About Us
At St. Leo Catholic School, we pride ourselves on the strong partnership that exists among the home, the school and the parish.
How We Meet the Diverse Needs of Our Students
Students come to us with a variety of strengths and needs, but they all have one thing in common: they are members of a Catholic community. Our prayer life, our liturgical celebrations, the Sacraments, and our faith and value system form the foundation of our program.
Our code of behaviour policy at St. Leo emphasizes mutual respect, conflict resolution and mediation, and self-discipline. The Safe Arrival program encourages constant home-school communication when a student is absent or late.
Our instructional program is always adapting to meet the particular needs of our students. Students who experience difficulty with regular classroom work are discussed with our School-Based Support Team (SBST) and instruction is modified, adapted, or individualized as needed. If necessary, we can call on the support and advice of the Joint Team, which includes Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) staff such as our social worker, psychometrician, assessment and programming teacher, and other specialized personnel. Parents are always informed and invited to participate in this process. For many of our students, English is a second language, and we have an ESL teacher who works with small groups of students from grades 3 to 8 to help them make the adjustment to the English curriculum.
We also have the Family Parenting Literacy Centre, the Fifth Block and the Junior Literacy Programs, and the Kindergarten Literacy Program. Some of our other classes include a Language Impaired Class and two Multiple Exceptionalities classes. St. Leo School has an all-day Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten program.
School History and Tradition
St. Leo Catholic School was the only Catholic school in the Mimico Separate School Board when it was founded in 1926. In the original 1926 wing, St. Leo consisted of eight classrooms and an auditorium. This auditorium was used for many Church and community events, and was indeed the cultural and entertainment centre for Catholics in Mimico.
The school is home to students from varying ethnic and cultural backgrounds who live in Mimico. This school is exceptional for its large number of second, third and even fourth generation St. Leo students. The most outstanding feature of the St. Leo community is the strong tradition of Catholic family values that is evident in our students. Former alumini of St. Leo Catholic School include National Hockey League (NHL) players Brendan Shanahan, David Bolland and Reilly Smith, as well as National LaCrosse League (NLL) player Rory Smith.