Auburn Drive High School

Auburn Drive High School (ADHS) is a secondary school located in Cole Harbour, Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It serves students from grades 10 to 12. Auburn's feeder schools include Astral Drive Junior High School and Graham Creigton Junior High School. Its elementary feeder schools are Astral Drive Elementary School, Colby Village Elementary School, Caldwell Road Elementary, Joeseph Giles Elementary, Humber Park Elementary and Bell Park Academic Centre. In 2011, Auburn ranked 4th with a grade of B+ on the AIMS list.

History

Auburn Drive High school was opened in 1994. The school has approximately 900 students from grades 10-12. Their gym is at the centre of the school with all the classrooms surrounding it. A popular place in which students hang out is known as "the pit", an area beside the gym. The cafetorium combines a lunch place and auditorium for students. Auburn is known by local schools for its spirit and enthusiasm, as well as participation in sports and events

Auburn Drive is an unofficial rival of the nearby high school, Cole Harbour District High. Notable students of Auburn Drive include Cherry Brook's Gary Beals who was the first runner up in the first season of CTV's "Canadian Idol", folk-rock singer Matt Mays, and NHL player Alex Tanguay.

Courses

Auburn Drive offers a number of diverse courses. They have a French Immersion program allowing students to graduate with their French certificate. They offer a number of AP (advanced placement courses) and the O2 program (Options and Opportunities) courses which take students to the workplace to get hands on experience. A number of math and English courses are available as well as other courses including; Biology, chemistry, physics, autobody, accounting, housing and design, print, food science, Mikmaq, Canadian history, child studies, family studies, Art, Applied Broadcast Journalism and many others.

Arts

Auburn has a great arts program, with courses such as drama, music vocal, band, drumline, Film and Video and visual arts. Auburn has put on a number of musical theatre productions such as Grease, The Wizard of Oz, Cabaret, Les Misérables, Into the Woods and Fiddler on the Roof, as well as the theatrical production of The Love of Three Oranges. Auburn has also performed on the opening night in the main theatre of the local high school drama festival, dramafest, for many years. Auburn's drama program is excellent, and every drama 12 class performs a puppet show at the local elementary schools to help teach the kids lessons like being a good friend, sharing, loving yourself for who you are, saving the ocean, fire safety and water safety and they do the same at local junior highs with a sort play. They also perform monologues in other classes that are designed after the classes curriculum to give students a different perspective on what they are learning. The drama 12 students also go into the schools Learning Centre and help teach the students with learning disabilities things like how close to stand in line to someone or how to interrupt through short scenes that the students participate in. In the 2012/2013 school year the drama 12 students put on a black light puppet show (adapted from the children stories: Rainbow Fish and The Tickly Octopus) to raise money for the school's Learning Centre and also toured it around to 3 local elementary schools in order to teach kids valuable life lessons. They were able to accomplish this with the help of the grade 12 art class who made huge glow in the dark puppets and the film and video class who helped the drama students record their voices and made a sound track for Rainbow Fish. Every two years during March Break the fine arts students are able to go on a trip to another country so they can experience different cultures art, music and dance. They have already gone to France and England in 2009, in 2011 they went to Italy, in 2013 they flew off to Spain and in March 2015 they will be going to China.

Sports

Auburn has the most high school teams east of Montreal. Varsity and junior varsity sports teams would include Hockey, Basketball, Soccer, Rugby, Football, Volleyball, Table Tennis and many more. Their girls hockey team has won a number of provincial titles and their boys have seen great results as well. In 2011 the Auburn boys basketball team won their first ever provincial title. In 2011, Auburn's ultimate frisbee team attended the national championships in Montreal and came 14th. Their curling, cheerleading, badminton and track & field teams have also won a few banners.

Clubs

Auburn offers a large amount of extra curricular clubs/groups which include "8 Cents for Africa", Gay-Straight Alliance "MOSAIC", Senior and Jazz Bands as well as other ensembles, Mathletes, Christian Fellowship, Prom/Safe Grad Committee, Reach for the Top, Green Team, Animal Awareness and Free the Children. The Auburn Robotics clubs was one of the top in Canada, and was invited to the international competition in Florida 2012.

Student Council

Auburn has a large student council, who have created spirit days for holidays and events, host pep rallies for sports teams and fundraisers for various school projects. The council is composed of several sub-committees, each responsible for running different events within the school.

Mascot Showdown

In 2010, Auburn hosted the first ever mascot showdown between all the high schools in HRM. Every school brought their mascot to compete in a sort of silly olympics. It also featured a video showing off each school and their mascot, a dance competition, an obstacle course and in 2013 there was a three legged race. The videos and dance off where judged by a panel of 3 judges- Joel Plaskett in 2013. It also featured a halftime show. The first year it was held, Sir John A. MacDonalds mascot was crowned the champion. In 2012 Auburn's own Boomer the Eagle took home the title. In 2013 Boomer returned to take the crown again after a wonderful performance from Joel Plaskett in the half time show.

Notable Alumni

Auburn has a significant list of notable alumni, including:

Alex Tanguay - NHL player for Colorado Avalanche.

Matt Mays - Canadian folk-rock singer

Gary Beals - Second-place finisher in the first season of Canadian Idol

Chris Banfield - NSJCHL All-star Goalie

External links

• Auburn Drive High School

Coordinates: 44°41′16.3″N 63°28′57.7″W / 44.687861°N 63.482694°W / 44.687861; -63.482694