The Lasallian Heritage 

St John Baptist De La Salle

Alert to the needs of his time, he was an innovator in the development of teacher training programmes and in curricular and pedagogical practices.  Teachers ranked with servants in seventeenth century France.  De La Salle, however, recognized that teachers stand in a providential and grace-filled relationship to children.  Because of the special dignity of this calling, he provided teachers with extensive pedagogical preparation and on-going supervision.  De La Salle was one of the early Catholic proponents of universal education.  Although his schools were primarily for the poor, they attracted children from families of differing economic backgrounds.  However, he tolerated nothing of the social segregating which was the practice of the day.  He prescribed uniform management procedures for the classroom instruction of students from different social and academic levels.

De La Salle regarded a school as a community of believers working cooperatively to achieve a shared vision.  He envisioned teachers as ministers of grace who exercise their vocation daily by instructing youth in the principles of the gospel as well as in the various academic and vocational subjects.  His teachers thus helped young people to commit themselves to the teachings of the gospel, to develop loyalty to the Catholic Church and to prepare them for productive citizenship.  Today students in more than 80 countries throughout the world receive their education in Lasallian schools that differ greatly in terms of clientele, curriculum and methodology as well as in social and cultural conditions.  These schools are unified in the Lasallian heritage.

St Patrick's Grammar School was founded in 1934 and moved to its present site in 1937.  It has an enrolment of 725 students, some of whom are girls in the upper school.  St Patrick's is owned by the De La Salle Brothers.  Working to support the ideals of the Lasallian School is a dedicated staff of lay teachers who bring to the school a wealth of talent, expertise and experience. 

“Be convinced of what St Paul says, that you plant and water the seed, but it is God through Jesus Christ who makes it grow, that He is the one who brings your work to fulfilment.  So, when you encounter some difficulty in the guidance of your disciples, when there are some who do not profit from your teaching and you observe a reckless spirit in them, turn to God with confidence. Earnestly ask Jesus to make his Spirit come alive in you, since he has chosen you to do his work.”(John Baptist De La Salle, MTR)