Our School
At Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School, we are called to celebrate and nurture the God-given talents of each student as we serve with excellence in the light of Christ. We recognize our call to love and serve from our Master teacher Jesus Christ, and we are committed to creating a Catholic learning community under the protection of Mother Mary.
The Catholic Graduate Expectations are our foundation as we strive for academic excellence and the acknowledgement of those who achieve it. We recognize God as the source of all life and actively work to focus on social issues within our local and global communities.
We celebrate the diversity within our community with a collaborative approach to learning, in cooperation with parents, the Catholic faith community, and other organizations that recognize the value of our mission. Within the context of Catholic teaching and Sacramental living, our school community strives to demonstrate respect and reverence for all life, thus nurturing a safe, Christian environment for the entire school community.
Our mission - Charity Wisdom Harmony
In the Gospel of John it is written that Jesus said to the disciples, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples..." Inherent in this commandment is the earlier instruction from Jesus to love God and to love your neighbour as you love yourself.
We at Notre Dame will seek to foster this acceptance of the Gospel message through a life which accepts the challenge to be charitable (caritas) and to seek wisdom (sapientia) and harmony (concordia). We at Notre Dame accept that our community extends far beyond the walls of our building. Our goal is to reach and serve the broader Ajax community be it through the contribution our students can make via excellence in academics or through Catholic Christian community service. The staff at Notre Dame will be committed to fostering in our students a 'love of neighbour' by continually encouraging them to serve others; the less able, those in need, the senior community. Our goal will have been reached if all of our graduates can say that they leave us as "persons for others".
Philosophy
As Catholic educators, we live according to our Father's code and to lead our students, by example, to live the basic truths of the gospel message. This is an awesome, yet inspiring challenge which we share with the parents of our young men and women.
Children learn what they live. Each day we have the opportunity to teach our students:
- to love by the way we love;
- to be generous by our generosity;
- to be passionate by our compassion; and
- to be forgiving by the way we forgive.
However, a person cannot give what he or she does not have. Unless we are living the Gospel message, we cannot lead our students to do so.
There are many hallmarks of a Catholic educator, including:
- Prayer - The challenges of our vocation, and indeed life in general, are great. To meet them we need to follow Christ's advice that we "ask the father in My name". Each Catholic educator has a duty to expose students to his or her particular style of prayer in order to assist students to recognize the value of prayer in daily life.
- Eucharist - Parish, school, and staff liturgies provide opportunities to celebrate our faith. Our example can testify to the Eucharist as a joyful source of strength and community building.
- Social Justice - This is the heart of the Christian message, that we "love one another as I have loved you". As our brother's and sister's keepers, we must be concerned about the aged, the poor, the oppressed, and any other marginalized group - both at home and abroad.
