Celebrating 50 Years of Educating Young Women

In 2016 Mount St Benedict College proudly marked the 50th anniversary as a school, its Jubilee year with a number of celebrations. 

Coinciding with the Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Church, it has been a fitting time to reflect on the identity and traditions of the College, to give thanks for all those who have been part of the journey and to look forward with hope to the future. 

In the 1960s the Sisters of the Good Samaritan recognised the need for a Catholic school for girls in the Hills District of NSW. In 1966 Mount St Benedict College was opened, with the first classes taking place in the basement of the Mount St Benedict Novitiate. Those first students and their teachers probably could not have foreseen the population explosion that was to take place in this area of Sydney, which would see the College grow to its current size of over 1000 students. 

Looking back over fifty years it is encouraging to find that the values that informed the early years of the College are still the same now – the emphasis on the Benedictine heritage and the Good Samaritan traditions that were evident in those early years are still the driving force at the College. 

From the beginning Mount St Benedict College offered girls a broad curriculum, a wide variety of cocurricular activities and many different sporting opportunities. As the College has grown it has gone from strength to strength in each of these areas, consistently achieving excellent academic results, having a reputation as a highly successful sporting school and making a name for itself in many competitions, particularly at a global level in Future Problem Solving. 

Thanks to the foresight of the Sisters, the College continues to enjoy a beautiful position overlooking an area of remnant Sydney Blue Gum High Forest which makes a beautiful backdrop to the modern facilities we now enjoy.