Monte Sant'Angelo Mercy College (commonly referred to as Monte Sant'Angelo or ''Monte'') 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 Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

single-sex secondary

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

for girls, located in

North Sydney North Sydney is a suburb and commercial district on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. And is the administrative centre for the local government area of North Sydney Council. History The Indigenous people on the s ...

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. Founded by the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

in 1875, Monte is the oldest independent girls school on Sydney's north shore, and caters for approximately 1,600 students from

Year 7 Year 7 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the seventh full year (or eighth in Australia and England) of compulsory education and is roughly equivalent to grade 6 ...

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

. The College is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the Australasian Mercy Secondary Schools Association (AMSSA), the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia (AGSA), and is an affiliate member of the

Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools The Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools (AHIGS), is an Australian association for independent girls' schools, founded in New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1916 as The Association of Head Mistresses of New South Wales, t ...

(AHIGS). Since 2007, Monte has offered its students the option of the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), more commonly known as the International Baccalaureate (IB), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the I ...

Diploma (IB) program. Including the MYP and SYP programs.

History

Monte Sant'Angelo is the oldest independent girls' school on Sydney's north shore. The College was established in 1865, on the corner of Miller and McLaren Street, North Sydney, by Mother Ignatius McQuoin of the Sisters of Mercy. By 1879, the school had outgrown its original site and subsequently moved to its current location at Miller Street. The name of the College is taken from

Monte Sant'Angelo Monte Sant'Angelo (Neapolitan language, Foggiano: ) is a town and ''comune'' of Apulia, southern Italy, in the province of Foggia, on the southern slopes of Monte Gargano. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of ...

, a centre of religion, culture and learning in

Gargano Gargano () is a historical and geographical sub-region in the province of Foggia, Apulia, southeast Italy, consisting of a wide isolated mountain massif made of highland and several peaks and forming the backbone of a promontory projecting into ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Principals

Campus

Monte Sant'Angelo is situated on a single

campus A campus traditionally refers to the land and buildings of a college or university. This will often include libraries, lecture halls, student centers and, for residential universities, residence halls and dining halls. By extension, a corp ...

centrally located in North Sydney. The college facilities include multi-purpose courts, a

library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

, a religious education centre, a creative arts and technology building, music rooms, a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

, and an indoor

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

in McQuoin Center and sports centre.

Co-curriculum

Sport

Monte offers a variety of sporting activities to its students including

aerobics Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness (Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, Muscle, muscular strength, and ...

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), competitio ...

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 (appro ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of seven players. The primary objective is to shoot a ball through the defender's goal ring while preventing the opposing team from shooting through their own. It is one of a ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, touch football,

Tae Kwon Do Taekwondo (; ; ) is a Korean martial art and combat sport involving primarily kicking techniques and punching. "Taekwondo" can be translated as ''tae'' ("strike with foot"), ''kwon'' ("strike with hand"), and ''do'' ("the art or way"). In a ...

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 Summ ...

, and

water polo Water polo is a competitive sport, 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 water polo ball, ball into the oppo ...

Musicals

Monte associates with all-boys schools such as Aloysius, Marist, Shore, Riverview and Joeys to create a musical. The musical '' Annie'' was performed in 2008. In 2009, the Broadway musical ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

'' was performed with a collaboration from Aloys and St. Mary's male students. The school musicals are performed every second year. In 2012 Monte collaborated with local boys schools to produce a stage version of ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

'' and in 2014, ''

Hairspray Hairspray may refer to: * Hair spray, a personal grooming product that keeps hair protected from humidity and wind * Hairspray (1988 film), ''Hairspray'' (1988 film), a film by John Waters ** Hairspray (1988 soundtrack), ''Hairspray'' (1988 soundt ...

''. In 2018 Monte collaborated with other local boys' schools for their production of ''

High School Musical ''High School Musical'' is a 2006 American Musical film, musical television film produced by and aired on Disney Channel as part of the network's List of Disney Channel original films, slate of original television films. The first installmen ...

''. In March 2020 the school was due to produce several performances of ''

Wicked Wicked may refer to: Books * ''Wicked'' (Maguire novel), a 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire that inspired the musical of the same name * ''Wicked'', a 1997 novel series collaboration between Australian children's authors Paul Jennings and Morris ...

'', which were suspended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

House plays

House plays are musicals that each colour house choreographs and later performs. The plays are run by the year eleven students, who choose music, dance routines, story line and performance costumes for their house. Practices are held on Fridays and Saturdays at the school. The performance is generally held on a Saturday, with a matinee performance added to the schedule in 2009. The criteria of House Plays are usually the theme and message, but visuals and music are also judged.

Houses

Monte has six colour

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

named after patron saints and prominent Sisters of Mercy. These houses compete against each other in school events such as Swimming Carnivals, Athletics Carnivals and House Plays. * Aquinas (Yellow) * McQuoin (Blue) * McAuley (Green) * McGuirk (Purple) * Xavier (Red) * Rankin (Orange)

Notable alumni

;Media, entertainment and the arts *

Kitty Flanagan Kitty Flanagan (born July 18th 1970) is an Australian comedian, writer and actress. She is known for portraying Helen Tudor-Fisk in the television comedy program '' Fisk'', which she also co-created, co-wrote and co-directed. She spent eight ye ...

– comedian, writer and actor * Penny Flanagan – musician and novelist * Antonia Kidman –

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and television presenter, younger sister of actress

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian and American actress and producer. Known for Nicole Kidman on screen and stage, her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world ...

* Jodie Speers – Journalist *

Simone Young Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961) is an Australian conductor and academic teacher. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Biography and career Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father' ...

–

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

;Politics, public service and the law *

Kerry Chikarovski Kerry Anne Chikarovski (née Bartels; 4 April 1956) is an Australian former politician who served as leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales and Leader of the Opposition between 1998 and 2002, the first woman to hold the post. Early li ...

– former NSW Liberal Opposition Leader * Kathleen Farrell – Judge Federal Court of Australia *

Jacqueline Gleeson Jacqueline Sarah Gleeson (born 7 March 1966) is an Australian judge. She has been a Justice of the High Court of Australia since 1 March 2021, and was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, based in Sydney, from April 2014 to February 2021. ...

– High Court Judge of Australia * Jackie Kelly – Federal Liberal Member of Parliament * Robyn Read – former Independent NSW Member of Parliament for North Shore; Alderman, North Sydney Council and author. ;Science and medicine * Margery Scott-Young – surgeon

References

External links

Monte Sant'Angelo Mercy College website
{{Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia schools, state=autocollapse Educational institutions established in 1875 Catholic secondary schools in Sydney Girls' schools in New South Wales Association of Heads of Independent Girls' Schools Sisters of Mercy schools International Baccalaureate schools in Australia 1875 establishments in Australia North Sydney, New South Wales North Shore (Sydney)