Governor Simcoe Secondary School


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 (musical)|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 , formerly known as the FIRST Chairman's Award. The submitted awarded them a blue banner, a ten year auto-qualification term into the FIRST Championship, and induction into the .
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 , 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.
YearRobot NameFIRST Robotics Competition GameCode ReleaseCAD Release
2011Simbot SteveLogo Motion
2012Simbot JordanRebound Rumble
2013Simbot B.A. BaracusUltimate Ascent
2014Simbot EvolutionAerial Assist
2015Simbot SideswipeRecycle Rush
2016Simbot SentinelFIRST Stronghold
2017Simbot AliFIRST Steamworks
2018Simbot SmokescreenFIRST Power Up
2019Simbot SnowstormDestination: Deep Space
2020Simbot SiakamInfinite Recharge
2022Simbot SureshotRapid React
2023Simbot ScizorCharged Up
2024Simbot SkyfallCrescendo
2025Simbot SuzukiReefscape

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.