Marist Catholic College North Shore (often shortened to Marist North Shore or abbreviated as MCCNS) is an independent systemic Roman Catholic K–12 coeducational precinct (day school), located in North Sydney, Australia.
Established in 1888, Marist Catholic College North Shore is conducted by Sydney Catholic Schools, based on the teachings of its patrons St. Marcellin Champagnat and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. The school caters to roughly 1300 students from Kindergarten to Year 12. The precinct is administered by the Catholic Education Office for the Archdiocese of Sydney, and is affiliated with the Association of Marist Schools of Australia (AMSA), as well as the Metropolitan Catholic Colleges Sports Association (MCC).
History
Marist Brother's School North Sydney (1888–1916) Marist Brother's School North Sydney was first established on 2 July 1888 by the school's first headmaster, Br Walter Moore. Originally catering for boys in primary to intermediate years (Years 1–10), the school would not go on to teach Secondary (Years 7–12) years until 1965 and then in 2021 would change again to educate both girls and boys from Kindergarten through to Year 12.
The Marist Brothers originally opened the school in response to the educational needs of the poor in the North Sydney area, which was, at the time, a low socioeconomic area. The school was the fourth Marist School opened in Australia after Church Hill (1872), Parramatta (1875) and Hunters Hill (1881) and had a teaching staff of three Brothers and an enrolment of 65 boys. The school initially started as a two-room campus on the site of what is now the St Mary's Campus (Ridge Street).
The school was established with the motto "Esse Non Videri" (Latin), which is translated to, "to be, not to seem".
Marist Brothers High School North Sydney (1916–1965) In 1916, the school's enrolments had reached an excess of 300 students and the limited campus was inadequate to educate comfortably. In response to this, the school moved sites to what is now the La Valla Campus (Carlow Street) but had previously been a local business, Mark Foy's Furniture Repository before 1916. It had been purchased by the Parish Priest at the time, Fr. Cornish SJ and converted into classrooms and a hall known as the Manresa Hall. Once the transformation of the school's campus was completed, the school was named Marist Brother's High School North Sydney.
"Practice and Demonstration" School of St Joseph's Training School (1916–1955) After the Marist Brothers left what is now called the St Mary's Campus (Ridge St) in 1916, the Sisters of St Joseph moved their primary school which was originally at a site on Mount St to the vacated school. This new primary school became known as the "Practice and Demonstration" School of St Joseph's Training School. In the term of the first principal Sr Mary Donatres Egan RSJ, the demand for Catholic education in North Sydney grew to the point where the school extended to educate from primary to secondary education which included the building of a new school on the Mount St property the school originated on. This new school specialised in commercial subjects; cooking, domestic Science and dressmaking.
In 1955, when the Archbishop of Sydney established an Education Office, both the Mount St Commercial and Domestic Science School and Ridge St's "Practice and Demonstration" school of St Joseph's Training School combined. The Ridge St campus was to educate the primary students, and the Mount St campus became the senior campus for pupils from Ridge Street, Naremburn and Lavender Bay. At the end of 1955, the Sister's of St Joseph vacated the school and transferred to Lavender Bay; the Sisters of Mercy took over and renamed the school St Mary's.
St Mary's Catholic Primary School (1955–2021)
In 1956, St Mary's became solely a primary school, education boys and girls from Kindergarten to Year 4. The construction of the expressway saw the demolition of a large part of the school campus which affected enrolment with there being only 69 students by 1978.
In 1980, however, there was an increased demand for primary education which saw the school extend to teach Kindergarten to Year 6 with enrolment back up to 186 by 1989. This year saw the introduction of the first Lay principal, Mrs Susan Clifton, the school was a single stream school with an entire Lay staff. By the early 1990s it became evident that the school was overdue for construction.