All Hallow’s Primary Five Dock celebrated its centenary on its feast day with the days events beginning with mass PHOTO: Alphonsus Fok

All Hallow’s Primary School, Five Dock, celebrated its patron feast day and 100^th anniversary on the morning of 1 November- the Feast of All Saint’s Day. The day was marked with significant excitement as the event also coincided with the blessing of the long awaited newly refurbished buildings of the school.

“There has been a lot of preparation and building of excitement for today,” said assistant principal Jed Hayes.

To record the day, a time capsule was buried in front of the church to be opened at the 150^th Anniversary of the school in 2069. Items in the capsule included letters from current students for their future counterparts.

“It’s really important that we are here to remember that All Hallows is a special place,” said year 6 school captains Abigail Camilleri and Olivia Alexakis.

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The time capsule was buried and blessed in front of the Church to be opened in 2069 PHOTO: Alphonsus Fok

Anthony Cleary, director of religious education at Sydney Catholic Schools, attended the ceremonies.

“We’ve got a great deal to celebrate for a community that has been 100 years strong,” he said

Helen Elliot, school principal, spoke to The Catholic Weekly about the importance of the refurbishments for schoolchildren – especially in light of the increased demand of enrolments- to provide the best future for Catholic children in the area.

“It has taken about six years to plan the building of the new wings of the school that will be accommodating for the increase in Catholic schoolkids and families at the school,” she said

“We want the best for our children – the children are the future of the Church.”

Schoolchildren on the day wore lapels of different saints in homage of the school’s patronage. Parish administrator Fr Matthew Solomon spoke at the homily on the richness of spiritual resources the community had in the wellspring of calling upon all the saints as patrons.

Mass was celebrated by parish priest Fr Matthew Solomon PHOTO: Alphonsus Fok

“We don’t just have one saint here we have all the saints as our patrons because we need them all,” he said

Fr Gary Perritt CP, chaplain to Sydney Catholic Schools presided over the blessing of the buildings. “We dedicate these buildings to educate the youth in learning with a search for Wisdom and Truth that guides the Christian life,” he said.

The events concluded with morning tea.