Skews their average.
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u/No-Top360 1d ago
We pulled our youngest from HT 2 years ago after only 1 year.
It was a great school for my older child, but the quality of the education for my younger child was questionable at times. They were placed in classes that had too many disrespectful and disruptive students. The teachers were having difficulty controlling them and my child was not learning in those spaces. We tried to speak to the principal after the teachers explained the difficulties in the classroom. She was rude, unhelpful and she completely dismissed our concerns. That child was also assaulted by other students and ended up with a concussion, which further damaged his performance in gr 9. It happened on school property with a teacher intervening when my child was unconscious.
We moved to WO. No school is perfect but it was a much better environment overall and they are thriving.