Coogee Prep boys at their desks in a classroom in the 1930s

Our School

Our Story

Opened in July 1914 with twenty seven boys. Still the only privately owned boys' preparatory school in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

It Began with Twenty Seven Boys

Coogee Boys' Preparatory School opened its doors in July 1914. On that day, twenty seven boys began their education in rooms adjacent to the Randwick Presbyterian Church on Alison Road.

Mr William Nimmo, the School's founder and first Headmaster, was a dedicated educator who believed that boys should be given a solid all-round education taking in the academic, the physical and the social. He introduced speech and drama so that boys developed self-expression and confidence in public from an early age.

He built the reputation of the School around a motto that has not changed since: Gentleman, Scholar, Sportsman.

Mr Nimmo saw his school as a preparatory school for both Sydney Grammar and The Scots College, so he combined the colours of both. The black and gold of Sydney Grammar, the blue and gold of Scots. The A on the crest is Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, marking Coogee Prep as the first step in a boy's education.

The whole Coogee Prep school standing in formation to spell 110 on the school oval, with the staff behind them

Told by the People Who Lived It

A journey through the School's history, introduced by our third and fourth Headmasters.

Four more films sit alongside this one, on Kindergarten, small classes, leadership and sport.

A still from the Coogee Prep School History film

School History1:12 · Vimeo

A Hundred and Twelve Years, Four Headmasters

Four leaders in over a century is unusual anywhere. It is the reason the School still feels the same to Old Boys who left decades apart.

1914

William Nimmo Opens the School

Twenty seven boys, in rooms beside the Randwick Presbyterian Church on Alison Road.

1965

Nicholas Brown, Second Headmaster

A former student of the School. Enrolments grew under his leadership, and Coogee Prep became a founding member of the Junior School Heads Association of NSW.

1967

The House System Begins

Introduced by Mr Brown to build healthy competition and school pride across the year groups. Three Houses, named for the founder and two people who shaped the School's early life, each taking one colour from the crest.

1995

John Dicks, Third Headmaster

Already a long-serving teacher at the School. Composite classes gave way to a single stream of seven classrooms, and the sporting, co-curricular and learning support programs were rebuilt around it.

2010

The Building Is Remade

New and larger classrooms, a library and IT space, and a multi-purpose hall that has held assemblies, concerts, Easter hat parades and Mother's and Father's Day breakfasts ever since.

2014

The Centenary

One hundred years of Gentleman, Scholar, Sportsman.

Today

Jason Wren-Pattison, Fourth Principal

Working in close partnership with John Dicks as he moves into the role of Executive Principal.