Our School

Catholic education in the Bacchus Marsh area began with the opening of a Roman Catholic school in a small chapel at Hopetoun in around 1851. The school, now named the Bacchus Marsh Catholic Common School, was relocated to Fisken St in 1863.

In 1890 four sisters of the order of St. Joseph’s, arrived from Sydney to act as educators. A house was purchased for them to use as a convent and high class ladies’ school. In time, a detached schoolhouse was erected at the site and it was then that the students were relocated for the last time to our current site in Gisborne Rd – St Bernard’s School.

The sisters’ convent was erected in 1900 with classes being held in the downstairs area and the upper floor being used as a convent and boarding school. The attached chapel was built in 1905.

St. Bernard’s was the first Catholic school in the Archdiocese to be run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, founded by Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop. St Mary would often visit the convent on her journeys between Sydney and Melbourne and the archives record accounts of past students  remembering her kindness and generous distribution of boiled lollies to the children of St Bernard’s.

By 1910 a new building was erected, which is now used as the school’s resource centre and staff room, and the students began taking classes there. Over the years more buildings have been added and extended to cater for our growing numbers.

The Sisters continued to dedicate themselves to the religious and civic education of St Bernard’s students until 1990, marking 100 years of service to the school and parish community.