Skip navigation
St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School
"A Vibrant, Caring, Faith Community"
905.794.0411
  • St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School
  • 11948 The Gore Road
  • Brampton ON , L6P 0A2
  • Principal: Joseph Sestito
  • Vice Principal(s):



  • Superintendents: Brian Diogo
  • Trustee: Shawn Xaviour (Brampton Ward 10)
    Paula Dametto-Giovannozzi (Caledon Ward 3, 5)
+More School Info
Search:
School Site 

School History

History of St. Patrick School

 

"In 1907, under the pastorage of Father Williams a new brick one-room school house was built with church funds and it was this building that served the children of S. Patrick's for the next half-century. Declining enrollment became serious during the twenties and acute during the thirties. As time passed more of the Gore's offspring were attracted to the city in the general trend of post-war urbanization. Families which remained were few and generally less prolific than the previous generation.

By 1943 there were only six children enrolled in the school. In that year Father Ralph Egan became pastor at St. Patrick's and immediately fostered a plan to attract more Catholic families to the area. Martin Maze and family, Andrew Doyle and family, Joseph Ronan and family, were the first to settle on the southwest corner of the church farm. Father Egan also arranged for the installment of a small contingent of Loretto Sisters at Wildfield. The Grady Store opposite the Church became heir convent and for the next 30 years they served as teachers for the St. Patrick's community. Father Egan's concept of employing church property to attract Catholic families to the Gore was later realized under the pastorage of Father Leo Austin with the creation of the Marysfield Subdivision. As the population of Wildfield and surrounding area grew the one-room school house could no longer accommodate increased attendance.

In 1950 a new school, Immaculate Heart of Mary, was built on the hill across from the old school. But even his two room school was soon not large enough to satisfy ever growing enrollment and by 1956 classroom space was again doubled and offices added to the existing structure. In 1957, at the request of the Archdiocese, the school name was changed from Immaculate Heart of Mary to St. Patrick's School. In 1965 a School Board was formed in the near-by Bolton and until the opening of its six room Holy Family school in 1966 the Bolton school was run from the St. Patrick's facility. By May of 1966 a Combined Separate School Section was formed and the first unified Board of Trustees took office in the 1967 amalgamating in 1969 when the Dufferin-Peel School Board came into existence and local administration ceased. St. Patrick's School and Holy Family School continued in the 70's to share their facilities and their principal. A transfer bus operated between the schools for several years. From 1972 to 1976 St. Patrick's was utilized as part of the Board's Outdoor Education Program but with increased population in the area, the program ended and plans were initiated to accommodate local growth. Plans submitted to the Ministry of Education in 1976 and again 1977 for the construction of a new structure housing eight classrooms, auditorium and library was built beside the existing school." [Taken from St. Patrick's Wildfield, 150th Anniversary, Published by the St. Patrick's Research Committee, 1985, pages 57-58]

back to top