Founded on 3 February 1926 and conducted by the Marist Brothers since 1929, St Gregory's has a non-selective enrolment policy and currently caters for approximately 1,100 students, including 180 boarders.[3]
St Gregory's College commenced operations in 1926. The property on which the college is located was owned by Thomas Donovan. In the early 1920s he contacted the Marist Brothers about starting a school for boys to help them learn the skills to have careers.
St Greg's Intermediate class, circa 1932
St Gregory's commenced operations as a boarding school on 3 February 1926 with five Marist Brothers as staff, and two students (The Cuskelly Brothers). By the end of the year the student numbers had risen to ten.
In 1929 the estate was handed over to the Marist Brothers by Thomas Donovan. Donovan intended that St Gregory's College should exist for country boys whom he would endow with bursaries. Much of the early infrastructure was also donated by Mr Donovan, for example the Chapel, classrooms and the first dormitory.
The foundation principal in 1926 was Br Felix. However, before the end of the first year he was recalled to his position at St. Joseph's College, Hunters Hill. Br Laurentius who was on the staff took over the position. Br Laurentius was only 27 years old but suffered from ill health. Enrolments climbed to around 50 students despite the college not having main electricity or a reliable supply of water.
The Great Depression saw enrolments drop to ten students and the college was threatened with closure. Principal Br Laurentius died in 1933 after a long illness. Br Antoninus was appointed the new principal and led the college during the Depression years.
In 2018, the College became a K–12 school, with the opening of the Junior School on the College grounds. The Junior and Senior schools are administered separately, under the direction of the Headmaster and the Trustees. The Junior School is co-educational, and the Senior School is a single-sex school for boys only. Girls must seek an alternate secondary school at which to complete their senior education.
Sexual abuse allegations
In June, July and August 2014 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse initiated in 2013 by the Australian Government and supported by all of its state governments,[8] began an investigation into the response of Marist Brothers to allegations of child sexual abuse in schools in the ACT, NSW and Queensland.[9] Five former students, one former teacher, a former assistant principal and two former principals, former and current Marist officials and clergy, and one of the clergy at the centre of the allegations gave evidence or made statements before the Royal Commission[10] that the alleged cases of abuse happened during the 1970s, and 1980s at Daramalan College, Canberra, at Lismore, Campbelltown and in Far North Queensland.[11][12][13][14]
In March 2015 a former Marist brother was arrested over a number of sex offences allegedly committed at St Joseph's College and St Gregory's College in the 1980s.[15]
Campus
The college is situated on a single three-hectare (seven-acre) campus. Previously, the land owned by the College once exceeded 405 hectares (1,000 acres) before most of it was sold to create the Gregory Hills housing sub-division,[16] located in the suburb of Gregory Hills (a suburb located within Camden Council) and approximately 43 kilometres (27 mi) from the Sydney central business district. St Gregory's is located on Badgally Hill, the second highest peak between Sydney and the Great Dividing Range.
Boarding
Boarders of St Gregory's College live in houses named after a significant Brother in the college's history.
St Gregory's College has a strong reputation in sport. St Gregory's is known for its success in Water Polo, cricket and in the last millennium, soccer.
In 2008 the First XI winning the MCS competition, 2007 Australasian Marist Carnival and joint premiers in the Combined Catholic College's Downey Trophy, with 22 wins and 0 losses all season. The college has been dubbed "A Nursery for Mens Water Polo Players" and with this Water Polo is very strong culture at the college as St Gregory's compete in the MCS competition and the Arrive Alive Cup and have been champions on a record 9 occasions and Runners Up twice. Strong support from the college community is present at semi-finals and finals in the MCS competition and all Arrive Alive Cup matches. St Gregory's won the 2010 MCS Water Polo Grand Final defeating Patrician Brother's Blacktown in the final 24–10 coached by Lee Addison. [citation needed] They also retained their title in 2011, thus becoming the first team from the college since 1994 to achieve back to back titles. Rugby Union is also becoming part of the sporting culture at the college with the boarding community representing the college against teams in the GPS and ISA sporting competitions. In 2008, only the second year of "serious" competitive Rugby Union fixtures, St Gregory's made the semifinals of the Waratah Shield, losing to fellow ISA school St Augustine's College held at St Joseph's College. [citation needed] The college has reached the final of the MCS Soccer competition 4 out of the last 5 years. The college provides facilities for the students with 8 rugby league/union fields, 3 cricket fields, 3 football (Soccer) fields, swimming pool, tennis courts, cricket nets, outdoor and indoor basketball courts and a College gymnasium.
St Gregory's College is known as a nursery to the National Rugby League (NRL) with some notable players representing several NRL teams along with State and National honours. On Grand Final day 2007 saw each 3 grandfinals Jersey Flegg, Premier League and the NRL Telstra Premiership had a representative from St Gregory's College. Rugby League is the dominant sport in St Gregory's College.
Debating and public speaking
Debating and public speaking has had a long history at St Gregory's College. The college represents itself in the Competition for Public Speaking and Debating. The college also participates in the regular seasons of the named curricula. The CSDA is the debating competition in which St. Gregory's College. Public Speaking is also widely encouraged at St. Gregory's with multiple competitions throughout the school year. The CSDA competition is an outside run competition in which the school selects students to attend, the Gordon Fetterplace Public Speaking Competition which is a school run competition. [citation needed] Finally the Marist Oratary is entered for the best public speakers of the college.
Until 2008 the Year 12 debating trophy was named for Douglas Berneville-Claye a former teacher who was a convicted criminal and British traitor.[19]
Agriculture
Once based on 526 hectares (1,300 acres) and, until 1990, called "St Gregory's Agricultural College"[20] it was home to a commercial dairy, cattle, poultry, piggery and popular rodeo timed to coincide with the Fisher's Ghost Festival.[21] The school began a land cost analysis in the late 1980s, assigning senior Agricultural students the task of identifying value as their major project for the HSC. The school appears to have stepped back from this history and little publicly available evidence remains outside of hardcopy yearbooks.[citation needed]
The college still competes in various aspects of agriculture. As well as running agriculture classes and its reduced College farm, the college participates in show cattle and show sheep competitions and programs. Most recently the college participated at the annual Sydney Royal Easter Show, Camden Show and Dubbo Show.
Notable alumni
Alumni of St Gregory's College are commonly referred to as 'Old Boys' and may choose to join the schools alumni association, the St Gregory's College Old Boys Association.[22]
Graham West – former Australian Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Campbelltown and former cabinet minister[23]
Brendan Oake – rugby league player for the Parramatta Eels
Michael Potter – former rugby league coach and rugby league player for the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, St George Illawarra Dragons and New South Wales.[32]
Luke Quigley – rugby league player formerly for the Newcastle Knights; currently playing for the French Super League club Catalans Dragons
Paul Quinn – rugby league player who represented Australia on the Kangaroo tour of 1963-4
Tim Sheens – former NRL coach for the Wests Tigers and Australia (also attended St Dominic's College, Kingswood)
Jimmy Smith – current Fox Sports rugby league commentator and former rugby league player for the Sydney Roosters, Western Suburbs Magpies and South Sydney Rabbitohs.[32]
^ abc"St Gregory's College". New South Wales Schools. Australian Boarding Schools Association. 2007. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
^"Congregational Schools". Systemic Schools (CEO, Wollongong). Catholic Diocese of Wollongong. 2007. Archived from the original on 1 September 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
^"AHISA Schools: New South Wales". New South Wales. Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia. April 2007. Archived from the original on 29 August 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
^"Member School Links". Member Schools. Association of Marist Schools of Australia. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 August 2007. Retrieved 14 October 2007.
^"Letters Patent". Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
^McGill, Jeff (25 March 2009). "Campbelltown 'hero' linked to Nazis". Campbelltown - Macarthur Advertiser. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 1 March 2014. ST GREGORY'S College has dumped the name of its traditional public speaking cup – the Douglas Berneville-Claye Trophy – after discovering that its namesake was a traitor.
^"awards 2006"(PDF). NSW ASSOCIATION OF AGRICULTURE TEACHERS.
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