History of our School
St. Patrick’s Parish Primary School is one of three primary schools located within the Cathedral Parish of Ballarat and is located at 119 Drummond Street South, Ballarat. There has been a school on this site since 1924 but the story of St. Patrick’s goes back to the days of the gold-rush.
The Catholic Church established the first school for Catholic children in 1858 – School No. 603 Ballarat. Up until 1864 this school was called Soldier’s Hill and later St. Patrick’s when it was moved to the site of the Cathedral grounds in Sturt Street, Ballarat. This was the predecessor for our current school.
The ancestory of the current St. Patrick’s Parish Primary School can be directly traced to the establishment of St. Joseph’s Primary School by the Loreto Sisters in 1877 in Dawson Street and founding one year earlier of St. Patrick’s Christian Brothers Primary School in 1876 in Skipton Street. Both schools were established following the withdrawal of Government funding by legislation in 1872. School No.603 was removed from the Education Department books and became a teacher training facility in 1884. The school was relocated to Skipton Street but was later moved to its current site in Drummond Street South in 1924. School No. 0029 was erected on the site of an old foundry. This school became known as ‘Drummo’ to all its past pupils and locals.
In the late 1970’s came the gradual realisation that two schools within a short distance of each other and a diminishing number of children upon which to draw, was neither viable nor sustainable. A decision was made to merge the two schools on the St. Patrick’s site in Drummond Street under stewardship of the Loreto Sisters at the beginning of the 1982 school year. Sr. Louise Ritchard, IBVM, became the first principal of St. Patrick’s Parish Primary School.
Since this time many students from the central Ballarat area have enjoyed receiving an education at Drummo. The dedicated staff take pride in working with students to provide a rich and well-grounded education for all in a caring educational community.