Our goal is that your child enjoys a solid Catholic education within the greater Western tradition!Who are we?We are Saint Theodore of Canterbury Inc., an Incorporated Association in Western Australia under the auspices of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross. Our association was begun in 2021, after a long period of discernment about how we might best serve God and the wider community here in Western Australia.
Among the association are educators, community leaders, clergy and others who want to see a resurgence of good education in this country and the raising up of successive generations of cultural leaders and creatives within our society. We believe that the best way to do this is to provide children with a complete personal education - that is an education which is intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical. Why a new Catholic Grammar School?We are seeking to open a new P-12 Catholic School in the Murray Shire, Western Australia, ideally at the beginning of the school year in 2024 or in 2025. We believe there is a need for a revival of the classical approach to learning and for a more traditional approach to teaching the Catholic Faith in schools.
Saint Theodore of Canterbury Catholic Grammar School (Saint Theo's for short), will specialise in delivering a classical curriculum including a strong Performing Arts focus. Our Faith Formation programme will be solidly based in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Our practice of prayer both liturgical and devotional will be filtered through the lens of the English patrimony of the Ordinariates. Who was Saint Theodore?Saint Theodore (AD602-690) was the seventh Archbishop of Canterbury. A Greek-speaking native of Tarsus in Asia Minor (Modern-day Turkey), from where Saint Paul the Apostle came. He assisted in the continuing support of the first and oldest Christian school in England, now called the Kings School in Canterbury. It had a classical curriculum, based on the accumulated wisdom of Greece and Rome, the Ancient Near East, and, of course, the Catholic Faith.
The same education that Saint Theodore instilled in ancient England continued to sustain the Western world throughout many centuries and, over the course of time, allowed the great leaps forward in the Arts and Sciences in the Renaissance, the establishment of the European Universities, and the building of the cathedrals and cities. Saint Theodore was also an empathetic diplomat, settling disputes and forging the necessary connections to make the English into a united nation, having a common identity and purpose. He helped create a new culture out of a melting pot of ethnicities and divergent customs. This is why we have adopted him as the Patron of the school. Why a more classical approach to education?We believe that the use of classical pedagogy, aligns very well with the definition of a Christian education as taught by the Second Vatican Council:
Gravissimum educationis (Vatican II, 1965), Paragraph 2. — "Christian Education" "Since all Christians have become by rebirth of water and the Holy Spirit a new creature so that they should be called and should be children of God, they have a right to a Christian education. A Christian education does not merely strive for the maturing of a human person as just now described, but has as its principal purpose this goal: that the baptised, while they are gradually introduced to the knowledge of the mystery of salvation, become ever more aware of the gift of Faith they have received, and that they learn, in addition, how to worship God the Father in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:23) especially in liturgical action, and be conformed in their personal lives according to the new man created in justice and holiness of truth (Eph. 4:22-24); also that they develop into perfect manhood, to the mature measure of the fullness of Christ (cf. Eph. 4:13) and strive for the growth of the Mystical Body; moreover, that aware of their calling, they learn not only how to bear witness to the hope that is in them (cf. Peter 3:15) but also how to help in the Christian formation of the world that takes place when natural powers viewed in the full consideration of man redeemed by Christ contribute to the good of the whole society. Wherefore this sacred synod recalls to pastors of souls their most serious obligation to see to it that all the faithful, but especially the youth who are the hope of the Church, enjoy this Christian education." We hope the above information has helped you find out more about us.
Check out our other pages in this About Us section, Take our Prospective Parents Survey and if you want to ask further questions, please get in touch! |