Presentation Convent or Presentation College?

Presentation Convent was founded on Christmas Day, 1873 and opened its doors on 26th of January, 1874, to primary students at St Mary's and to 'Select' (or fee paying) students on the verandah of the presbytery. The primary school, established to cater mainly for the children of migrant families of St Kilda, was initially financed by the fees collected at the 'Select' school. By 1875 a photo taken after the move across Dandenong Road with the students and teachers in front of Turret Lodge is titled St Mary's School, a select Ladies' College. The program for the Annual Exhibition and Distribution of Prizes for the following year is headed Presentation Convent of the Sacred Heart St Kilda.

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There seems to have been some wavering about the favoured name for the rest of the nineteenth century. Sometimes it was simply Presentation Convent, sometimes Sacred Heart Day and Boarding School; in 1897 it was Presentation Convent of the Sacred Heart Windsor, while in 1898 it was Ladies' College Presentation Convent Windsor.

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In 1899 both name and place were crystallised to some extent when the nuns opened a second primary school in the area, at the parish of the Sacred Heart in West St Kilda. Then Presentation College Windsor said it all.

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The word College, first used in 1875, reappeared in 1904, perhaps because of the academic nature of the school as it prepared students for both university and Public Service examinations. For the next few decades College Convent, and even Convent College, seem to have been used anonymously.

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From the mid 1930s until the last quarter of the twentieths century , the generally accepted terminology for schools founded by religious congregations of women was 'convent school'. The school magazine of 1971 reverted to the ambiguity of Convent College.

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In the 1970s Government funding required the separation of convent and college finances and so all accounts, financial statement, etc. pertaining to the school were directed to Presentation College Windsor and all matters relating to the Presentation Sisters living at Windsor were directed to the Presentation Convent.

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So since the 1970s the name Presentation College Windsor has reigned supreme. Historically we have been lucky that PCW has prevailed down through the yeas, the "C" being interchangeable!

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Adapted from 'The Windsor Times' 1998