Governor Simcoe Secondary School, named after John Graves Simcoe, is a public high school in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is a three-floored school with a theatre attachment. It opened in 1971. It was the first open concept high school in the Niagara Peninsula; the open concept has since been replaced with individual classrooms.
Theatre In 1995, the Grantham Theatre was added to the east end of the school. While originally designed to seat 1000 people, due to budget constraints, it was only built to seat 500.
The school has had its own productions of musicals. In 2017, students performed Beauty and the Beast. 66 students were a part of the cast. In 2019, students performed Into the Woods. The musical production for the year of 2025 was Freaky Friday.
Robotics The school currently has a FIRST Robotics Competition robotics team, registered as Team 1114 - Simbotics. The team was initiated in 2003 along with that years robotics season game being launched, Stack Attack. In 2012, the team won the FIRST Impact Award, formerly known as the FIRST Chairman's Award. The video submitted awarded them a blue banner, a ten year auto-qualification term into the FIRST Championship, and induction into the FIRST Hall of Fame.
Some notable team events include 2017 when two students on the team were photographed with the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. In 2022, they won the FIRST Robotics Ontario Provincial Championship and then moved on to compete in Houston, Texas.
Robot History Throughout the years, since documented from 2011 on the Simbotics website, the team has continued to name their robots with the prefix of "Simbot". This notable prefix has lasted for over the past decade and is paired along with a majority of the robot names starting with the character "S".
Although most bind by this rule, there are a handful of robots on Simbotics that are named not following this rule to tribute to the passing of team members, are a notable figure in society at the time, or are more fitting for the robot name for the year. + Team 1114 - Simbotics Robot History Year Robot Name FIRST Robotics Competition Game Code Release CAD Release 2011 Simbot Steve Logo Motion 2011 GrabCAD 2012 Simbot Jordan Rebound Rumble 2012 GrabCAD 2013 Simbot B.A. Baracus Ultimate Ascent 2013 GrabCAD 2014 Simbot Evolution Aerial Assist 2014 GrabCAD 2015 Simbot Sideswipe Recycle Rush 2015-Simbot-Sideswipe 2015 GrabCAD 2016 Simbot Sentinel FIRST Stronghold 2016-Simbot-Sentinel 2016 GrabCAD 2017 Simbot Ali FIRST Steamworks 2017-Simbot-Ali 2017 GrabCAD 2018 Simbot Smokescreen FIRST Power Up 2018-Simbot-Smokescreen 2018 STEP File 2019 Simbot Snowstorm Destination: Deep Space 2019-Simbot-Snowstorm 2019 GrabCAD 2020 Simbot Siakam Infinite Recharge 2020-Simbot-Siakam 2022 Simbot Sureshot Rapid React 2022-Simbot-Sureshot 2022 OnShape 2023 Simbot Scizor Charged Up 2023-Simbot-Scizor 2023 OnShape 2024 Simbot Skyfall Crescendo 2024-Simbot-Skyfall 2024 OnShape 2025 Simbot Suzuki Reefscape
Athletics In 2014, students from Governor Simcoe won 11 medals in provincial championships for the Special Olympics.
The school has a football team with mixed grade students. In 2022 and 2023, the team made it to the regional semifinals.
Incidents In 2019, an 18 year old student went missing. The school honoured him in their graduation ceremony for that year and gave the Ontario Secondary School Diploma to his family. He was later found dead. Foul play was not suspected.
In 2023, a teacher was charged with sexual assault of a student.
See also Education in Ontario List of secondary schools in Ontario
References
External links Official website Simbotics, the robotics team website