Our Lady Wardle Performing Arts Centre is the perfect performance space for our aspiring musicians, dancers and thespians. A highlight on the School calendar is CAPAF and in particular the Wearable Art Parade. The 2013 Art Captain recalls "the theme was Rococo and we were told to think Maria Antoinette and over the top embellishments. These decorations really added to the vibrancy and authenticity of the show".

Teaching and learning at St Mary’s has changed in many ways over the years but reports remain a part of school life. Now electronically published, rather than handwritten, reports provide a fuller account of each student's progress than the handful of words in days gone by.

Built in 1899 and taken over by the School in 1921, St Mary's Parish Hall in West Perth played host to almost every school activity, from classes, assemblies to dances and gymnastics lessons. What do you remember about the Parish Hall?

Sand, sand, glorious sand! 
The turning of the sod at the new School site in the dunes and bushland at Karrinyup occurred in 1964. Even after the first students started being bused out to the new campus from West Perth in 1966, there was still sand as far as the eye could see.

Grass wasn’t laid until the late 1960s and Old Girls will remember the frequent bellows of “Keep off the grass!”

The acquisition of a school bus in 1976 was an important landmark in the School’s history. The cost of this vehicle was borne equally by the parents and the School. The bus was most useful for taking small groups (25) on excursions.

Where did you go on excursions?

Camps and school trips are a rite of passage for St Mary’s students, particularly after the development of St Mary's at Metricup: The Lady Treatt Centre for Learning and Leadership.

In 1983, Year 10 students headed to camp in Kalbarri, only to be evacuated due to cyclonic weather conditions, to a shearing shed in Dongara. Not quite the camping trip that was planned!

A purpose-designed Junior School was built in 1993 with support from the School community. Previously, the Junior School at Karrinyup has been located in what we now know as the mathematics teaching area.

St Mary’s established its first library in 1925 with donations of books coming from members of the Board, parents and staff. The small collection was moved from room to room, before finally settling on a handful of shelves at the back of the senior girls’ classroom. In 14 September 1952, the school’s 31st birthday, Mrs Myles, opened the School Library, a small room on the first floor of the classroom block.

It was not until the 1973, after the School had moved to Karrinyup, that a purpose-built library was opened. The 1973 Almerta reported "We were finally able to move into our spacious and beautifully designed new building. The library occupies the entire first floor with art and craft rooms, a classroom, the prefects' room and bookroom on the ground floor."