Sacred Heart College is a Catholic Co-Educational Secondary School offering education to boys and girls in Years 8-12.

The College was established in 1967 by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions who over a period of years since 1897 have operated various schools in Highgate, Fremantle and country areas of WA.

Initially a girls’ school, the growth of the population in the surrounding suburbs gave rise to a need for the school to expand its number and enrol boys. The first group of boys was enrolled in 1977.

The College is now fully co-educational with an intake of approximately 204 students in Year 8. The full student enrolment is approximately 1000.

The College is situated on an 8-hectare site overlooking the Indian Ocean. Extensive playing fields presently include an oval, hard courts for tennis, netball, volleyball and basketball, as well as cricket practice nets.

Buildings on site include a Resource Centre, Science laboratories, general classrooms and specialist rooms for Computing, Technology and Enterprise, Media Studies, Remediation and Education Support. The McInerney Centre incorporates a gymnasium and provides facilities for education in the Performing Arts (Dance, Drama and Music). We also have a Chapel.

The Pastoral Care Centre is ideally located in the middle of the College and is the focal point for student needs. Within this building are offices for the College Chaplain, Educational Psychologists, Careers Counsellor and the 5 Deans of Students who are allocated to each Year group.

Sacred Heart College is an expression of a philosophy of education which has an explicit and all-pervasive religious dimension. At the heart of this religious dimension is the task of the transmission of truths, values, beliefs and attitudes of the Catholic Faith.

Within this Faith context the College seeks to facilitate the full development of each individual, integrating the secular and the divine and in so doing, to lead each student to a sense of his/her uniqueness and innate lovableness and worth as a creature of God. In its privileged task of education, the College is in partnership with parents, who are the prime educators of their children.

As a Catholic Secondary School founded by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, Sacred Heart College exists to provide for students a Christ centred environment that:

Encourages all students to become fully aware of their value as a person formed in the image of God.

Helps all students to achieve their full potential, utilising their talents in the service of others, and for the benefit of themselves.

Provides a curriculum based on Christian values which offers a wide range of quality educational opportunities so as to foster the
academic, cultural, sporting and spiritual development of students.

Fosters in students the need to explore and develop an appreciation and active commitment to the values of social justice.

Recognises the value of parents within the Sacred Heart Community and supports them in their role as the prime educators of their children.

Our Crest and Motto The motto for Sacred Heart College is “Semper Superne Nitens” meaning “Always Striving Upwards” which is expanded as “To you, our God” This reminds us of the fact that whatever we do we should do it for God, and always be trying to achieve our best for him. The crest consists of several elements: the shield, the crown, palm or laurel branches and several letters. The shield signifies protection. The training and the ideals imparted to us during our College life will act as armour which helps us to hold on to our Christian principles which will be a source of strength in our future lives. (Ephesians 6: 10-18) The crown is a reminder of the rewards to be gained by doing good for the sake of goodness itself. The crown is mentioned in the New Testament as a reward for those who have persevered in doing right (1 Peter 5:4) The palm or laurel branches symbolise victory. In ancient times the winner of a race was crowned with laurel leaves; at Jesus’ triumphant entry to Jerusalem the crowds waved palm branches as a sign of his coming victory over death. We are reminded that our lives can be seen as a struggle to win the prize of victory given to us when we uphold our Christian faith.

The letters V and K stand for Virtue and Knowledge which reminds us that learning is important, but even more important is our living out of our Christian ideals. The letters S and H stand for the Sacred Heart, symbolising the great love that Jesus has for us all, and that we should strive to spread that love to others.

The College was established in 1967 by the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions who also conducted schools in Highgate, Fremantle and many country centres in Western Australia. Click here to view an article on the history of the College.

Whilst the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions no longer teach or play an active role in the administration of the College they maintain informal links with the school community. Currently the Sisters are always invited to join the College community at major events and a significant amount of our fundraising is directed to their Order. We now realise we need to do more, and it needs to be a two-way project. Our students need interaction with the missionary work of the Sisters so as to assist them in living the faith and we need to support the Sisters in whatever way we can.

For more information on the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions and the work they do around the world, visit their web site at http://www.rndm.org/