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Wesley
College is founded in a person, John Wesley.
Wesley
proclaimed, in his brother Charles’ words, God’s
“undistinguishing regard” for all people.
Believing with St Peter that humanity “might be partakers of
the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), Wesley strove tirelessly to transform
eighteenth century British society.
His was a radical, social and personal gospel that brought,
amongst myriad other initiatives, an extensive network of common
schools for the previously unschooled.
At
Wesley College’s 1866 inauguration, James Waugh, its first
President, proudly claimed “It is not too much to say that general
education…was raised and stimulated by the Wesleyan revival.”
For
Waugh, education was “not only giving instruction”, but also
“to deal with body and mind…heart and conscience”.
He echoed Wesley, who aimed “to train up children in every
branch of useful learning.”
Waugh’s
Headmaster, James Corrigan (“we aim steadily at training into
healthy development the whole nature of the pupil”) and, now,
David Loader (“education must take into account the whole
person”) evidence this tenet’s resilience.
Inclusive
education for human fulfilment necessitated broad, adaptable
curriculum and a welcoming environment.
College
President Norman Young claimed in the 1986 ‘Wesley College
Chronicle’ that John Wesley would conclude that the school’s
modern expansive curriculum “lacked sufficient breadth”!
In 1866, though, Corrigan was able to report that his
curriculum surpassed the ordinary, that school organisation was
changing significantly and that “we felt free to avail ourselves
of all its advantages from the first”.
Remarkably,
James Waugh, also in 1866, affirmed that "The morals of all
rightly conducted schools…are conformed to the character of a
happy, cheerful home…so that every boy may feel that his teachers
are among his best friends, and that the lines have fallen unto him
in pleasant places." This
paralleled John Wesley’s parental passion for his Kingswood
Schools and his joy in beholding the burgeoning Sunday Schools.
Theologically
sourced, Wesley College’s heritage professes the nurture of the goodness
of all its students through education.
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