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Fairholme College

Fairholme College is an independent primary and secondary school for girls.

Fairholme College provides Kindergarten to Year 12 for girls, and boarding from Year 6. Boys are also accepted for Kindergarten and Prep. The school is divided into three sub-schools: Junior School (K to Year 6), Middle School (Year 7 to 9) and Senior School (Year 10 to 12). Each sub-school has its own Head of School.

The Fairholme College motto, 'Burning yet Flourishing', may require further explanation. The motto refers to the burning bush which, according to the Bible, was used by Yahweh to inform Moses that he would lead the Israelites out of Egypt, and is a common symbol for the Reformed churches. The school's website states that the bush "burned brightly yet was not consumed, so too, our Christian faith should burn within us yet flourish". The burning bush is also featured on the school's logo.

History

The Thomson sisters established the first incarnation of Fairholme College in 1908 as Spreydon College. They rented a building on the corner of Warra and Rome Streets, Newtown. Beth and Jessie Thomson were joint principals while Margaret was responsible for boarders. The sisters had moved from Melbourne to Toowoomba and were intent on establishing a school offering high quality education. The following year (1909), patronage from the Presbyterian Church was given and in 1911, the school had 60 pupils, 16 of which were boarders.

Due to financial difficulties, the sisters resigned from the school and returned to Melbourne in 1914 at which time the school was purchased by the Presbyterian Church. At this stage it was renamed the Presbyterian Ladies' College. In mid-1917, a new branch of the school was opened on a property named 'Fairholme' on the eastern side of the city and the following year the school was re-located to the property in Wirra Wirra Street.

Over the next 60 years, the school managed to stay afloat through the depression and World Wars, the merging of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churhces in 1977 and a realisation that Ministers of Religion were not able to fulfill the requirements of principal in conjunction with their parish duties. However, since 1980 the school has moved from strength to strength with increasing enrolments and extensive development and refurbishment.

The school was renamed Fairholme College in March 1978.

Sources:Oak Lodge and Spreydon (2006). Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/chims/placeDetail.html?siteId=16075
Fairholme College (2008). http://www.fairholme.qld.edu.au