L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute

L'Amoreaux Collegiate Institute (or L'Am for short) is a public high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada founded in 1973. It is located in the L'Amoreaux neighbourhood of the former suburb of Scarborough. Originally part of the Scarborough Board of Education, it is now consolidated into the Toronto District School Board. In 2020, the school had an enrolment of 439 representing 46% of its 957 total capacity. The number of students at L'am for whom English is an additional language is more than double the provincial average (60% vs. 23%) as is the number of students who are new to Canada from a non-English speaking country (10% vs. 5.1%). The area feeding the school also contends with an over-representation of children from lower-income households at (30% vs ~18%). Despite these challenges, 81% passed the Grade 10 literacy test on their first attempt in 2021-2022; essentially identical to the provincial average. The motto of the school is "Freedom with Responsibility".

History
The ultimate origins of L'Amoreaux Collegiate date back to 1868 when S.S. No. 1 opened what later became L'Amoreaux Public School. Located in the northwestern L'Amoreaux neighbourhood, S.S. No. 1 was located on the northeastern corner of Finch and Birchmount. It was demolished in 1970 to eliminate intersection jog. The date stone is now in the foyer of Silver Springs Public School.

The collegiate itself, designed by the noted Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama, was constructed in 1971 and opened on 4 September 1973 on Bridletowne Circle, just northeast of Warden and Finch, as Scarborough's sixteenth collegiate and twenty-first high school. Its distinctive architecture, (arguably postmodern ) and interior design, includes a large, tiered Central Market Square later named after Rollit J Goldring, the first principal of the school, instead of the standard auditoriums of similar-sized facilities which tend to be largely unused. The interior design makes use of Moriyama's trademark angular interiors made of concrete, and hallways which feature generous use of colour to set off 'neighbourhoods'. The school hallway appeared in the rock band Rush's 1982 video for the single "Subdivisions".

Campus
L'Amoreaux Collegiate has 161,512 sqft of space located in 15 acres. It is a 2-story school with classrooms on the lower floor and the main office in the second. There are around 24 classrooms, six science labs, three art rooms, three music rooms, five computer laboratories (including a communications technology laboratory), four vocational shops for technical design and construction, the Rollit J. Goldring Market Square, a cafetorium with a stage, four gymnasia with the larger one having the ability to be portioned into two with the smaller gyms built in between, a 25m swimming pool shared with the city, the main office and guidance offices located on the second floor, and the 400m standard track and football/soccer field. There are two small portables and one large portapak (Adult ESL Center). The school hallways and lockers have distinctive accent colours of red, yellow, green and blue moving from the front (South) of the school to the back (North).

Houses
From the 2017-2018 school year, students are in one of four houses selected randomly at the start of the year: Incendium, Pelagus, Telluris and Zephyrus (Latin for the four elements). Siblings are grouped in the same house to avoid any rivalry. The original 'House system' comprised: Edwards, Kennedy, Purcell, Tomlinson, Scadding and White with yearbooks organized accordingly. According to an article by Carol Tennant in L'Amoreaux Life, a community newspaper, at least five of the original houses were named after well-known local ministers, teachers, land donors and farmers.

Specialist High Skills Major Programs
L'Amoreaux is one of the schools in the TDSB, which offers three Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) programs, and offers programs in Business and Finance, Information and Communication Technology, as well as Health and Wellness. Students enrolled in SHSM receive an extra seal with their diploma.

Extended French and Spanish
L'Amoreaux offers the Honors Extended French Programs, in which students on the Extended French track can graduate with a bilingual certificate. Spanish is also offered.

Robotics engineering
L'Amoreaux is one of the few schools that offers a robotics course as well as the club. Students in the course learn about engineering and the engineering process, robot systems and programming, and robots in society. Robotics engineering is a project-based course and assignments include building two VEX EDR Robots, which are entered into the worldwide VEX Robotics Competition. Students in the course also help build the FIRST Robotics Competition robot.

Sports
Sports at L'Amoreaux currently include: Badminton (girls), Basketball (boys), Basketball (girls), Cricket (mixed), Cross Country (mixed), Dragon Boat (mixed), Field Hockey (girls), Soccer (boys), Soccer (girls), Swimming (mixed), Volleyball (boys), Volleyball (girls)

Clubs
Clubs at L’Amoreaux currently include: Athletic Council, Black Student Alliance, Boyz to Men, Chess Club, Christian Fellowship, Debate Club, Drama, Equity and Student Advocacy, Formal Committee, Girl Talk, L’Amoreaux Pride LGBT+, L’Amoreaux Prefects (formerly PALS), LESS, Model United Nations, Muslim Student Association, Music Council, Radio L’Am, Robotics, School Action Team, Student Activity Council, United Cultures @ L’Am, Yearbook.

Notable alumni

 * Charlie Angus: author, journalist, broadcaster, musician and politician. Formed the band L'Etranger while at L'Am.
 * John Anderson: Former NHL player with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Hartford Whalers and Quebec Nordiques. Later IHL, AHL and NHL coach
 * Joel Brough: Field Hockey player: World University Games (1991), Summer Olympic Games (Barcelona, 1992), Pan American Games (1995)and two world championships.
 * Paul Humphrey: Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, lead singer for the 1980s Canadian New Wave band Blue Peter.
 * Dan Gallagher: Canadian broadcaster, DJ/VJ and co-founder of Radio L'am.
 * Tracy Lamourie: activist, celebrity publicist
 * Sandra Levy: Olympic field hockey player (1988, 1992), sports ambassador and African Canadian Achievement Award of Excellence winner
 * Alvin Leung: "Demon Chef" on MasterChef Canada TV show.
 * Maestro Fresh Wes: hip hop artist and producer
 * Behn Wilson: Former NHL defenseman for 9 seasons with the Chicago Black Hawks and Philadelphia Flyers.
 * Ellen Wong: actor