This year, 2024, Oxford Falls Grammar proudly commemorates 40 years of providing Christian education. Over this time, OFG has positively influenced the lives of countless students, staff, and their families.
As part of our 40th year celebrations, we are inviting current and past students, staff, parents and friends of the school to share a favorite or lasting memory of your time at OFG.
Whether stories of lifelong friendship, victories on the sporting fields, the inspiration you felt being a part of a production or pieces of advice that positively influenced your life, we want to hear from you. Email marketing@ofg.nsw.edu.au
A 40 Year Anniversary Story:
Humble beginnings
In the early 1980s, two young pastors of a fledgling local church had a vision to start a school for northern beaches students and families, providing quality education embedded in a Christian foundation. Oxford Falls Grammar (then ‘Northside Christian School’) was born in 1984 under the vision of Pastors Phil and Chris Pringle and with the backing of a young C3 Church. The school ethos was “For Greatness, For Excellence” and the logo, a child, a book and a flame. Meeting in a hall in Belrose, a team of dedicated and brave parents enrolled their children into the great unknown, and by the end of the year the school had a population of 24 students and a staff of two. The students played in a dusty playground with a swing and a climbing frame, and undertook their lessons using the Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) program out of the USA. The students were wonderfully happy and blissfully unaware of the challenges the adults faced in those early days. The pioneering parents and staff all mucked in to run the school and held regular prayer meetings. The staff worked with few resources and for many years it was a labour of love, with wages below award. The Manual Arts Workshop was a set of tools in the back of a station wagon. The first iteration of Year 7 (the entire Senior School) had a population of five students. The school was nomadic, moving next to the Salvation Army Centre in Collaroy and then to C3’s premises in an industrial estate in Brookvale. It was clear that the growing school needed its own land and a place to call its own. 40 Year Stories…
Securing a new site
OFG began its humble days as ‘Northside Christian School’ in the back of a church hall in Belrose. It then moved to the Salvation Army Centre in Collaroy and then to C3’s premises in an industrial estate in Brookvale. As the years went on it was clear that the growing school needed land and a place to call its own. The School and Church Boards spied a patch of land out in the boondocks on the Wakehurst Parkway. It had once belonged to the Anglican diocese and was named “Jerusalem Park”. Owned by the Sutherland family and operating as a pig farm, the school accepted an offer on generous no-interest terms over four years, with a small deposit.
But there was a problem. Times were financially very tough and at the last minute, it appeared that the school would not be able to make the payments, but along with fervent prayer, a generous church member wrote a cheque for $140 000 and the land was secured. (This is the equivalent of half a million in today’s terms). There was another problem: the school owned the land but Warringah Council were stone-walling the school’s Development Applications. The school battled for many years to get their building plans approved, but with the eventual sacking of Warringah Council over bribery and corruption allegations, the school’s plans fell to the bottom of the pile. After years of perseverance and petitioning and earnest prayer from church and school members, however, the school’s plans were finally approved and the way was paved for a fleet of portable buildings to be trucked onto the site. Taking on the new name ‘Wakehurst Christian School’ to reflect its new location, a new era was about to begin.
A new site
After years of meanderings around various sites on the northern beaches, our school community (then known as Wakehurst Christian School) finally and after much prayer and hard work and financial investment from many generous church families, was able to set foot on our own patch of land in the middle of the bush off the Wakehurst Parkway. A series of portable buildings were dropped in place to house our students.
For the many years following, the staff and students were reminded that the school had once been a pig farm. Digging under the soil would reveal old bones and farm machinery, and thousands of plastic bags of petrified bread. The classrooms were boiling hot in summer and freezing cold in the winter. The site housed a cottage that was used in many different ways. First as the home for the school caretakers, then as an Art room and Before and After School Care facility. There was also a small swimming pool on the property (housed in an inflatable bubble), used for swimming lessons and aqua aerobics.
OFG’s original canteen was a shack across the road on the Wakehurst Parkway, which was a pull in for drivers wanting to pick up some farm produce or cold drinks. Lunch orders could be placed there by the students, and then they were picked up by the school caretaker, Mr Reeves. The staffroom was a small room in a cottage, so small that the staff member’s knees touched when they sat around the table. A mural of the children from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe adorned the staffroom wall.
With the school population swelling to over 100, construction began on a new permanent facility. The school logo also changed, to reflect the rural history and location of the school.
The new ‘Oxford Falls Grammar School’ had four “houses” for the purposes of sports and academic competitions. The point of the houses was to promote godly character and healthy engagement. The four houses were named after biblical communities described in the New Testament and part of the ministry of the Apostle Paul: Ephesians (named after Ephesus, a coastal city in modern Turkey), Colossians (named after Colossae also in modern Turkey), Philippians (a Greek city named after Philip II of Macedon) and Thessalonians (a prosperous city known today as Thessoloniki).
In the fullness of time, the houses adopted modern names from recent local history: Ephesians became (green) Mackellar, Colossians became (red) Warringah, Philippians became (blue) Bennelong and Thessalonians became (yellow) Bradfield. These houses still stand today as part of our competitions and mentor groupings.
With the school now firmly established at Oxford Falls, in 1990 the School erected a sign out of pine logs facing the Wakehurst Parkway (complete with its seven digit phone number!) so everyone would know who we were. (Pictured with Headmaster Andrew Egan). It was the start of a new era.
Oxford Falls Grammar School’s first logo was a horse and plough, which celebrated its rural heritage and symbolised the development of our new land, as well as the hope for our children’s future in economic prosperity. The School ethos at that stage was “For Greatness, For Excellence”, and in 1997 the words “For Christ” were added (at the suggestion of a school parent, Mrs Cresswell) to ensure that our Christian foundation was articulated clearly and prominently as a core element of our School culture, life and operations.
The complexities of the ‘horse n plough’ logo led to a new circular logo featuring the iconic xanthorrhoea grass tree, symbolising endurance, beauty and strength. This would remain the logo of OFG for decades until the early 2020s when the new (current) heraldic shield featuring the three Greatness- Excellence- Christ icons was launched as the School’s crest to take us into the future.
A 40 Year OFG Anniversary Story (By ex-staff member, Jill Sweetman)
“40 years ago! My first day of work at OFGS was to teach an hour of music to the first graders through Year 6 students. I taught in a corner of an old, leaky church hall in Frenchs Forest. The music supplies? An old beyond repair church piano… so the first few music lessons were spent in making percussion instruments. This old church hall “housed” about 15 first to sixth graders and each student had a blue and white cubicle that ran along the walls of the room. If a student needed help, he’d put a flag on a shelf above his or her cubicle and a monitor, and usually a volunteer parent would come to his aid. The Kindergarteners, known as the ABCs, were just beyond this, situated in what was once I think a stage. With a small wall attached, it became a cozy classroom.
My teaching every week cost more financially than my earning but the fact that I’d been asked to be a part of this great adventure was more than enough!
The Headmaster, Andrew Egan and the Kindergarten teacher, Barbara Taylor sacrificed and gave much. Their pay was minuscule but their passion to have this place for children that taught and modelled Christ was more important. So it was also for the many parents that volunteered their time, whether by teaching, administration, cleaning, or any task that helped our little school. My love and belief in OFGS eventually led to a full-time job. Did it feel like a job? Sometimes but mostly, it was a privilege to be a part of this vision and one in which I could be an influence for good. “Start children off in the ways they should go, and even when they are old, they will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6.
I have so many great memories. Waiting excitedly with Julienne Laidlaw for the big move down to the trailers situated on the land purchased for the school in Oxford Falls. The land had been used previously for a pig farm. Oh the fragrance! Jimmy McFarlane teaching carpentry to students and when asked to show the tools to an inspector, he merely opened his car trunk! Julienne and I shared a trailer while she taught first graders, and I taught the ABC’s. There were so many volunteers!
Over the years many teachers joined the staff and each knew that they were a part of an unfolding dream that would mean sacrifice. Today as I drive down Wakehurst Parkway there is a spectacular sight. On one side of the road there is a beautiful campus containing the church of which I became a part at eighteen years of age. On the other side of the road lies another treasure, that of OFGS, now OFG. It’s more than a mass of gorgeous buildings, playgrounds and ovals. It’s a place that’s been set apart so that children can learn that God created and loves them so deeply that He gave His life for them. There’s a God who desires to know and lead them through life. We must never take this lightly. Far more than money and people built this school. Rather it was belief, faith and prayer that accompanied a vision that led to this great accomplishment. It’s beginning was small but today it is a school that runs from kindergarten through to Year 12. My hope and prayer is that OFG continues to be an influence in not just students’ lives but in the lives of the parents and surrounding community, just as it was a great influence in mine.”
OFG Stories Canteen
During this our School’s 40th year, we have spent time reflecting on our culture, people, history and roots. It is rare, I imagine, that one of our staff teams has been in situ together for twenty years, equalling half the school’s life. We are so grateful to our hard-working Canteen Managers – Heidi Pullinger, Maria Dumesny and Jan Saville – for keeping our students well fed and energised to take on the day. (I don’t dare to calculate how many sandwiches, wraps and rolls they have produced over the years!?!)
Photos 2004 and 2024: l-r: Heidi Pullinger, Maria Dumesny and Jan Saville
Over the past two decades as School Canteen Managers, we’ve witnessed significant transformations. The original canteen, which began in a demountable classroom, has evolved dramatically, particularly in terms of our menu offerings. Back then, we served hot dogs, pizza pockets, lollies, pies, and sausage rolls, with frozen fruit cups priced at just 20 cents. On a busy day, we’d take just over 100 orders.
Today, we have a fully operational kitchen and take pride in preparing a wide array of freshly cooked and baked items, including nachos, muffins, pasta Bolognese, and the all-time favourite brownie. On any Friday, we now take up to 670 orders, with a dedicated team of eight staff members working throughout the week.
One of the greatest joys of our role has been watching students grow from Kindergarten through to Year 12, with some of those early Kindergarteners now becoming staff members themselves.
