August 2022

The school had its beginnings in 1986, when the Catholic Education Office approached the Principal and School board at Liwara Catholic School, to provide classrooms and teaching staff for Pre-primary and Year 1 for children from the Kingsley - Woodvale suburbs. This undertaking was given by Liwara and the ‘future school’ began operating in February 1987.

Parish
In February 1987, the Archbishop instituted the new Parish of Kingsley – Woodvale and appointed Father Nicholas McSweeney as Parish Priest. Shortly afterwards, the Interim School Board was formed and set about its task of ensuring that St Luke’s School would be ready for operation in February 1989. Iris Rossen and Associates was chosen as the Architect and Arnold Doubkin as the Builder.
The Interim School Board members were: Fr Nicholas McSweeney (Parish Priest), Sr Mary O’Connor (Principal), R Lambert (CEO), M Pinner (Chairman), W Galos, G Hawkins, M Farrell (Secretary), B Alfirevich (CEO), J Seman, K Tutt, T Ratcliffe (Treasurer).

Principal and Staff
During 1988, members of the Interim School Board were part of a panel that proposed Sr Mary O’Connor as Foundation Principal and Dr Peter Tannock presented her name to Archbishop Foley, who then appointed Sr Mary as Principal. Sr Mary and members of the Interim Board then Appointed the other members of staff at St Luke’s.
 
Naming the School
In November 1988, Fr Nick led the parishioners through a series of selection and voting procedures to establish a name for the Parish, that would also be the name of the school. St Luke’s was the choice of the majority and this was ratified by Archbishop Foley in December 1988.

Foundation Principal Leaves
Sr Mary O’Connor retired at the end of 2000 after a long and successful career. The current principal is Mrs Kerry Hewitson.

Today, St Luke’s is a fully double stream Catholic Primary School catering for children from Years  K-6.