Victoria School of the Arts

Story

Victoria School of the Arts is a public school in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada operated by Edmonton Public Schools, offering students from Kindergarten through Grade 12 an arts-focused education.Now known as Victoria School of the Arts, the school built at this location in 1911 was known as Edmonton High School. New buildings were constructed in 1949 which became known as Victoria Composite High School or "Vic Comp" for short. In 1985, Bob Maskell took over the position of school principal with the intention of transforming the school from a vocational school with a low enrollment and bad reputation to an arts-based alternative school. He sold off the vocational equipment to finance large-scale renovations, and recruited a staff qualified in a broad range of arts disciplines. Because of the work of Maskell, Victoria School of the Arts has become one of the top arts-focused schools in North America.The school is an International Baccalaureate school, and offers the IB program for grades K-12: one of the only schools in Canada to do so. As its main focus, there are five programs students may pursue at Victoria: Design and New Media, Visual Arts, Theatre, Dance, and Music. In addition to its academic and arts programs, Victoria School is known for its cheer teams. The 1994 Large Squad team won the Suzutan World Cheerleading Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Edmonton's Victoria School coed Cheer Team has won more than 200 cheerleading championship trophies, including 24 provincial and 25 city championships. The National Cheerleaders Association USA Summer Camp trophy was renamed from the All-American Award to the Top Team Award as a result of the Victoria coed Team's many wins.