A Catholic high school leadership and peer support course is being offered this August and will earn participating students a high school credit.

The course, which will be taught by Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Secondary School teacher Steve DeQuintal, will take place at St. Sebastian’s Church, 20 Pauline Ave.

Another Toronto Catholic school is now slated to become an arts, media and technological school through new programming to begin in fall of 2011.

St. Patrick Catholic Secondary School in Toronto’s east end was selected for a Grades 9-12 arts, media and technologies centre after a review of five city schools including Cardinal Newman, Jean Vanier, Neil McNeil, Notre Dame and St. Patrick’s.

TORONTO - When he was in Grade 8, John Kostoff had a choice to make: attend a prestigious high school with a longstanding tradition in academics and sports or an up-and-coming, smaller Toronto school run by the Holy Ghost Fathers.

Kostoff had seen a newspaper photo of a child from Nigeria holding a sign reading “Thank you, Neil McNeil.” That sealed the deal for Kostoff, who chose Neil McNeil High School because of the school’s active involvement in helping survivors of the 1967-70 Nigerian Civil War.

AJAX, Ont. - There was nothing special about Jenny Lawlor’s prom night. It’s Lawlor who is special.

Lawlor has Down syndrome and is one of about 25 special needs students at Archbishop Denis O’Connor High School in Ajax. Every year a few of the special needs kids attend the prom along with the graduating students.

The special needs students are no less a part of 900-strong student body than any one else, said principal Mary Curran. That’s simple and obvious.

A Quebec parents’ group is hailing a court ruling that allows a private Montreal Catholic high school to be exempt from a provincially mandated ethics course as a victory for freedom of religion and parental rights.

On June 21, Quebec’s Superior Court slammed the “totalitarian” approach of the Quebec government and ruled that Loyola High School can not be forced to teach the controversial Ethics and Religious Culture course because it infringes upon their charter rights of free expression and religion.

TORONTO - Not many 11 year olds are encouraged to dangle from a rope down the side of their school. But being a member of the De La Salle College Cadets means Aidan McCarthy is not your average school kid.

He is one of 12 students — 11 boys and one girl — who are part of the De La Salle (Oaklands) Cadet Corps program. Now in its 100th year, the program is one of the few remaining — if not the only — Catholic cadet corps in Canada. It is part of a century-old tradition of training leaders at the private Catholic school for Grade 5-to-12 students run by the De La Salle Brothers.

TORONTO - After two months of cutting tiles for a mosaic honouring the school’s patron saint, St. Francis of Assisi, James Cardinal McGuigan High School teacher Patrizia Montefiore and three students who contributed to the project stand proudly beside the new mosaic.

The St. Francis mosaic has become an instrument to spread the saint’s message of peace, charity and environmental stewardship at the school.

TORONTO - May 11 marked the first Toronto Catholic District School Board collaboration with students to promote leadership on pro-life issues.

The TCDSB hosted it’s annual Respect for Life Week but turned its usual keynote address into a student leadership day which drew more than 70 students to learn about the issues and how to take action.

TORONTO - Nancy Kirby says her first priorities as Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association president will be ensuring “equitable and adequate funding” for Ontario’s publicly funded Catholic schools and tackling the $68-million gap in special education funding for Catholic schools.

Kirby, 57, was elected OCSTA’s president at its annual conference in Thunder Bay April 30.

For Iraqi families that have endured months and years living as refugees in Damascus and Beirut, just landing in Canada doesn't solve all their problems.

But the Ontario's publicly funded Catholic schools come close. Take a virtual visit to St. Andrew's Catholic School in Etobicoke.