The Athena School is an independent, co-educational school for Preschool to Year 10 students located in Newtown, an inner western suburb of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. The school is registered by the NSW Education Standards Authority and is a member of the NSW Association of Independent Schools. The teaching approaches of the school are based on the works of

L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored the pseudoscie ...

Affiliation with Scientology

The school is licensed by

Applied Scholastics Applied Scholastics (APS) is an organization that promotes and licenses the use of study techniques created by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Applied Scholastics is operated by the Church of Scientology. Overview Applied Sch ...

, a company wholly owned by the

Church of Scientology The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religiou ...

, which licenses the study methods of Scientology founder

. The school asserts it's affiliation with

Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It is variously defined as a scam, a Scientology as a business, business, a cult, or a religion. Hubbard initially develo ...

is non-religious. Since 2007, all teachers are registered with the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards. The Athena School follows the guidelines set out by the

NSW Board of Studies The Board of Studies was the state government education board in New South Wales, Australia from 1990 to 2013. It provided educational leadership by developing the curriculum from Kindergarten to Year 12 and awarding the secondary school credent ...

in its curriculum. In March 2010 the

Greens New South Wales The Greens NSW, also known as the NSW Greens, is a green political party in New South Wales and a member of the Australian Greens. First formed in 1991, the Greens NSW began as a state-level party before joining with other green parties in Austr ...

party lodged an official complaint about the school to the

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Tra ...

due to an advertising leaflet which fails to reveal the school's link to Scientology. The Principal of the school said the Applied Scholastics study method did not teach the Scientology religion, "We follow the Board of Studies curriculum. We use the study method of L. Ron Hubbard. It is a method of study, it is not teaching Scientology."

Green School program with Street Coolers

In 2015 the school started a "green school" program with Street Coolers, a community-focused organisation with a mission to cool our urban areas. This involved the school utilising several machines capable of creating several kilograms of compost per day, a reverse-vending machine open to the public, which allows individuals to recycle plastic bottles and aluminium cans for coupons, as well as energy and weather monitoring to assess power usage and how the weather affects this.

References

External links

Athena School website
Private secondary schools in Sydney Private primary schools in Sydney School buildings completed in 1987 Educational institutions established in 1987 Scientology-related schools 1987 establishments in Australia Newtown, New South Wales {{Scientology-stub

Affiliation with Scientology

Green School program with Street Coolers

See also

References

Further reading

External links