St Ursula's College, Kingsgrove, founded in 1957, is an independent

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

Kingsgrove Kingsgrove is a suburb in Southern Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Kingsgrove is south-west of the Sydney central business district and lies across the Local government in Australia, local government areas of the City of Canterbury-Banksto ...

, a southern suburb of

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

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. The College is a member of the Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia. Academically, St Ursula's College is consistently one of the best performing schools in the

Archdiocese of Sydney The Archdiocese of Sydney () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church. Its episcopal see is Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Erected in 1842, the archdiocese is the metropolitan see for the suffragan ...

. The College was ranked 69th in the state in the 2021 NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC). Vivienne Awad is the current Principal of St Ursula's College. She was appointed to the role in 2024.

History

The Ursuline Order was founded by Saint Angela de Merici in

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

, Italy in 1535. Saint Angela Merici named the order after

Saint Ursula Ursula (Latin for 'little she-bear') was a Romano-British virgin and martyr possibly of royal origin. She is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion. Her feast day in the pre-1970 G ...

, patron saint of the Sorbonne in Paris and also the patron saint of education. The Ursuline Sisters came to the Kingsgrove Parish in 1949 when they were invited to take over St Bernadette's School at

Bexley Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...

South from 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 ...

. The sisters lived at the convent at Ashbury and travelled to Bexley North each day. Within a few years, they had established a convent at Caroline Street, Kingsgrove (the present St Ursula's College administration building), and in 1953 they opened a new school, Our Lady of Fatima Primary School. St Ursula's College was opened in 1957 with an enrolment of 56 girls in first form. The following year, 52 new students came to the College and, by 1959, there were 200 students enrolled. The College has continued to grow, with a current enrolment of over 1,000 students, more than 80 teachers and 20 ancillary staff. In 2018, and again in 2020, St Ursula's was ranked in the top 50 schools in New South Wales by HSC results. In 2023, St Ursula's introduced 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 ...

as a study path making it the first systemic Catholic school in Australia to give students the opportunity to study through the

. In December 2023, the school ended its ban on same-sex partners for

LGBT+ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The group i ...

students attending the school formal after a

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petition launched by a student against its “discriminatory policy” had reached 4,900 signatures. Federal education minister

Jason Clare Jason Dean Clare (born 22 March 1972) is an Australian politician serving as Minister for Education since 1 June 2022. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and has represented the Division of Blaxland in Western Sydney since 2007 ...

had urged the school to rethink the ban, saying students “should be able to take whoever they wanted” to the Year 12 farewell. In the same month,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

announced that priests would be allowed to bless same-sex couples. Francis's affirmative policy has been upheld by his successor,

Pope Leo XIV Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost, September 14, 1955) has been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 2025. He is the first pope to have been born in the United States and North America, the fir ...

References

{{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1957 Girls' schools in New South Wales Catholic secondary schools in Sydney 1957 establishments in Australia Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney International Baccalaureate schools in Australia

History

See also

References