Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP has officially opened and blessed St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Rosebery.
Despite welcoming its first cohort in 2023 this was the school’s grand opening, presided by principal Bernard Ryan and attended by the school’s 150 students, parents, teachers, clergy, education and civic leaders.
Sydney Mayor Clover Moore, NSW Minister for Local Government and member for Heffron Ron Hoenig MP, Sydney City South parish priest Fr Paul Smithers, Master of Ceremonies at St Mary’s Cathedral Fr Benjamin Saliba, and Sydney Catholic Schools Executive Director Danielle Cronin were also in attendance.
In his homily, Archbishop Fisher addressed the students, telling them the significance of attending a school named after St Joseph.
“As guardian of the Holy Family, he and his wife were the first teachers of the child Jesus,” he said.
“Ask St Joseph to intercede for you in your new school and you will be in safe hands.”
During the ceremony, the archbishop was presented with a gift of the school’s cross by Fr Smithers.
Ryan detailed the history of St Joseph’s Rosebery from its original opening in 1888 and closure in 1992, before it was rebuilt and reopened in 2023.
“We now have this remarkable building, a space where we can challenge the norms of our time, dare to do things different, and carry out our mission as Catholic educators with and for the church,” he said.
Currently accommodating students from Kindergarten to Year 2, Ryan said the school will continue to grow and reach its full capacity of 500 students by the end of the decade.
“The plan is to continue to enrol a new kindergarten cohort every year,” he told The Catholic Weekly.
“By 2029, that’s when we’ll have the full school, kindergarten to year six.”
Ryan said the years already enrolled in the school were full, as was the kindergarten class for 2026, even though there are multiple primary schools in the surrounding suburbs and the new Green Square Public School currently under construction.
