Canterbury High School is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board high school in the Elmvale Acres neighbourhood of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is an arts magnet school, and located at 900 Canterbury Ave. It serves 1304 students. While offering both an arts program and a general program, Canterbury is known primarily for the arts. The Arts Canterbury program began in 1983.HistoryThe school opened in 1969 as a comprehensive high school. It was the last in a series of ten high schools built by the Collegiate Board to deal with the baby boom. At the time of its opening it was considered an extremely modern school, employing all the latest ideas in education. Most notably, many of its walls were movable, allowing for an easy reorganization of space. It also had one of the largest libraries of any secondary school. From 1969 to 1976, Canterbury offered a technical programme based on Aerospace Technology. The shops offered Airframe, and other aviation based technical studies. Additionally, the school operated a 1969 Cessna 190J (CF-CHS) and a Schweitzer 2-33 glider(CF-ABE), providing unique opportunities to students. However, The Ottawa Board of Education eventually withdrew support of the concept due to liability issues.The school later, as a result of a specialized schools program became an arts magnet school.In spite of the focus on the arts, the school still maintains a strong athletics program which includes wrestling, rowing, swimming, volleyball, baseball, basketball, soccer, football, water polo, curling, ultimate frisbee, ice hockey, rugby and track and field. It has one of the broadest ranges of sports teams in the OCDSB.
