St John the Evangelist Catholic High School, or the colloquial St John's, is an independent co-educational

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, located in Nowra, New South Wales,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The school provides a religious and general education to Catholic and non-Catholic families. Administered by the Catholic Education Office of the Diocese of Wollongong, the Catholic systemic school caters for students from Year 7 to

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 educa ...

and serves the Shoalhaven and surrounding regions. St John's has approximately 1,000 students, most of whom come from Catholic families.

History

St John's was founded in 1989. Up until 1967 there was a Catholic secondary school provided at St Michael's school, but it was closed and Catholic students then had to attend the local state high schools, Shoalhaven High School and

Nowra High School Nowra High School is a government-funded co-educational comprehensive secondary day school, located in , in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1956, the school enrolled approximately 910 students in 2018, fro ...

, with some families opting to send their children to the Catholic

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

in the Southern Highlands, Chevalier College. St John the Evangelist High School was founded in 1990. The first principal was Carmel Bambridge. The Sisters of the Good Samaritan had worked in the Nowra Parish since 1893, particularly in the area of the Catholic Education in St Michael's School and State Schools of the region. The Good Samaritans were founded in 1857 by Archbishop John Bede Polding to work with convict women, and then moved into the field of Catholic Education. Polding's patron saint was St John the Evangelist, and as a Benedictine monk he adapted the rule of St Benedict for the Good Samaritan Congregation. The official feast day for the school is that of

St John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...

which is celebrated on 27 December each year. Since this falls during the summer school holidays, the feast day is celebrated near

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...

House system

BenedictYellow (formerly Cuthbert)
Originally named after Australian athlete

Betty Cuthbert Elizabeth Alyse Cuthbert, (20 April 1938 – 6 August 2017) was an Australian athlete and a four-time Olympic champion. She was nicknamed Australia's "Golden Girl". During her career, she set world records for 60 metres, 100 yards, 200 metres ...

, the House name was changed in 2005. Named after St Benedict. ChisholmRed (formerly Bradman)
Originally named after Australian cricketer

Donald Bradman Sir Donald George Bradman, (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001), nicknamed "The Don", was an Australian international cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time. Bradman's career Test batting average of 99.94 has bee ...

, the House name was changed in 2005. Named after Caroline Chisholm. MacKillopPurple
Formed in 2005 as the fifth house and named after St. Mary MacKillop, the founder of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart McCabeBlue (formerly Goolagong)
Originally named after Australian tennis player Evonne Goolagong Cawley, the House name was changed in 2005. Named after Bishop Thomas McCabe, the first Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong. PoldingOrange
Formed in 2006 as the sixth house and named after Archbishop John Polding, the first Roman Catholic Bishop in Australia and founder of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. PurcellGreen (formerly Elliott)
Originally named after Australian athlete Herb Elliott, the House name was changed in 2005. Named after Monsignor John Purcell, the Parish Priest at the time of the schools' opening and one of the founders of the school.

Curriculum

St John’s offers a limited range of subjects. In years 11 and 12, students begin to work towards the Higher School Certificate (HSC), which allows them to either enter university,

TAFE Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

, college, or the workforce. Whilst the HSC years are not compulsory in NSW, they are popular for students at St John’s, as many students leave St John’s post-HSC to study at the University of Wollongong. As with all Catholic schools in the Catholic Diocese of Wollongong, religious education is compulsory in all years including years 11 and 12.

History

House system

Curriculum

See also

References

External links