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Principal: Di Cox

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Cooranbong - First School in Lake Macquarie!

The first school in Lake Macquarie was built at Cooranbong in 1861. The school was built as part of the Cooranbong Roman Catholic Church. The school building was a humble weatherboard single room. 38 pupils attended when it first opened and their teachers were Jeremiah and Catherine Crounin. The next teacher was Michael Sheeby and then the highly respected and qualified Thomas D'Aran in 1864.

Most students arrived to school on horeseback and many couldn't come when Dora Ck was flooded. In those early days there was no uniform and children mostly learned just "readin', writin' and 'rithmetic". The little kids learned to write on slates with chalk and the older kids wrote with nib pens dipped in ink- if you made blots you got the cane!