As Australia’s largest boarding school for boys, the city and country connection that exists within the Joeys community is entwined in the very fabric of our community. Boys who hail from across the road in Sydney, learn, grow and form lifelong friendships with both boys and their families from rural and regional Australia.

Qualities such as strength of character, humility and care for others are inspired by the life of St Marcellin Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers, who himself was born in rural France. These values are passed on to each new generation of students and underpin many of the distinctive elements that characterise an education at Joeys.

At Joeys, it is our privilege to continue to be a school where 50% of our boys board, and 25% come from country regions. We strive to provide a safe, caring and familiar place that your son can call home throughout the duration of his school life. 

Boys from the country have been instrumental in building the traditions and spirit that are embedded here at Joeys. The continuity of a culture of boarders from rural and regional areas is a priority for us in this second Joeys century, as we strive to “keep the country in the College”. 

Godfrey Kelly from Wiseman’s Ferry was the first boy in the St Joseph’s College register, transferring from the Marist Brothers secondary boarding school in Harrington Street to Hunters Hill. The 55 boys in the first intake lived and studied in a temporary two-storey wooden building (located between the present swimming pool and the squash courts) that was not quite finished by the time the boys arrived.

Construction of the permanent facilities began in 1882. The southern wing of today’s landmark sandstone building was built first and originally stood on its own. From 1889 to 1894, the northern and central wings were built, creating the beautiful, architecturally impressive school that still dominates the skyline from many viewpoints today.

At its centenary celebrations in 1981 and until the early 1990s, Joeys was as it always had been – a full-boarding school with Marist Brothers still comprising a large proportion of the teaching and senior administrative staff. But things were about to change and, in response to falling enrolments affecting boarding schools everywhere, by 1996 Joeys was welcoming its first ‘extended’ day boys into Year 7.

Today, St Joseph’s College is Australia’s largest boarding school for boys. Even beyond this distinction, the school stands alone among the nation’s boarding institutions for how it integrates its boarders and day students. As the Headmaster Mr Michael Blake describes it, the only real difference between the two groups “is that half of them sleep over”. It is a community in which boys live, eat, pray, play and study together. The education and pastoral care they receive is to the highest standard, and the key Marist values of simplicity, modesty and humility are lived every day, translating into a student body that is unpretentious and egalitarian, and that places utmost value in being respectful, honest, trustworthy, inclusive, hardworking and determined.

The College, too, lives every day by its motto, In Meliore Contende, Strive for Better Things, providing the environment and opportunities for every boy to become the best version of himself. Joeys is not a selective school. It is about giving everyone a chance, fostering all abilities, and believing that everyone counts.

Its facilities are second to none, but ultimately St Joseph’s College is focused on the young man of substance who will walk out of its gates, equipped with the character and soul to build a productive and successful life, full of purpose and meaning.