St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School began operation in 1961 and was opened by the Sisters of Charity.
St Francis de Sales was established in 1961 by the Sisters of Charity to serve the Oak Park Community. The school was named after St Francis de Sales who was dedicated to the church and demonstrated how to live the everyday life in the image of Christ. He was a model of holiness and lived a life that was amiable and friendly which continues to be reflected in our community today.
The school was housed in 4 classrooms situated alongside the Parish Church. The school now consists of eleven classrooms, a library, parish hall, and a staffroom and work area for teachers.
In 2010, we undertook a major building project, adding a new, state of the art educational wing comprising of a library, amphitheatre, resource/ planning space and three large, dynamic, flexible learning spaces. We are always looking to maintain and develop our grounds and facilities to provide the most positive learning environments we can for our students. In 2020 we will have 12 classes consisting of: 2 Grade Prep, 2 Grade 1, 2 Grade 2, 3 Grade 3/4 and 3 Grade 5/6. In 2019 the school undertook the process of a whole school masterplan of which stage 1 is commencing early 2020 with the construction of a Covered Outside Learning Area, which will be constructed over the basketball court area of the school.
We celebrate the richness and diversity of our school population which includes an enrolment of 266 students from 186 families. Students in our school were predominantly born in Australia (89%) – the other 11% were born in either: India, Argentina, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Italy, France, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates, England, Malaysia, Japan, United Kingdom or the United States.
St Francis de Sales families generate from 31 different countries with 73 (39%) identifying a family language background other than English.
The students are predominantly Catholic (215 or 81%) and other religious backgrounds of our students are Greek or other Orthodox (6%), Anglican (2.5%), Lutheran (1%), Baptist (1%), Hindu (2%) and Buddhist (1%).
Specialist programs offered at our school include Art, Physical Education and LOTE (Italian). These programs operate from Prep to Year Six, taught by teachers passionate about their respective fields.
