St Paul's Anglican School, Bald Hills


St Paul's Anglican School, Bald Hills, commonly known as St Paul's School is an independent Anglican co-educational early learning, primary and secondary day school located in the northern Brisbane suburb of Bald Hills, Queensland, Australia, bordering the Pine River and the Moreton Bay Region.
The school opened on 31 January 1960 and is named after St Paul the Apostle and bears the same name as St Paul's School in London. St. Paul's School offers an academic and technical education as well as a range of co-curricular activities.

Sub-schools

St Paul's is composed of five sub-schools:
Pre-PrepNew to school
Junior SchoolPrep to Year 6Director: Mrs. Connolly
Middle SchoolYear 7 to Year 9Director: Mr. Howes
Senior SchoolYear 10 to Year 12Director: Mr. Sullivan
International SchoolAssists international students with the English LanguageDirector: Mrs. Kemish

Headmasters and principals

History

In 1857 the site of the school was first settled by Scottish settlers. In 1859, the British colony of Queensland was founded. In 1886 the original wooden building, the Old Farmhouse, was built. It still stands today. On 13 February 1958 the Church of England acquired the property via a bequest from Sir Edwin Tooth for the "establishment of an all boys grammar school". The school opened on 31 January 1961 with a small staff of three and an enrolment of sixty-four boys between grades eight and twelve. Years later the school expanded its clientele and became fully co-educational. This allowed for a substantial increase in funds, which meant much-needed facilities could be built.

Campus

Location

St Paul's Campus is located in Bald Hills, approximately north of the Brisbane central business district. The school is situated on the bank of the South Pine River, on the border between the Brisbane City Council and Moreton Bay Regional Council. The area surrounding the school is a mix of residential and rural properties.

Grounds and facilities

The School occupies a single campus, which includes both the school's buildings as well as its sporting fields and grazing land. A pair of hoop pines which were originally planted in the 1850s are now heritage-listed.
Many of the buildings on the school campus are 40 years old. More modern facilities include the School Chapel, the Music Centre, the Middle School, the renovated Design/Technology building, the Geize Library and new Science Laboratories. Construction was recently completed on the new Sutton Building, replacing the old building of the same name at the beginning of 2012. It includes the school's first café – Sippers@Suttons as well as English classrooms and the international school.

House system

Prior to 2017, the house system consisted of ten secondary school houses and four junior school houses. The secondary school houses were Arnot, Baker, Gartside, Grindrod, Halse, Ivor Church, Stewart, Strong, Sutton, and Tooth, whereas the junior school houses were Rudd, Ingpen, Klein, and Theile. However, in late 2016, it was decided to establish a set of new houses across the entire school, based on elements of the school crest. This was because of the decrease in the school population and the fact that 14 houses were redundant. The new houses are:
FoundedHouseHead of House
2017BoekLisa Bolger
2017GladiusNeil White
2017MitreDavid Fenwick
2017ScudoSophie Hughes
2017TajaErica Trudgian

Sexual abuse incident

In 2003, St Paul's School was the subject of intense public scrutiny after former students stated that they had been abused by Kevin Lynch, a staff member employed at the time. Lynch was employed as a school counsellor at Brisbane Grammar School during the 1970s and 1980s, and subsequently at St Paul's School. The students claimed that they were tortured, hypnotised and required to perform sexual acts for Lynch, and alleged that they had told St Paul's School staff about Lynch's activities, but were ignored. In 1997, shortly after having been charged with the sexual abuse of students at Brisbane Grammar School and St Paul's, Lynch committed suicide.

Notable alumni