We learn from the joys and the tears
Michael Box Peer Year 1977 Deputy Principal Teacher 1987 - Present When thinking about the sixty years of Aquinas College it is easy to see the physical differences in the College and to recognise the changes that have occurred, as much because time has passed and the expectations of people of what a school can provide have grown. It’s worth thinking back to what helped build the College in the first place. In the late 1950s Mitcham, Ringwood and Croydon and surrounds were the outer suburbs, where the local housing was constructed on streets that still had orchards and other rural activities. The Catholics in these areas built their communities, often through their own physical and economic efforts. Once the primary schools were built in parishes, the next need emerged, where would the children go to high school. The concept of Aquinas College was something different to the “Order owned” schools of inner Melbourne. Instead the Archdiocese determined that the local parishes would own a regional school, which centred Aquinas in the heart of the community and in many ways set it up for what it is today, a school that the community believes in. November 1972
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