Brief History of Holy Name of Mary Catholic Secondary School
Holy Name of Mary reflects the vision of the Felician Sisters. They started the school on September 7, 1964 with one class of grade 9 and one class of grade 10 students. A few students who were aspiring to become nuns lived on the third floor of the school and were members of these classes.
The Felician Sisters were not only owners of the building, but the teachers, secretaries, receptionists and custodians of the school. The closely knit community of Holy Name of Mary can be attributed to these early beginnings as the sisters, through their hard work and devotion, impressed upon the young minds in their care the deeper meaning of life, the importance of each person and encouraged the students to strive to attain their greatest potential. They made a conscious effort to listen and respond to the needs of these students. They were totally devoted to the school and gave their time in service to the school community. It is this tradition that makes Holy Name of Mary a school with a difference.
The Parent Guild (now the Holy Name of Mary School Council) helped to provide the equipment the sisters could not afford to purchase.
The sisters were very conscious of the need to use the facilities at Holy Name to its fullest, and so St. Joseph’s High School rented some space and bussed their grade 9 students here for two years. St. Paul’s also used this school to house their grade 7 students for a period of two years.
As the number of students increased, lay teachers were hired. In September 1971, Holy Name of Mary joined the Dufferin-Peel R.C.S.S. Board and offered Grade 9 and 10 programmes. In 1983 the sisters gave up their living quarters on the first and second floors of the school to facilitate the growth in the school. In the spring and summer of 1985 they were converted to classrooms.
The last Felician sister to teach at Holy Name of Mary was in 1998 but the school community continued to feel their presence in the school community which grew to 875 students with a wide range of academic offerings.
In September 2008, Holy Name of Mary Catholic Secondary School moved to Brampton. Here in Brampton we have continued in the Felician tradition of a single gender school with high academic expectation for all of our students. We are also enjoying the warm welcome from the Brampton community as we grow and establish our new traditions with God blessings.