History
St Andrew’s Cathedral School was founded on 14 July, 1885 by the third Bishop of Sydney, the Rt Rev Dr Alfred Barry. The enrolment on day 1 was 27 boys, of whom 22 were choristers. The common name for the School was the ‘Choir School’. For 21 years the School existed with no alumni organisation. The OAA being established as the Old Boys Union (OBU) of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in August 1906 by the School’s third Headmaster, Rev. Percy Simpson. The first president of the OBU was His Honour Mr Justice Webb, who held office for over 40 years.
Due to the growth of the School, a number of categories of membership were introduced including ‘Senior OBU’ and Junior OBU’. These categories were not continued with from the 1950’s onwards. During the time from shortly after its foundation to 1952, the School was known as ‘St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir School, reflecting the significant number of choristers who made up the enrolment. In 1952 however, the Cathedral Chapter altered the name of the School to reflect its wider enrolment, thus reverting to the Founder’s original name, St Andrew’s Cathedral School.
The OBU always suffered from the fact that students completed their St Andrew’s education at Intermediate level and went on to matriculate at other schools. From 1960 the School prepared boys for the Leaving Certificate, thus fulfilling the original charter of the Founder, Dr Barry. This was the beginning of substantial growth, both for the School and for the OBU.
Membership grew steadily through the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s with the OBU assisting the School in various ways, most specifically with the appeal for the New School during the 1960’s. In 1976 the School moved into it current home, St Andrew’s House. The membership of the OBU steadily rose as it became one of the key associations that form part of the wider St Andrew’s community.
In 1998, with the impending entry of girls into St Andrew’s, the OBU voted to change its name to the Old Andreans Association. In the subsequent years the OAA has grown enormously in terms of membership and ability to assist the School.
The OAA recently donated a $40,000 scoreboard to the School for use at St Andrew’s Oval, the School’s sports ground. The OAA also donated $80,000 to the School building fund to assist with the construction of new science labs, and is offering a full fee scholarship for the son of an Old Andrean who otherwise would not be able to attend St Andrew’s.
The future is very bright for the OAA with fundraising efforts to be increased in the future. Part of that future is to celebrate our past as one of the few alumni organisations that has reached its centenary.
