, motto_translation = Matthew 5:16: Let Your Light Shine , location = ,

Inner West The Inner West of Sydney is an area directly west of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia. The suburbs that make up the Inner West are predominantly located along the southern shore of Port Jackson (Parramatta Rive ...

Sydney , state =

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, country = Australia , coordinates = , other_name = SPC; St Pats; Pats , type =

Independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

and

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children and adolescents are given instructions during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when comp ...

, educational_authority = New South Wales Department of Education , denomination =

Congregation of Christian Brothers The Congregation of Christian Brothers ( la, Congregatio Fratrum Christianorum; abbreviated CFC) is a worldwide religious community within the Catholic Church, founded by Blessed Edmund Rice. Their first school was opened in Waterford, Irela ...

, religious_affiliation =

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, trust = Edmund Rice Education Australia , gender = Boys , patron = Edmund Ignatius Rice , established = , founder = Patrick Ignatius Hickey , chairperson = Caroline Butler-Bowdon , principal_label = Principal , principal = Dr Vittoria Lavorato , chaplain = Fr Jack Evans , staff = ~140 , houses = , colours = Blue, black and gold , enrolment = , enrolment_as_of = 2020 , years = 5– 12 , homepage = , affiliations = , sister_school =

Santa Sabina College , motto_translation = Truth , established = , slogan = Shake the world , principal = Paulina Skerman , chairperson = Tony Woods , location = Strathfield, In ...

St Patrick's College (known colloquially as SPC or St Pats), is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

and

for boys located in

Strathfield Strathfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 12 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the Municipality of Strathfield. A smal ...

, an inner western suburb of Sydney,

, Australia. Founded in 1928 by the

, the school operates in the tradition of Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers, and is administered by Edmund Rice Education Australia. , the College enrolled approximately 1,430 students from

Year 5 Year 5 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is usually the fifth year of compulsory education and incorporates students aged between nine and eleven however some childre ...

Year 12 Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compulsory edu ...

.Australian School Choice- St Patrick's College
(accessed:27 June 2007) St Patrick's College is a member of the Independent Sporting Association, the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, and the

Junior School Heads Association of Australia The Independent Primary School Heads of Australia (IPSHA) formerly Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), is an incorporated body representing the heads of independent primary schools in Australia. Officially established in Septe ...

History

St Patrick's College was founded on 20 January 1928 and was officially opened by M Kelly, Archbishop of Sydney. Thirty-nine students were enrolled and split into three grades to be taught by Brothers LS Carroll, PK Kent and JR Crichton. The acting Principal in the first year was Provincial Consulter and Master of Method, MB Hanrahan. The school itself consisted of six large classrooms, and four other rooms designed for physics, chemistry, art, and technical training such as woodwork. At the end of the first year, over 100 students were enrolled at St Patrick's College. Towards the end of the 1980s, there was a steady decline in the number of Christian Brothers teaching within Edmund Rice Schools such as St Patrick's. After the departure of J Giacon as principal in 1992 the first lay principal in any Christian Brothers’ school in New South Wales was appointed, Grahame Smollett, who became the longest serving principal in the college's history.

Principals

The following individuals have served as Principal of St Patrick's College, Strathfield: :: Dr Craig Wattam finished at the conclusion of Term 3, 2020. He was replaced by Damian Chase for the final term.

College houses

The house system dates back to the 1930s when boys were placed into four coloured houses for the annual swimming and athletic carnivals; Red, Gold, Green and Blue. During the 1970s the College expanded the four houses to six and named each after a significant person whose presence at the college had been pivotal to its evolvement. A further development was made in 1996 when on the beatification of Edmund Rice, Power House was changed to Rice House. In 2012 the College Cup was launched and redefined the way in which the house system is used at St Patrick's College. In order to "foster healthy competition" amongst students, House points are awarded throughout the school year based on an individual's efforts in areas of academic achievement, co-curricular involvement and school spirit. These are then tallied with the results from the swimming and athletic carnivals and a house is declared the overall winner. Berg House pays tribute to the values and contribution made to the college by Brian Berg, the first Old Boy Brother to teach at St Patrick's. Brian Berg completed his Leaving Certificate at SPC in 1948 and entered into the Christian Brothers in 1950. Coghlan House honours the memory of JV Coghlan, Principal of St Patrick's College for two terms, 1936–1941 and 1945–1950. Crichton House is named after John Rewi Crichton, who, for many years, was a teacher at St Patrick's College. Hanrahan House recognises the efforts of educationist Michael Benignus Hanrahan, the first Principal of St Patrick's College. Hickey House honours a man who holds a significant place in the college's history, Patrick Ignatius Hickey. Rice house pays tribute to founder, Edmund Rice.

Co-curriculum

The school competes in such activities as

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

, soccer,

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

, and

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball c ...

in the Independent Sporting Association competition and against CAS and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

member schools. The college performs an annual musical and drama production featuring its students and others from

Santa Sabina College , motto_translation = Truth , established = , slogan = Shake the world , principal = Paulina Skerman , chairperson = Tony Woods , location = Strathfield, In ...

College anthem

The College anthem was composed in 1958, with words by Br Robert Charles Hill and music by Br Colin Declan Smith – both members of the SPC community. A choir of over 600 voices first performed it at Speech Night in the

Sydney Town Hall The Sydney Town Hall is a late 19th-century heritage-listed town hall building in the city of Sydney, the capital city of New South Wales, Australia, housing the chambers of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, council offices, and venues for meetings a ...

in 1958.

College crest

The college's crest was designed in 1938 and is made up of three components: *Shield: With its chevrons and bars it is a symbol of strength and fortitude *Motto: Those who wear the crest pledge fidelity to the college motto ''Luceat Lux Vestra'',

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

for "Let Your Light Shine". *Star: Seen mounting the crest, it signifies that the college lights the way to knowledge and to the God.

Sexual abuse cases

In 2014 Br Desmond Eric Richards pled guilty to assaulting four boys in New South Wales in the 1970s and 1980s, including at least one student at St Patrick's College while he worked there.

Alumni

St Patrick's

alumni Alumni (singular: alumnus (masculine) or alumna (feminine)) are former students of a school, college, or university who have either attended or graduated in some fashion from the institution. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for grou ...

are traditionally known as "Old Boys",Old boys page on the St Patricks College website
/ref> the St Patrick's alumni association being called the Old Boys' Union. The reinvigoration of the St Patrick's College Old Boys’ Association (SPOB) in 2016 provides a contact point for several different Old Boy sporting clubs like Cricket, Rugby and Football and other special interest groups such as returned servicemen, careers and the Vestra Bursary Fund.

St Patrick's Rugby Club

St Patrick's Rugby Club was established in 1964 as a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club as that was the code of football played at the college at the time. In 1965 the college changed to

, the club followed suit the following year and entered the Western Suburbs Under 20 competition. The club originally played in a white jersey with black collar and now play in a black jumper with a gold collar, as does the college First XV. The club plays in the

New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union The New South Wales Suburban Rugby Union, or NSWSRU, is affiliated to the New South Wales Rugby Union and runs the competition affectionately known as "Subbies" rugby. There are around 7500 players and 55 clubs competing across 6 divisions, maki ...

and has won four club championships and two first grade premierships. Since its promotion to Kentwell Cup First Division in 1974 is one of only two clubs to never have been relegated. The club plays its home games at Hudson Park, Strathfield.St Patrick's Rugby Club website
/ref>

Notable alumni

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Patrick's College Strathfield Educational institutions established in 1928 Congregation of Christian Brothers secondary schools in Australia Boys' schools in New South Wales Junior School Heads Association of Australia Member Schools Independent Schools Association (Australia) Strathfield, New South Wales Catholic secondary schools in Sydney Catholic primary schools in Sydney 1928 establishments in Australia Congregation of Christian Brothers primary schools in Australia