Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf


Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is a subsidized private, previously Jesuit French-language educational institution offering secondary school and college-level instruction in Quebec. It was originally a boys' school, became partially mixed in 1968 and, since 2014, opened its doors fully to girls.
The school is located at 3200 Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road in Montreal. Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is also a boarding school for college students wishing to reside at the college from Monday to Friday, and also during weekends.
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is commonly seen as one of the foremost schools in Quebec, and it has the seventh place in the Fraser Institute School Ranking as of 2020. In addition to government subsidies of roughly $4,500 per student every year, the school is able to maintain low tuition due to large class sizes.
With alumni Pierre Trudeau and Justin Trudeau, Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is the secondary education institution that has produced the most Canadian prime ministers in the country. It also was the alma mater of Quebec Premiers Robert Bourassa and Pierre-Marc Johnson, former Supreme Court of Canada justice Clement Gascon and of List of leaders of the [Official Opposition of Quebec|Leaders of the Official Opposition of Quebec] such as, André Boisclair and Pierre-Karl Péladeau.

History

Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf was founded by the Jesuits in 1928. The college was named after Catholic missionary and martyr Jean de Brébeuf. The college traces its origins to the merger of several institutions which became public ones in 1967, when the Quebec system of public colleges was created. Built in 1928, the campus was designed by Dalbé Viau and Alphonse Venne.
It began accepting girls for secondary 1 to 5 starting from 2013 because of a need of funding. However, boys' and girls' classes take place in separate parts of the college before secondary 5. The school has been secular since 1986.
On May 4, 2016, a college student celebration on campus got overly rowdy: smoke bombs were thrown into hallways and some classroom windows were broken.

Programs

Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf offers a number of two-year pre-university programs. Pre-university college degrees cover subject matter roughly equivalent to that of the additional year of high school given elsewhere in Canada in preparation for a chosen field of study in university.
Post-secondary students attending Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf can choose one of several programs of study, depending on the concentrations required for the university program in which they intend to pursue their studies. The college offers programs in Social Science, Literature & Communications, Health Science, Pure and Applied Science and Arts & Sciences.
In addition to the standard Diploma of College Studies, students in certain programs are also awarded a Sciences, Lettres et Arts diploma.
It is also possible for students who practice a musical instrument at a high level to pursue their collegiate studies at Brébeuf in either Social Science, Pure and Applied Science, Health Science or Literature and Communication while simultaneously completing a DEC in Music by using a "musique-études" formula with the École de musique Vincent-d'Indy. This college track is called Double DEC and takes an additional year to complete, making it possible to attend Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf for 8 years.
Subjects taught in the secondary part of the school include Mathematics, French, English, Ethics and religious culture, Gym, Art, Sciences, Geography and History. From secondary 1 to 4, three separate programs are offered to students: additional Sports, Latin, and Spanish. In secondary 5, in addition to the common core courses, students choose from a combination of two optional courses: either physics and chemistry or modern European history and 20th century history. Students must obtain a grade of 75% or above in science and mathematics in secondary 4 to be eligible for the science combination.
The secondary school curriculum has strong ties to the Cours classique, the long-standing education system that was used in Quebec prior to the creation of the current system in the mid-1960s. Most notably, the study of Latin and the emphasis on logic and rhetoric still present in Brébeuf's curriculum are evidence of these ties. Many extracurricular clubs are equally evidence of such ties : Ancient Greek, Debate, Rhetoric, Law and Theatre. The collegiate philosophy classes also root themselves in the Cours classique, being one of the closest classes to the original program.
Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf is widely regarded as one of the best and most prestigious secondary schools in Quebec. It has ranked number 1, tied with a few others, continuously for several years, and has consistently received high rankings from the Fraser Institute for academic achievement. It is also placed as one of the best schools in the entire country.
Athletics
The school is known for being very competitive in basketball, lacrosse, soccer and fencing, having won provincial titles in basketball and soccer several times and having many of its former students fence at international levels. The fencing coaches at the college include former Olympians Jean Marie Banos and Jacques Cardyn in sabre and épée, respectively. Olympic fencers who trained at Jean-de-Brébeuf include Shaul Gordon, Marc-Antoine Blais Bélanger, François Cauchon and Joseph Polossifakis.
The last successful Cup run for the Varsity Intercollegiate Soccer Team tracks back to 2023, with a dramatic win in a Penalty Shootout against historic rivals Collège André-Grasset. Headcoach René Sarr, assistant coach Luigi Michel Larose and 2023 MVP Tuan Quoc Tran who finished the season with over 20 goals can be proud of their feats. The school also competes at provincial and regional level hockey, volleyball, cheerleading, broomball, cross country running, badminton and rugby competitions. The school's lacrosse team has been in the finals for the four years it has played and has won the title three consecutive years.