Lillian Osborne High School | |
Address: | 2019 Leger Road |
Established: | 2009 |
Principal: | Mike Morison |
Trustee: | Julie Kusiek |
Grades: | 10–12 |
Enrollment: | (2020-2021) 2,116 students[1] |
Colours: | Navy Blue, Cardinal Red and Silver |
Mascot: | Fire Chicken[2] |
Team Name: | Legends |
Budget: | (2020–2021)[3] |
Lillian Osborne High School is a high school located in the Terwillegar community of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and serves the south west area of the city for Edmonton Public Schools. It was named in 2009 in honour of Edmonton's first female school teacher, Lillian Osborne, who was 20-years-old when she started teaching in 1889 in what was then the town of Edmonton, North-West Territories; the school named for her has a larger "population" (2,116 students) than the entire population of Edmonton when she started teaching.[4] [5]
Lillian Osborne High School's budget covers the cost of academic competitions for its students. The school runs many competitions organized by The Centre for Education in Mathematics and Computing such as the Cayley, the Fermat, the Euclid, the Junior and Senior Canadian Computing Competition, the Canadian Intermediate Mathematics Contest, and the Canadian Senior Mathematics Contest. They are also involved in the yearly Science Olympics held by The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).[6]
Lillian Osborne is one of several schools in the district offering an International Baccalaureate diploma program.[15] The IB coordinator is Ms. Jane Taylor.[16] Lillian Osborne has one of the highest IB participant rates in the city of Edmonton.
Lillian Osborne currently offers French, Spanish, and Mandarin all in regular or in International Baccalaureate.\
Clubs at the school include Mathematics and Computer Science Contest Club, Gay Straight Alliance, Black Students Association Club, Dungeons and Dragons Club, Afrobeats, Students for the Community, Debate club, and Bollywood Club.
In 2014, Lillian Osborne's Debate team won in both categories and sent more teams than any other school in the province to Provincials. Lillian Osborne also won Best Debate Team in Alberta 2013–2014.
In 2023, Lillian Osborne's Debate team sent a team to nationals twice, having a student win Top Speaker at Provincials.
Student Council at Lillian is responsible for creating events including: Welcome-Week, Hallo-Week, Winter-Week, LOHS dance, Touch of Class, Lillian Osborne Rockathon, and Culturama. Student Council is made up of around 28 students who are selected through an interview process, and an elected president and vice-president.
LOHS TV was created in the 2019–2020 school year to replace morning announcements.[17] The organization produces live daily updates on news within the school. The production is mostly student-run and all announcements are released and archived on the group's YouTube account. In the 2020–2021 school year, the organization added weekly Mandarin broadcasts that summarized news updates from the week. The Mandarin LOHS TV team broadcasts live every Friday at 5pm.[18]
The school has jazz band, concert band, technical theatre, musical theatre, visual arts, drama, graphic design, animation, and photography programs. The musical theatre class performed Alice in Wonderland and the open drama production performed Peter Pan in 2010. In 2011 the musical theatre class performed The Wiz and the open drama production performed The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The various bands perform and have concert nights at the school. The Annual ArtsFest is a year-end celebration of the works produced by Lillian Osborne students in their studies.
In February 2014, the province announced that they would be putting money in place to expand Lillian Osborne High school to go from a capacity of 1000 to 1600. The architect firm that built the original building was returned to design an expansion. In October 2014, plans were released to the public.
This expansion included:a second gymnasium, another wing of the school with over 14 new classrooms and 6 new science labs, an extra CTS wing, and a theater with over 300 seats. This expansion was completed in 2017.[19]