| Gilroy Catholic College | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Castle Hill, NSW, Australia | |
| Information | |
| Type | Roman Catholic co-educational, Private, Secondary, Day School |
| Motto | "Christ is my light" |
| Established | 1980 |
| Headmaster | Brad Campbell |
| Grades | 7–12 |
| Enrolment | 1030 |
| Colour(s) | Blue and Gold |
| Affiliations | Roman Catholic, Cardinal Norman Thomas Gilroy |
| Website | [1] |
Gilroy Catholic College is a co-educational Roman Catholic secondary school for students from Year 7 through to Year 12 located in Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia, a suburb of Sydney.
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Gilroy Catholic College began at a school with 137 Year 7 students and 12 staff in 1980. This was after strong parish and local support for a local Catholic co-educational secondary school. It was decided that the College would be built on the land formerly belonging to St Gabriel's School for the Hearing Impaired, as its large property and pre-existing buildings would be able to cater for the new school.
The school was originally intended to offer only junior secondary education for students in Year 7 through to Year 10. However, in 1982 it was decided that Gilroy would also include senior education (Year 11 and Year 12) for its students.
The school, with continuing support from the CEO and St Gabriel's School for the Hearing Impaired hosts a learning support centre for secondary students with hearing impairment.
The schools feeder schools originally consisted of St. Michael's (Baulkham Hills) Our Lady Of Lourdes (Baulkham Hills South), St. Bernadettes (Castle Hill) and Our Lady of the Rosary (Kellyville).
The original students are known as the "Gilroy Pioneers", or simply "The Pioneers".
Gilroy College was named after Cardinal Sir Norman Thomas Gilroy, the first Cardinal born in Australia. As well as adopting his name, the College also made Cardinal Gilroy's personal motto "Christ is my light" the college's official motto.
In 2004, Gilroy College celebrated its Silver Jubilee (25th anniversary) as a school and a community.
Each year, the College celebrates its patron with a formal Gilroy day mass in the morning, while also including celebration activities during the afternoons. This was recently changed from March 17, the anniversary of Cardinal Gilroy's elevation to becoming a Bishop, to May 4, the day on which the school was officially opened.
Gilroy College offers reflection days for its junior grades and three day retreats for its senior students.
Gilroy College has an extensive computer network incorporating four computer rooms with PCs, a class set of laptops running Windows and a section of the library with fifteen Windows computers. Also, starting in 2011, students from years 7-10 got their own Mac laptop. The year 7 an dyear 9's got new ones while the year 8's got second hand ones to be updated. The year 10 of 2010 did not get any but the year 8 of 2010 did so that they would have them for next year.
The school's Intranet software is impressive and allows easy access for staff, students and parents to the information in which they are interested. Student files, reports, absence data, merit and discipline information and so on is accessible from school and home. The software has been written and is maintained by staff at the College.
On February 9, 2008, The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that Greens analysis of government figures showed that, over four years, Gilroy received $12.2 million more in federal government funding than it is entitled to under the socioeconomic status (SES) formula.[1]