In 2021 Hale School celebrates the 60th anniversary of its Wembley Downs campus, a milestone in the School’s 163-year history.
On 6 March 1961, an opening ceremony was held at the new Wembley Downs school where a ribbon was cut and the first students and staff of the new campus entered the buildings. On the first day of school this year, Hale’s annual Commencement Ceremony concluded with a similar ribbon cutting by the Chair of the Board of Governors, Mark Foster, and promenade of students and staff entering the Senior School Administration building. The same scissors that were used at the original opening cut the ribbon again on 28 January 2021.
In his address to the School, Headmaster Dean Dello’Oro acknowledged the School’s great history.
“While much has changed here at Wembley Downs over the last 60 years, our belief that a broad Hale education under the guidance of our timeless motto of Duty still remains… Of course the history of our school is not just 60 years. Hale School is one of the oldest schools in Australia with a humble beginning starting right back in 1858, some 163 years ago. For those boys who are new to Hale School today, you are also now a part of our history.”
The Commencement Ceremony marks the official start of the new school year. After formal introductions, the 2021 Captains across the school were acknowledged, and our newest and youngest students in Pre-Primary were given a special welcome.
This year, special events are planned to recognise 60 years at Hale’s Wembley Downs campus. When Hale School moved here in 1961, it was merely bushland and quite a distance from the former Havelock Street school in West Perth. The Board of Governors at that time were visionary in their plans to secure a large parcel of land that still affords Hale School the space that most other schools do not.
Hale School was established in Perth in 1858 and moved to different properties in West Perth until settling at its current site in Wembley Downs.
