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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

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Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding township#Aust ...

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Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

secondary day school , gender = Girls , established = , denomination =

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Associated Southern Colleges The Associated Southern Colleges (ASC) is an association of independent schools in the Australian Capital Territory and southern New South Wales, Australia that share common interests, ethics, and educational philosophy, and contest sporting even ...

, founder = , principal = Anna Masters , grades = 7- 12 , grades_label = Years , enrollment = , colours = Blue, maroon, gold , mascot = , website = Merici College is a

secondary day school for girls located in the

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

suburb of Braddon in the

. Established in 1959, the College caters for students in years 7 to 12. The school's Principal is Anna Masters.

History

Merici College is named in honour of Italian

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

St. Angela Merici. The College is the oldest Catholic girls' school in Canberra. It was founded in 1959 as Canberra Catholic Girls' High School. The letters CCGH can be seen on the original gates at the Ipima Street side of the building. At that time, although there were several Catholic boys' schools in the area, there was no equivalent institution for female Catholic students. The founding of Merici is unusual among Catholic schools in that, rather than being established by a single order of nuns, it was originally intended as an archdiocesan school. The school was staffed by nuns from six different orders; the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, the Presentation Sisters, the Ursuline Sisters, the Brigidines and the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. When a second Catholic girls' college opened in Canberra in the 1960s, the school became known as Braddon Catholic Girls High School. In 1977 following a decline in enrolments it was decided to trial

co-education Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

with seven boys enrolling. The name was changed to Braddon Catholic High School. 1978 saw the largest intake of boys with 49 in total enrolling. During 1978 it was decided that the school should once again return to being a girls only school with a decision being taken to no longer enrol boys. A letter was sent out to parents of the boys already at the school suggesting that it might be preferable for the boys to enroll at Daramalan College, St Edmund's College, or Marist College Canberra. The total number of boys dwindled over the ensuing years to just four boys during 1983. It was renamed Merici College in 1983. In 2009 the College celebrated its Golden Jubilee.

Pastoral care system

Merici College has a vertical pastoral care system. This system replaces the more common Australian system of having a year coordinator assigned to each year group. Upon enrolment to the school, each student is assigned to one of six houses, each associated with one of the founding religious orders. The houses are: Penola (white, black and pink), Balgo (yellow),

Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and '' comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...

(purple), Ningil (red) (named for a mission in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

founded by

Nano Nagle Venerable Honora Nagle ( – 26 April 1784), known informally as Nano Nagle, was a pioneer of Roman Catholic education in Ireland despite legal prohibitions. She founded the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM), c ...

's Presentation Sisters), Seiwa (named after Seiwa College) (blue) and Tullow (green). Students remain in their appointed house throughout their time at the college. They are also assigned to a vertically integrated pastoral care class consisting of students from all year levels in the same house.

Community involvement

Merici College has a St. Vincent de Paul Society. Each year, Merici participates in sporting events organised by various Canberra sporting bodies. Sports that the school competes in include:

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

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 ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

, hockey,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

, swimming,

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with th ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

, touch football,

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 wi ...

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 cov ...

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...

, and

snow sports Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold area ...

. The school is affiliated with

. Merici College is the sister school of Marist College Canberra.

Notable alumni

* Caroline Buchanan, cyclist *

Rosemary Follett Rosemary Follett (born 27 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the inaugural Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, serving in 1989 and again between 1991 and 1995. She was the first woman to become head of gover ...

the first Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory, first woman to become head of government in an Australian state or territory. * Gabby Millgate, actress and comedian * Margaret Staib, former Chief Executive Officer of Airservices Australia and a former senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force

References

External links