Bethlehem College, Ashfield

Bethlehem College was an Independent Roman Catholic comprehensive single-sex secondary day school for girls, located in Bland Street, Ashfield, the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The college was founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity.

On 8 June 2022, it was announced that the college would amalgamate with adjacent boys' high school, De La Salle College, and St Vincent’s Primary School, due to increasing demand for co-educational schools in inner Sydney. From 2023, the new school was known as St Vincent's College and from 2027, after a five year transition period, it will become a fully K–12 co-educational school precinct.

Students are easily identifiable by the amethyst and navy school uniform—fondly known around the inner western suburbs of Sydney as "Ribena Berries". The Sisters of Charity ran the college until 1991, when it became a systemic Catholic School run by the Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Sydney.

History under the Sisters of Charity

The college was founded in 1881. In the early twentieth century one of the college's Principal was Dorothy Josephine Bruton who was known as Sister Dympna.

Prior to 1953 Bethlehem catered for girls from Kindergarten through to the Leaving Certificate in Year 11. In 1953 the Junior (or Primary) School amalgamated with the Parish St. Vincent's Primary which was also run by the Sisters of Charity but which also catered for boys from Kindergarten to Year 2 (3rd grade). The boys then moved on to many other Catholic schools with the majority proceeding to De La Salle College Ashfield, located adjacent to Bethlehem.

Bethlehem College was known for many many years as Bethlehem Ladies College; the nuns of the Sisters of Charity placing great emphasis on ladylike behaviour & dress both in school as well as to and from school. School rules included wearing of hats and gloves outside school; no eating or drinking in the street; and definitely no talking to boys on the way to and from school. School rules which were strictly enforced by the Prefects.

Class sizes, at least until 1962, ranged from 80 children in kindergarten to Year 2, 60 girls from Year 3 to Year 6 and 50–60 girls in Years 7, 8 and 9 with quite small classes in Years 10 & 11 because society expected most girls to leave at the end of Year 9 (Intermediate Certificate) only the exceptional Academic Stream girls continued to Year 11 (Leaving Certificate) and then to teaching, nursing or rarely other university courses.

Education streams:
The high school catered to students in two streams; the academic or science stream which offered choices from Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Mathematics I and II, Latin and French. Students could choose the business stream offering General Mathematics, Bookkeeping, Dress Making as well as the standard Religion, English and History.

Extras were offered in elocution and music.

Sports:
The Combined Sisters of Charity Schools encouraged sports by an Annual Sports Carnival mostly at Leichhardt Oval and Annual Swimming Carnivals for each individual school (Enfield Swimming Pool for Bethlehem students until the Ashfield pool was built in the mid 1960s). Bethlehem coveted the Annual School Marching prize and drilled the girls accordingly. Bethlehem's greatest rival was St. Mary's Cathedral who Bethlehem felt had an unwarranted advantage in that the Carnival marching band was from the Cathedral boys school which often played for St. Mary's.

Girls were aligned in ranks of 5 from the tallest at the front to the smallest at the back. Summer uniform was worn at the Carnival (no matter what the weather) with the hem measured at from the ground; this resulted in the tall girls having very long dresses and the short girls having very short dresses. Each girl's dress was measured by the Sisters with mother's often having to adjust the length of the dress until it measured exactly 16 inches from the ground.

Marching practice was often held daily when the girls considered it an excellent change for to be allowed to march to a nearby park for practice accompanied by the De La Salle marching band. "Normal" practice consisted of marching continuously around the playground to the strains of the loudspeaker blaring "A Life on the Ocean Wave", song of the Royal Marines and US Naval Academy.

The school had a basketball team and offered tennis as an elective. Entrants in the swimming and foot races were by student choice and no practice was offered.

Recreation:
Until at least 1962 the College held regular dance lessons for the students from Kindergarten upwards often with a ball at Ashfield Town Hall or latterly at the College for the Senior Bethlehem girls and the De La Salle boys. Dancing was then Ballroom Dancing only. The Kindergarten children each learned the same dance year on year; having been paired they learned to recite the steps and perform them at the annual ball where the girl's dressed in white "communion dresses" and the boys dressed in white shirts, black ties and, no doubt, school trousers.

Swimming was a regular weekly event in the summer months when we would take over Enfield pool for the afternoon.

Notable alumnae

*Monica Attard – journalist, ABC News and current affairs journalist, presenter of ''Media Watch''; awarded an Order of Australia for excellence in journalism
* Geraldine Brooks – author and journalist; Pulitzer Prize winner for her novel ''March'', author of ''Year of Wonders'' and many other books, previously political correspondent for the ''Wall Street Journal'' in Bosnia, Somalia and the Middle East
*Angela D'Amore – politician; elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Member for Drummoyne"D'Amore, Angela – Biographical Entry"
''Australian Women's Archive Project''
* Deirdre O'Connor – Federal Court judge
* Marcia Ralston – actress
* Debbie Spillane – sports journalist and broadcaster

See also

* List of Catholic schools in New South Wales
* Catholic education in Australia

References

External links

*

Bethlehem College newsletter

Former Bethlehem College website

{{Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia schools, state=collapsed

Educational institutions established in 1881
Educational institutions disestablished in 2022
Catholic secondary schools in Sydney
Defunct secondary schools in Sydney
Girls' schools in New South Wales
Defunct girls' schools in Australia
Defunct Catholic schools in Australia
1881 establishments in Australia
2022 disestablishments in Australia
Sisters of Charity schools
Sisters of Charity of Australia
Ashfield, New South Wales
Inner West
Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia