John Oliver Secondary School


John Oliver Secondary School is a public secondary school located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, at East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street. It is named after John Oliver, the Premier of British Columbia from 1918 to 1927. The school is composed of four main segments: the main building containing the bulk of the learning areas, including the Auditorium and Learning Commons; a wooden building affectionately nicknamed "The Barn", due to its appearance, which is closed but was previously used by the mini school and Digital Immersion students; a Drama Studio which allows for several theatre and acting courses; and a concrete building — the engineering building — bisected by a breezeway, with automotive, metal, and wood shops.

Current

John Oliver Secondary is a school of approximately 1150 students attending grades Eight to Twelve with nearly 70 teachers. The students participate in many extracurricular activities including Music, Sports and Clubs.
The school has a multicultural student population, with a large number of bilingual students. Although the predominant populations are reflective of the Indo and Filipino-Canadian neighbourhood it resides in, many other ethnic backgrounds are represented in the school's population.

History

The school was originally called South Vancouver High School and began in 1912 as two surplus classrooms on the grounds of Lord Selkirk Elementary at 22nd Avenue and Commercial Street. The following year, when enrolment jumped from 58 to 148, the high school students moved to General Gordon School, which is today known as Sir Sanford Fleming Elementary, located at 49th Avenue and Knight Street. Enrolment continued to increase and a site for a purpose-built high school was chosen near 41st Avenue and Fraser Street, adjacent to the South Vancouver municipal hall and fire station. South Vancouver's first, stand-alone high school was built in 1920, and was opened on January 21, 1921 by its new namesake, the Honourable John Oliver, then Premier of BC. By 1926, the enrolment of the school was over 900, and a second building with an additional 8 rooms was built to the west of the main building, on 43rd Ave. This new building, now called "The Barn", is still in existence today. The main part of the current school building was erected in 1950 on 41st Avenue, with the subsequent addition and expansion of technical studies shops, cafeteria and music wing during the following years. The original building burnt down on December 9, 1959.

Programs and course offerings

John Oliver has hosted many events and productions annually.
John Oliver offers a wide variety of team sports held over the school year, usually with several separate teams for junior, senior, male, and female categories. This list is not exclusive. Teams offered are dependent on student sign up and coaches availability.
John Oliver has a very strong student community. Part of this student community are the extra-curricular clubs and their teacher sponsors.
American comedy-drama film, What Goes Up starring Hilary Duff, Josh Peck and Steve Coogan was filmed in John Oliver.
Gym interior and outdoor scenes in American teen drama television series, Riverdale were filmed in and outside John Oliver.

2009 website implementation

In the Fall of 2009, the school's main website was re-designed using the Open-source Content Management System, Joomla. The new website includes an often updated Photojournalistic photo gallery which displays photos of current and past events. The new website also contains "Teacher Blogs", Individual WordPress Blogs that teachers can collaborate and post assignments for students and parents to access. Starting in 2010, the Open-source digital learning environment Moodle and an in-school email system utilizing Google Apps were also implemented. Mr. Zhi Su, a teacher and the technology department head, has led the implementation and training process.