Nelson High School (Ontario)


Nelson High School of Burlington, Ontario, Canada, is located in Burlington's South Central area and serves approximately 1003 students between grades 9 and 12 in the Halton District School Board.

Basic information

It was established in 1957 at the intersection of New Street and Belvenia Road. It was named after Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, a British admiral who defeated Napoleon's navy at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. The school celebrated the 200th year since Nelson's victory in 2005 with colourful events and staff dressed as characters from the day. A cubist mural of Nelson's ship,, painted by artist and former teacher Robert Bateman, hangs above a staircase in the school's Canada Foyer. A scale model of the ship can also be found in the library.
The impetus for naming the school may have come from its close proximity to the former village of Port Nelson, which was incorporated into the City of Burlington in 1874. The center of Port Nelson was near Guelph Line and Lakeshore Road, only a few kilometers from the school.
Although the school had been the last non-semestered school in the Halton region, it changed to the semestered system in September 2006.

Campus

Nelson High School is located in south central Burlington at the corner of New Street and Belvenia Road. The school is a two-story building with a courtyard at the center. Classrooms, offices, library and multiple computer labs are a typical of the late 1950 design. A 15 million dollar cafetaria has recently been approved by the Halton District School Board. The cafeteria is scheduled to be complete in 2021.
School sports and training facilities consist of two gyms; one large and one small, a weight room and a six lane synthetic athletics track complete with steeple chase equipment. In 2011, a turfed football sports field was completed inside the Nelson Stadium, which will complement the Nelson athletics program.

Notable alumni