Principal
Congratulations to all students, staff and families on a wonderful beginning to 2023. We look forward to getting to know our new students and families.
When preparing to address reunions, I always have a look at the St Bede's College Journal for that year. In researching for this year’s reunions, I came upon the article below which gives a history of the Houses at St Bede’s College (Mentone Campus). I have included it as I am sometimes asked about different Houses within the College. Given the Athletics Carnivals that have recently taken place (congratulations to all Houses and all students on your participation and performance), I thought you might like to know some of the history behind the Houses.
The Houses of St Bede’s (Mentone)
In 1938, one early decision the Brothers made for their new College was to create a competitive House system, reflecting what was done in English Public Schools and most Australian schools of the time.
Four Houses were formed. Brother Urban took La Salle (green) named of course after the Founder of the Order. Brother Lewis led Beda House (gold) simply named by Latinising “Bede”. The other two Houses were named by their House Masters; Brother Anthony Hayes called Padua House (red) after his own patron saint (St Anthony of Padua), while Brother Colman’s devotion to Our Lady gave Loreto House (blue) its name.
Competition was fierce and Brothers engaged in intense rivalry to attract new students with talent to their Houses. This was done by ballot, but there were often suspicions over the placing of prized recruits.
By 1958, Brother Finian’s last year as Headmaster, the school population had reached 800, more than double the figure of five years earlier. A decision was made to add four extra Houses to give boys more leadership opportunities and to allow fuller participation in teams.
McCristal (named after Tom McCristal whose College was on our site, 1896-20) wore red and white.
Benildus (green and gold) was named after the De La Salle Brother referred to as “Blessed” and later canonised.
Martin (gold and black) was dedicated to Fr Adrian Martin, the Mentone priest who had fought had to have St Bede’s established in the 1930s.
Xavier House was a tribute to St Francis Xavier, patron saint of Australia. Its colours were blue and white.
The eight-House system operated until 1968 when increasing numbers, growing costs of bus transport to Beda Park for weekly sport and changing ideas about competitive sport resulted in the scrapping of the House system. No House competitions were held between 1969 and 1975.
In 1976, Brother William Firman re-introduced competition with four Houses: La Salle, Benilde, McCristal and Solomon. The only really new entity was Solomon, named after the French De La Salle Brother Solomon, whose martyrdom has elevated him to the “Blessed” status in the eyes of the Church. Moves towards his canonisation have begun (he has since been named a Saint).
House have now evolved into a wider system where tutors and teachers are attached to a particular House for administrative, pastoral and classroom activities, not just sport. House Co-ordinators have much more freedom to develop a special style and spirit with each group than those who ran the simple sporting teams of fifty years ago.
Per Vias Rectas
Deb Frizza
Principal