{"id":13,"date":"2016-10-17T06:10:17","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T06:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spc.nsw.edu.au\/about\/history\/"},"modified":"2021-07-12T11:37:17","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T01:37:17","slug":"history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.spc.nsw.edu.au\/about\/history\/","title":{"rendered":"History"},"content":{"rendered":"
In 1926 Christian Brothers\u2019 Provincial, Br P I Hickey had the vision of building a new Catholic boys school on the outskirts of Strathfield. More specifically he proposed that this school be built within the perimeter of the Christian Brothers\u2019 Training College, \u2018Mount St Mary\u2019 and would thereby serve as an ideal practising school for student Brothers training there. The idea was met with some criticism, mainly due to the remoteness of the area which was largely surrounded by bush and cattle tracks, had little road access, and was situated a fair distance away from local railway stations. Br Hickey remained undeterred however and pushed ahead with his building plans.<\/p>\n
On January 20 1928, St Patrick\u2019s College, Strathfield was officially blessed and opened by Dr M Kelly, Archbishop of Sydney. Thirty nine students were enrolled and split into three grades to be taught by Brothers L S Carroll, P K Kent and J R Crichton. The acting Principal in this first year was Provincial Consulter and Master of Method, Br M B Hanrahan. The school itself consisted of six large classrooms, and four other rooms designed for Physics, Chemistry, Art and technical training such as Woodwork. At the end of the first year over 100 students were enrolled at St Patrick\u2019s College. Today enrolment at the College exceeds 1,400 students.<\/p>\n