Our School History
Built in 1915 St Joseph's is a fundamental part of the story of Catholic School's in WA
St Joseph's School History
Founded in 1915 alongside St Joseph's Church
In 1898 the Sisters of Mercy from Derry, Ireland established a Convent at Victoria Park. At that time the Victoria Park Parish extended from South Perth to Armadale, thus including the area now known as Queens Park. The Year 1912 saw the completion of the Church named after St Joseph at Queens Park – a ‘station’ Church for the Victoria Park parish.
In 1915 the St Joseph’s Church/School was established, due to a large extent to the efforts of Mrs D Cantwell, proprietress of the Coronation Hotel. The foundation Sisters at the school were Sr M Aloysius Phelan and Sr M Alphonsus Bennett who travelled daily from Victoria Park.
St Joseph’s Motto: “To Work Is To Pray”.
St Joseph's School Values
As St Joseph’s was established by the Mercy Order of Sisters many of their foundation principles underpin the traditions of the school.
One of these traditions is the care and concern for each individual of the St Joseph’s Community; students, staff and parents.
Our school values are: Justice, Compassion, Tolerance, Peace and Forgiveness.
St Joseph's
School Song
In our Centenary Year 2015 Aleisha Powell, a staff member, wrote and put to music what was then called our Centenary School Song. Aleisha incorporated the Wadjuk people on whose land we reside.
The song mentioned the Mercy sisters and how we work in the Spirit of Catherine McAuley and follow the Mercy sister’s values of Justice, Compassion, Tolerance, Peace and Forgiveness. The song is now referred to as St Joseph’s School Song.
St Joseph’s School Song
St Joseph's
School Prayer
In our Centenary Year 2015 Lynda Beadle, a staff member, wrote a School Prayer for us. The prayer originally began with the words “We pray to you in this centenary year of St Joseph’s School”. We changed it to “We pray to you as the community of St Joseph’s School” after the centenary year was over.
Lynda ensured that this prayer honoured the Mercy tradition of our school by saying that we remember the Mercy values of Justice, Compassion, Tolerance, Peace and Forgiveness.
St Joseph's
School Prayer
Dear Lord,
We pray to you as the community of St. Joseph’s School.
To honour the Mercy sisters by remembering their values,
Justice, Compassion, Tolerance, Peace and Forgiveness.
Grant us the courage to live by these values and bless our school community, past, present and future.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.
Amen
