St. Columba's High School

St. Columba's High School is a Roman Catholic, co-educational, Secondary day school, located on the border of Winmalee and Springwood, in New South Wales, Australia.

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. [ [http://www.heritage.nsw.gov.au/07_subnav_01_2.cfm?itemid=1637 NSW Heritage Office Website - Online Database ] ]

Campus

Originally built as a seminary in 1909, it was closed in 1977 and reopened as a high school in 1979 [ [http://ceo-web.parra.catholic.edu.au/stcolumbas/history.htm "Our Story" St Columba's High School] Retrieved 5 February 2007] . 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 sitesFact|article|date=May 2007. It was on this property that Fr. Eugene Stockton (Catholic Priest) commenced his studies in aboriginal archeology.Fact|article|date=May 2007

ymbolism

* 'Columba' is a Latinization of 'Colum', which means dove. A dove is featured in the school emblem.
* 'Iona Chapel' derives its name from the Island of Iona where Columba founded a monastery Iona Abbey.
* Much of the architecture features the Celtic Cross.

Telescope

A feature of note is a radio telescope dish salvaged from the Paul Wild Observatory at Culgoora, west of Narrabri in 1997 by an enthusiastic and apparently well connected former physics teacher, Ross Cutts. 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 [ [http://www.atnf.csiro.au/news/newsletter/jun03/ATCA_report.htm "Compact Array and Mopra report" Australian Telescope National Facility] Retrieved 5 February 2007] .

List of principals

*1979 – 1984 Sr Anne Henson
*1984 – 1992 Mr Jim McCartan
*1992 – 1998 Mr Geoff Hicks
*1998 – 2001 Mr Alan Moran
*2001 – 2005 Dr Anne Wenham
*2005 – Mrs Delma Horan

Leadership Team 2008

Captains:

James Bairstow

Pheobe Williams

School Council:

Alan Eisenhuth

Kendall Gaddes

Emma Chadwick

William Southers

References

See also

* List of Non-Government schools in New South Wales
*Catholic Education, Diocese of Parramatta

External links

* [http://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/stcolumbas St. Columba's High School Website]
* [http://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/Default.aspx?target=%2FOUR+SCHOOLS%2FSchool+Profiles%2FSchool+Profiles.htm&id=StColumbas St. Columba's High School Profile]