St John Bosco College, Sydney
St John Bosco College is an independent systemic Roman Catholic co-educational secondary day school, located in Engadine, a southern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The college was founded in 1978 under the name St John Bosco High School. History. The school was built after many years of planning and effort by the Parish Priest, John Briffa SDB, and a group of parishioners. The school's principal was once always a Salesian priest, but this changed in 2010 following the departure of Fr Bernie Graham. The methods of teaching at the school are  based on John Bosco's theories of education. The school was a Years 7 to 10, co-educational school under the name St John Bosco High School until 1998 when the school accepted its first Year 11 students and was renamed St John Bosco College. The first class to graduate from St John Bosco College was in 1999. The inaugural College Captains were Ryan Della Ca and Elizabeth Favaloro. Patron. The patron of the College is Saint John Bosco, an Italian saint from the 1800s who modelled his teaching methods on the practices of Saint Francis de Sales (therefore his  pedagogy and charism are called Salesian). Symbols. Motto. The motto of the College is "Gaudium et Spes" ("Joy and Hope"). The motto is an extract from the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World". The joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and the hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ as well ... Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find an echo in their hearts. Badge. The College badge has a plain white cross  with the words "Bosco" (which the school is commonly referred to as) and "Gaudium Et Spes" (the school motto, "Joy and Hope"). The background is dark green. House banners. As of 2008 new house banners were introduced to the school. These were chosen from a banner making competition and replaced the old house flags. Along with the new banners every student was given badges for their house with the image of their house's banner. Construction work. In 2006 a new classroom block, the Ciantar Block, was completed and named after Fr Joseph Ciantar, who was the pioneer of the  Salesian Mission in Engadine. A new basketball court was also completed, called the Reichel Court, which was named in memory of teacher Chris Reichel. The court was built using a sum of money Reichel left to the school. During 2015 and 2016 a new hall and assembly area with an attached Fitness Studio were built, as well as a Technical & Applied Studies (TAS) block on the site of the old hall. During 2017 the old TAS rooms were converted into a Learning Centre, music & drama rooms plus general classrooms.