Principal's Message

Dear Parents,

This week we began our 100 years celebrations for St Patrick's at Sutherland. So today we have a look back at the history of St Patrick's and the development of the school.

In 1924, the large parish of Cronulla was created and this included the Sutherland district. At the time the only school was St Aloysius and this was staffed by the Josephite sisters. They could not provide sisters for a school at Sutherland so Archbishop Kelly  and the Parish Priest, Fr W Hawe, arranged for the Sisters of Mercy from Parramatta to establish a convent at Cronulla and also begin a school at Sutherland.

St Patrick's school began in Robertson St, Sutherland in 1924 with 26 pupils. School fees were 6d a week. 4 shillings came in the first week! There were 2 sisters on the first staff; Sister M Andrew Lynch being the first Principal. They would travel daily by steam train and later train to Sutherland. In 1928, the school was moved to the new Parish church and hall in Belmont St. It remained a small primary school , reaching 224 pupils by the 1950s. Sutherland itself had become a separate parish in 1934 and some former RAF huts were added in 1947.

The development of the Sutherland Shire led to requests for more schools to be opened at Caringbah and Miranda. As the Mercy sisters did not have enough members to staff all the schools in the area, the Parish Priest arranged for the Presentation Sisters (Wagga Wagga Congregation) to take over the staffing of St Patrick's from the Mercy Sisters in 1950.  The Presentation sisters established a convent in Sutherland, coming at a time when the suburb was growing strongly into a residential area. There was also a need for secondary education for girls. In 1954, St Patrick's began secondary classes for girls and by 1956 these girls were taken to Intermediate level. In 1959, the secondary classes were separated to form a new school, Mary Immaculate College.

St Patrick's had thus reverted to a Primary school catering for girls Kindergarten to Sixth Class and for boys to Third Class, with older boys being directed to the local Brother's schools. Numbers continued to increase, reaching 593 by 1960 and 650 by 1975. The arrival of some government funding in the 1970s allowed more lay teachers to be employed. At the same time the Presentation Sisters had few members available for the school and, in 1989, they ended their leadership. The school was part of the Archdiocesan System, then known as the CEO (Catholic Education Office) and they appointed the first lay Principal, Mrs Jennifer Green.

Since about 1980 boys have been retained to Year 6. The new administration block was established in 2002 as well as refurbishment of classrooms and library. In 2005 there were 388 students. In 2018 the decision was made to become a 3 streamed school. The current numbers are sitting around 600.

(Information from 'St Mary's to St Catherine's) 

PRINCIPALS:

Sr M Andrew Lynch rsm: 1924-1929

Sr M Ursula O'Brien rsm: 1930-1941

Sr M Raymund Shanahan rsm: 1941-1947

Sr M Canisius Kelly rsm: 1948

Sr M Malachy (Catherine) McGrath rsm: 1948-49

Sr Casimir Toohey pbvm: 1950-1953

Sr Stanislaus Concannon pbvm: 1954

Sr Paul McCrone pbvm: 1955-57

Sr Peter McCormack pbvm: 1958-1959

Sr Michael McGuire pbvm: 1959- 1962

Sr M Alberta (Marie) Titterton pbvm : 1963- 64

Sr Columbia Nicholas pbvm: 1965

Sr Philomena Sewell pbvm: 1966-1968

Sr Mary (Concepts) Finn pbvm: 1969-1971

Sr Barbara (Eleanor) Molloy pbvm: 1972-1982

Sr Mary Walsh pbvm: 1983-1989

Mrs Jennifer Green: 1990-1994 (T2)

Miss Mary Farrell (Acting) 1994 (T3-4)

Mrs Maureen Cross 1995-2000 (T1)

Mrs Roxley Ryan (Acting ) 2000 (T2-T4)

Mrs Valerie Selems: 2001-2006

Mr Warren Loy: 2007- 2011 (T2)

Mrs Kim McCue: 2011 (T3-4)

Mr Phillip Tax:  2012- 2021

Mrs Leonie Burfield: 2022 to present

Peace and best wishes

Leonie Burfield

PRINCIPAL