Principal Paul Ryan Founded 1979 | Phone +61 2 4754 1022 | |
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Established Seminary (1909-1977), Catholic High School (1979) Slogan "Act justly" (Short) "Act Justly, Love Tenderly & Walk Humbly with Our God" (Full) Address 168 Hawkesbury Rd, Springwood NSW 2777, Australia Motto "Act justly" (Short) "Act Justly, Love Tenderly & Walk Humbly with Our God" (Full) School types Private school, Mixed-sex education, Secondary school, Day school Similar Springwo High School, Winmalee High School, Blaxland High School, Nepean Creative and Perfo, McCarthy Catholic College | ||
St Columba's High School, or St Columba's Catholic College, is a Roman Catholic, co-educational, secondary day school, located on the border of Winmalee and Springwood, in New South Wales, Australia.
Contents
Established in 1979, the school is set in the grounds of the St Columba's property, which has extensive bushland surrounding the school. The whole of the property is a Heritage listed site.
Campus
Originally built as a seminary in 1909, it was closed in 1977 and reopened as a high school in 1979. The monastic influence is seen in the neogothic sandstone architecture and the grounds with scattered grottos and shrines overlooking the Blue Mountains World Heritage National Park.
The St Columbas property is one of the largest landholdings in the Blue Mountains Local Government Area. Much of the property consists of natural bushland and is habitat for some threatened and endangered species. The site is also rich in Aboriginal history, including over 80 archaeological sites. It was on this property that the Catholic priest Fr. Eugene Stockton commenced his studies in aboriginal archeology. The building is also rumored to be haunted, per numerous reports by students and teachers.
Symbolism
Telescope
A feature of note is a radio telescope dish salvaged from the Paul Wild Observatory at Culgoora, west of Narrabri in 1997. This is one of a heliograph array of 96 13.7-m dishes that circled the present location of the Compact Array. The heliograph array imaged the Sun at 80 and 160 MHz with several discoveries to its credit before decommission.
Houses
These houses are split into two or three groups for classes. Each house has 2 sub-classes called homerooms. They are only used until Year 9, when a house combines as one homeroom. This was the case up until 2015.