Cardinal joins celebrations at Clancy

by Sheree Mutton – South West Advertiser newspaper.

Hundreds of students, teachers and politicians joined the Archbishop of Sydney at West Hoxton’s Clancy Catholic College on Friday for the blessing and opening of the final stages of its building program.

Cardinal George Pell led the ceremony, which was attended by federal MP for Werriwa Laurie Ferguson and executive director of Catholic Schools Dr Dan White. Cardinal Edward Clancy, the former archbishop of Sydney, was unable to attend due to poor health.

Principal John Robinson said that while he was disappointed that Cardinal Clancy could not be at the event, his involvement in the school was significant.

“Right from the school’s first days, Cardinal Clancy had four main hopes for the students of the college,” Mr Robinson said.

“That they would be well educated, that their school experiences would allow them to make successful life choices, that they would become informed, practising Catholics and that they be normal.”

The school, which now has its own media unit, had two of its students win in the student section of the Tropfest Short Film Festival.

“It’s been quite a journey already,” Mr Robinson said. “I know that the best is yet to come for our young school.”

The school, which opened in 2006 with 55 year 7 students, is expected to have more than 1000 students next year.

Director of Fulton Trotter Architects and lead architect on Clancy Catholic College, Mark Trotter was ecstatic in the result of the project. He attended the opening along with colleagues from the Sydney office to celebrate the opening of the final stage.

“It is a huge milestone for the college and our practice, Clancy has been such an enjoyable process and has become this wonderful community of education excellence in first class teaching facilities, I congratulate John Robinson and the Diocese on behalf of our practice for their excellent new facility and for the journey” Trotter said.

The college began in 2005 on a green site in West Hoxton, southwest of Sydney. The Catholic Weekly covered a story in 2005 when the site was in its early days shortly after the announcement of the planned college.

In 2010, the college library was awarded a Master Builders Award for Private Schools under $5M shortly after completion. We hope this is the beginning of awards for the campus which will be entered in the 2012 Architecture and CEFPI awards programs.