SCHOOL HISTORY

St Joseph’s School Northam has a long tradition of a caring environment and prides itself as a learning centre with programs to cater for all students. The Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition established the first Catholic school in Northam in 1889. The Marist Brothers opened St Paul’s, a boy’s college, in 1948 and in 1971, these two schools combined to become a coeducational primary and secondary school on two separate campuses.

Since the commencement of Catholic education in Northam, there have been many instances where St Joseph’s School community has demonstrated vision. Firstly, when the Sisters arrived in 1889 to establish St Joseph’s Parish School and again when they opened St Anthony’s in West Northam in 1902 and secondly, when the Brothers arrived in 1948 to establish St Paul’s College, under the direction of Monsignor Lenihan. Thirdly, with the ‘radical plan’ to merge the two schools; St Joseph’s Convent School and St Paul’s College (St Anthony’s closed in 1967) to become St Joseph’s School.

Over recent times, we have been fortunate to extend our teaching and learning facilities through the construction of the St Marcellin Performing Arts Centre and the St Emilie Science and Language Centre. Such facilities enable us to offer a vibrant Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 curriculum.

The School seeks to build on the hard work and vision demonstrated by our founding orders to continue to provide an excellent Catholic education to the community of Northam and the wider Avon region.