De La Salle was moved by “the situation of abandonment of the children of the artisans and the poor”.
Shortly after that, he became involved in helping a group of schoolmasters to set up schools in order to provide poor boys with a sound education. The schools were given the name of ‘Christian Schools’. Together with these teachers, De La Salle founded a lay community which took the name of Brothers of the Christian Schools (1680).
Originally named St Joseph’s Academy, the academy was founded in 1860 as an extension of the work of the De La Salle Brothers; a Catholic religious congregation dating back to France in the 1600s.