Wollemi College

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We are Sydney's newest boys' school, but already it is apparent that Wollemi is an extraordinary place. Please do not measure our College by its expansive grounds, the commitment of parents and staff, our NAPLAN record, or even the impressive HSC results of its first graduates in 2011. All these things are real, but our College has far more to offer than all this.
The education we offer is based on expertise in the classroom, unity between parents and teachers, idealism and generosity in families, the best of support for parents, understanding of character education, and most of all, on the inestimable advantage of having Our Lord with us in the Blessed Sacrament in the College Chapel.
Wollemi is also the newest school of the PARED (Parents for Education) Foundation. Tangara School for Girls and Redfield College, the first PARED school, is well known as the center of high academic achievement, character education, and vibrant Catholicism. We draw a substantial intake from the other PARED school in Sydney's west, Montgrove College in Orchard Hills. We have sought to provide a most comprehensive view of the College through this website, but a walk around in person is always better. Please come along for one of our Open Days. They are scheduled each term.
Wollemi College is an independent boys' school teaching the Catholic faith, situated on 10 hectares in Werrington, in Sydney's west. The College grew out of Orchard Hills Preparatory School, founded in 1999 by a group of parents and teachers, the PARED (Parents for Education) Foundation. Orchard Hills has developed into Montgrove College for girls with boys in the infant years and Wollemi College, which began operating in 2004. It is based on the principle that parents are the primary educators of their children and that schools exist to give parents every support. This support is found in the quality of the academic curriculum, in the way that staff work with students and parents in the unique tutorial system, in the emphasis on character development and virtues in the curriculum, and in the concern that staff and peer example be entirely positive and supportive of parents. Home and school are united. There is ongoing input to parents through various programs, all designed to assist parents in being more effective.
Students at Wollemi work hard, with responsibility in studies seen as a key to character development. The College places importance on developing virtues seen as good habits, the building blocks of character. By developing character strengths such as sound judgment, self-control, courage, and responsibility towards others, students can better use their freedom to make the right choices in life. Human and civic virtues are fostered.
The education at Wollemi is personal. Each boy receives a personal mentor, or tutor, selected from the teaching staff of the College. The tutor is constant support for the student through his attention, friendship, example, and advice. He meets regularly with the student during the term and meets with his parents at least once each term, reviewing progress and helping with goal setting. The tutor takes a personal interest in the progress of the boys he tutors, acting on the parents' behalf and coordinating the College's services for the family. Also, parental values receive reinforcement from a positive peer environment present through the College.
Many schools today would agree that parents are the first educators in principle. However, few can pay more than lip service because their contact with parents is minimal, superficial, or restricted mainly to discussing academic progress. Some even misunderstand this term, reducing its meaning to refer to early intervention in a child's reading.
Yet, parents are the primary educators, and schools should seek to give parents every support. In particular, schools must reinforce the work of parents in passing on values and building character. We hold it to be the right of parents, except in genuinely exceptional circumstances, to set the agenda in their children's moral development. At Wollemi, several efficient approaches ensure that the College works very closely with each boy's parents, ensuring that parents are, in fact, the first educators.

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