Bishop Reding Catholic Secondary School


Bishop Paul Francis Reding Secondary School is a coeducational Catholic Secondary School in Milton, Ontario, Canada. The school offers grades nine through twelve and is run by the Halton Catholic District School Board.

History

Bishop Reding, commonly called BR or, occasionally, Reding, was founded in 1986. Its namesake is Bishop Paul Francis Reding, Bishop of the Hamilton Diocese for ten years and an ardent defender of Catholic education. The school was the first Catholic high school for Northern Halton. In 1994, the school participated in a 25-year HCDSB time capsule project, opened in 2019. In 2002, many of Bishop Reding's students were transferred to the new school in Halton Hills, Christ the King Catholic Secondary School, a change commemorated with a plaque in the BR Trophy Case. Similarly, in 2013, many BR students were redistricted due to a population swell in Milton, to Jean Vanier Catholic Secondary School. Milton MPP and Wynne Government Education Minister, Indira Naidoo-Harris, announced an $18 million extension to BR that would cut the number of portable classrooms down from 51 to 27, by the 2020-2021 school year. After it was temporarily cancelled by the Ford Government, Milton MPP Parm Gill announced that funding would be reallocated for the Bishop Reding expansion. Bishop Reding has been noted for their student involvement, notably holding walkouts protesting both the controversial HCDSB Sanctity of Life motion, organized by student leaders Karyssa Chan, Margaret Manangan, and Ashwini Selvakumaran, and the Ford Government's cuts to education and OSAP.

Athletics

Bishop Reding has a storied history of athletics programs, including but not limited to:
Bishop Reding's extracurricular clubs are notable and numerous.

BR DECA/Business Club

at Bishop Reding was founded by Ann Mathulla, with BR students quickly ascending to the Provincial and in Ann's case, the International level. In 2019, after over 3 years of drought, an unseen-before five students qualified for the DECA International Conference in Orlando, Florida, these five being the only five from the entire Halton Catholic District School Board to attend. Edward Ho, who placed in the top 10 for his event at Internationals in that year, became Co-President of the club. BR DECA goes hand-in-hand with the Business Club, founded in 2019 by Maria Mihu and Darshan Saraff, which raises funds and arranges sales, primarily to run the BR's Got Talent talent show.

Model UN

The BR Model UN club was founded by Nathan Duarte, and it participates in the Southern Ontario Model UN Assembly, hosted at the University of Toronto. Some BR Students, such as Crawford Bonk, received great accolades, winning Best Delegate for his Committee at the Assembly.

BR STEM Team

The BR Stem Team was founded by Meghan Mazer, and works to further studies of sciences, technology, engineering, and math at Bishop Reding and the feeder schools. In 2016, the Team held their first student-run conference at Bishop Reding. BR's STEM team is the envy of the Board, with clubs such as Corpus Christi's robotics team, Notre Dame's STEAM, and Jean Vanier's STEAM, being inspired by BR STEM. The current directors of STEM are Ethan Abraham and Veronika Sustrova.

''The Royal Register''

Although Bishop Reding has had a newspaper since its inception in 1986, for a long period there was no student publication. However, the BR Newspaper was revived as the Royal Register. Re-founded in 2018 by Ashvini Giridaran, the Royal Register was re-imagined as a primarily online publication, in light of ecological and practical concerns regarding a print newspaper. The current editors-in-chief of the Register are Ashvini Giridaran and Shanzey Ali.

''Bishop Reding Televised''

Bishop Reding Televised, often stylized as Reding TV or simply BRTV, is a video news series that recorded two episodes in 2019. Wildly successful, its first episode boasted over 1,700 views, the vast majority of BR students. A venture from Jayden Chan and Joshua Rivera, among others. The series was hosted by the Student Council Presidents, in their capacity as the PA Announcers. Due to technical difficulties and production issues, the show was put on indefinite hiatus.

Reach for the Top

Bishop Reding's Reach Team has operated for over 5 years. In the 2018-2019 year, under captains Aniketh Kothandaraman, and later, Captain Holla Smith, the Senior team successfully qualified for the Reach Provincial Competition. The official mascot of the team is James Bui, a fictional anime construct of an ideal reach competitor.

Notable alumni