St. Gerard Majella Catholic Primary School

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St. Gerard Majella Catholic Primary School
Established	1964
School type	Roman Catholic co-ed primary
Locale	Carlingford
Grades	K-6
Chaplain	Rev. Colin Blayney BSc(Hons), BTh
Principal	Mrs Carmel Turner
Location	Sydney, NSW, Australia
Enrollment	c.300
Faculty	30
Colors	Blue and maroon
Website	www.stgerards.nsw.edu.au

St Gerard Majella Catholic Primary School (more commonly known as "St Gerard's") in Carlingford, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is a co-educational Catholic primary school for NSW school years Kindergarten to 6. It has a student population of approx. 300 students.

1 History
2 School namesake
3 School Houses
4 Buddy System
5 Notable alumni
6 Parish
7 References
8 See also
9 External links/sources

[edit] History

On 3 March 1963, Carlingford was decreed a separate parish from Epping and a Parish Priest was appointed. The new Parish was named St Gerard Majella and in September 1964 the first school building of three classrooms and offices was opened by the Sisters of Mercy, Parramatta.

The first lay Principal took over from the Sisters of Mercy in 1981 and remained until 1987.

The current principal is Mrs Carmel Turner, who became principal in 2003 after the retirement of the former principal, Miss Carmel McDonald.

In 2005, the school underwent major renovations. The original classrooms were demolished and new ones built, many of the other classrooms were refurbished. A new office, staffroom and library were also built. New gardens were also put in.

[edit] School namesake

The school and parish are named after Saint Gerard Majella (April 23, 1725- October 16, 1755), an Italian saint. St Gerard is the patron saint of childbirth; children; expectant mothers; falsely accused people; good confessions; lay brothers; motherhood; mothers; Muro, Italy; pregnant women; pro-life movement and unborn children.

[edit] School Houses

Every student in the school is in one of four houses. Students represent their house in the annual swimming and athletics carnivals. In addition, students can earn point for their houses by behaving well.

Up until, and including 2005, the houses were simply called different colours. However, the school decided that for 2006 the houses would have names. The houses are:

Dharrug (gold). Named after the original owners of the land the school is built on, the Dharrug Aboriginal tribe.

Majella (red). Named after St Gerard Majella.

Mackillop (blue). Named after Blessed Mary Mackillop.

Mercy (green). Named after the Sisters of Mercy, the founders of the school.

[edit] Buddy System

A Buddy System is in place whereby a student in year 6 gets paired up with a student in kindergarten and asists them in their first year of school. If there are more students in year 6 than in kindergarten, some kindergarteners have two buddys. The opposite happens if there are more kindergarteners.