Our History

Founding Order: Sisters of Mercy

Motto: Love and Truth

Prior to the arrival of the Sisters of Mercy in 1887

Miss Burns, Lay Head Mistress, had been responsible for the Catholic Education of the children within the area at St Mary’s School for approximately four years.
Due to increasing numbers within the school, Father O’Shaughnessy announced the decision to build a new school. Over the years many events were celebrated acknowledging the presence of the Sisters in Corowa, these being the Silver Jubilee of their arrival and later the Golden Jubilee.
In 1959 a new school was constructed with an expansion programme taking place in 1985, to cater for the school’s increasing needs.
During early 2000 the Sisters retained a presence within the parish and the school was entirely staffed by lay teachers who maintained the spirit of the early educationalists.

Developments within the Present Millennium:

In the early years of 2000 a new library and computer block were built
2009 was the 50th Anniversary of the new school.
2010, the Federal Government Building Education Revolution saw the building of a multi-purpose hall, classroom and library.
In 2017 a fire damaged one of the upstairs classrooms and as a result the affected areas were refurbished and made into contemporary, flexible learning space.
2019 saw the design and development of a long indigenous mural created in conjunction with Darren Wighton, staff and students. The mural connects to each classroom’s artefacts, the Murray River, the local lagoon and tells the story of an educational story. Embedded in the mural are QR codes that allows viewers to watch and learn more about the indigenous artefacts, symbols and native animals.
2020 a plan was developed to modernise the Administration building with a view to creating modern staff amenities as well as contemporary multi-function learning spaces and a new library.
2021 the playground areas were improved with a new COLA, updated boundary fences and new rope and climbing based elements.
2023 saw the completion of the refurbishments of the entire Adminsitration building, as well as the 3 downstairs classrooms in the 'New School' building that was built in 1959. This saw an expanded Administration area, meeting room and workspaces, while the upstairs works inlcuded a new Library, Makerspace and multi purpose learnig spaces, accesible by a new lift.

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