Wellbeing
College HousesCollege Houses
The College House system provides the framework not only for pastoral care, but also for a range of activities that encompass sporting and cultural pursuits.
The Houses regularly compete in a number of competitions that encourage active student involvement in areas such as Athletics, Swimming, Music, Drama and Dance. Form classes in the Secondary school are organised vertically within each House as a means of fostering students’ academic and social development.
Wesley House
House colours: Blue & gold
This College House is named in honour of the great English Christian preacher John Wesley, who was the founder of Methodism.
Educated at Oxford and trained as an Anglican priest, Wesley was an author, teacher and travelling evangelist whose work evolved to become the foundation for the Methodist branch of the Protestant faith. Wesley became a renowned preacher, often working amongst the poorer classes in both rural and city areas and travelling throughout Britain, as well as to areas in Europe and North America. Wesley House, along with Whitfield House, was established in 1946, during the first year of Miss Ellen Christensen’s time as the school Principal. Uncommon for the time was Wesley’s support for women’s involvement in preaching and evangelising and perhaps this had some appeal in the context of encouraging young women to take a place in the world.
Whitfield House
House colours: Green & gold
This House honours preacher and Oxford scholar, George Whitefield, also known as Whitfield. During his studies at Oxford he joined a Christian fellowship group, the Holy Club, led by John and Charles Wesley and soon moved from his Anglican beliefs to become a follower of Methodism. Whitfield was a significant contributor to evangelical activities, especially during his many travels in the American colonies, where an intense period of religious renewal, known as the Great Awakening, had swept through communities in the period from the 1720s to the 1750s. Sources record him delivering sermons to crowds that numbered in the thousands, as people would gather in the open fields to hear him preach. It has been estimated that he preached to around six million people, in a time when there was no mass media as known today.
Alison Greene House
House colours: White & gold
Alison Greene House is named in honour of Miss Alice Jane Alison Greene, the first Principal of the school. Along with two of her sisters, Anne and Helen, she opened Moreton Bay Girls’ High School at Bay Terrace, Wynnum, in 1901. The Greene family, originally from England, came to Queensland during the late 1800s and settled in the local area. Miss Greene’s father built the school for her and it was a prominent building in Wynnum until the mid-1980s. Alice Greene had trained and qualified as a teacher through the English Education Department and the South Kensington Science Department. They expanded the curriculum to provide general educational subjects and offered their students the opportunity to sit the entrance examinations for Sydney University, the London College of Music and the Science and Art Departments, London. In 1910 her two younger sisters, Hilda and Elsie, joined their sister to teach at the school. Miss Alice J. Alison Greene was the Principal of the school from 1901 until her retirement in 1943. Miss Greene died in 1966. She left a rich legacy in the education of many young women.
Drewe House
House colours: Black & gold
Mrs Millicent Drewe was the Principal of our school from 1950–1964, and is remembered through the College House system, with Drewe House named in her honour.
Mrs Drewe provided able administration and guidance to staff and students in an era that is recognised as one of significant social change. Mrs Drewe brought several changes to the school, in keeping with the needs of the post-war society and economy. She was a strong advocate of expansion of the curriculum to enable greater access to education for those girls who wished to continue with their studies beyond Year 10 and she also acknowledged that offering academic subjects alone would not suit all students. On a very practical level, Mrs Drewe is known for introducing the first of the College pink check summer uniforms that were considered somewhat radical in the era of the 1950s. It was during her time as Headmistress that the school took on the name Moreton Bay College, changing from the former Moreton Bay Girls’ High School. Mrs Drewe remarried after her retirement and, as Mrs Le Couteur, maintained contact with the school until her death in June 2001, aged 92.