OUR HISTORY

 

 

The Séminaire was founded in 1953 by the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart. At that time, the classical course was offered to boarders. In 1969, in accordance with the Law on Private Education, the institution was recognized as being of public interest by the Ministry of Education. A little later, in 1978, the Séminaire du Sacré-Coeur took a new direction and began to welcome external girls and boys from the region to offer them a complete secondary course. Spurred on by this major change, the SSC then underwent a decade of expansion with the construction of a new gymnasium, the construction of a new recreation hall and specialized premises for the arts and audiovisual, the addition of a stage and fitting out of a computer room (about twenty Tandy 1000s). It should be noted that it was in 1983 that the teaching of computer programming (in Basic) made its debut at the Séminaire!

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1988 marks the official launch of the Père Richard Fund created so that a young person who wishes to attend the school cannot be excluded for financial reasons.

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In the 90s, the Séminaire experienced a new phase of expansion marked by the addition of outdoor sports facilities and a new wing which included a state-of-the-art science laboratory, a well-equipped arts room, a conference room and a teaching support room. In 1996, the teaching of Spanish to all students from secondary 1 to 3 was added to the subject schedule.

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The closing of the boys' boarding school in 2001 marked the end of an era for the Seminary and the beginning of the new millennium. Indeed, in the 2000s, we witnessed the construction of a new wing including a second gymnasium and a multimedia conference room. The school also had an outdoor skating rink built on a concrete slab. In 2009, the Seminary won the Fraser Institute's Garfield Weston Award for Excellence in Education!

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A more difficult period followed, marked by the economic crisis of 2008, a demographic decline in the Laurentians and the Outaouais (among students of secondary school age) and challenges in organizing succession at the level of governance and school management. After having seen its clientele drop during the first part of the 2010s, the SSC launched vast renovation and educational renewal projects. It all started with the launch of the Sports Passion and World and Culture Study Programs in 2016. Between 2018 and 2019, the SSC is completely renovating 7 classrooms and several common areas to make them innovative learning spaces. These arrangements, combined with the deployment of a wireless network in the school, allow techno-pedagogies to make their entry into the SSC. All this propels the school to the rank of regional leader in terms of pedagogy and enrollment is on the rise again.

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In 2019, the Séminaire launched its program to welcome international students. Students from other countries enrich the student experience and contribute to giving SSC students experiences of openness to the world.

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In 2022, after 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SSC is launching a major fundraising campaign: $700,000 for the 70th anniversary of the Séminaire! Indeed, 2023 marks the school's 70th anniversary! Stay tuned, several other beautiful projects are in the pipeline!