Our Stories

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Your story - 200 years of Catholic Education

Video Monologues

George Marley is an Irish Catholic convict transported to Australia who established the first school for Catholic Students in Hunter St Parramatta. He speaks about his mission to ensure that Catholic children had a school of their own.

10-year-old Anne is one of the first students at the new school for Catholic children opened by George Marley and Fr John Therry in Parramatta. She speaks of her experience with school and describes the environment of the classroom and what was expected of the students.

In 1917, Ellen Kelly is a 19-year-old school monitor. She is assisting the Josephite nuns at St Josephs School in Penrith. She speaks of her brother fighting on the Western Front and her wish to train as a teacher at the North Sydney Facility.

In 1959, Lucio Pennestri is a young 16-year old migrant student. He is a child of Italian migrants fleeing Europe after the war he arrived in Australia in 1956. He talks about settling in Australia and attending school in a new country.

John Khoury is a young Lebanese teacher at Cerdon College Merrylands. He is 21 years old. He speaks of his experience of teaching at Cerdon and the multicultural students at his schools. Like many young people at a time of mass demonstrations against the Vietnam War, he is an active member of Catholics for Peace and a Maronite Catholic.

Amal is a Year 9 student at Nagle College Blacktown. Her family migrated to Australia in 2006, from The Republic of Sudan and then Egypt. She speaks about the many differences between life in Sudan and in Australia.

Audio Stories

Click on the links below to hear the audio monologue. To see the scripts of the monologues, click on the PDFs.