Hale School is an independent, Anglican day and boarding school for boys, located in Wembley Downs, a western suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Named after the school founded by Bishop Mathew Blagden Hale in 1858, Hale School claims to be the oldest private boys' school in Western Australia, a claim subsequently contested by historian and former Hale School Headmaster Dr Ken Tregonning. The school was originally situated at the Cloisters on St Georges Terrace in Perth, relocated to the Pensioner Guard Barracks at the top of St George's Terrace around 1880, and then to new Havelock Street premises in 1914 in West Perth. In 1961 the School moved to its current premises in Wembley Downs. The campus now consists of a junior school for Years Pre-Primary to 6, a middle school for Years 7 & 8 and a senior school for Year 9 to 12. The school also consists of sporting grounds, and boarding facilities for regional and international students. The school is a member of the Public Schools Association and the Junior School Heads Association of Australia. Hale's sister school is St Mary's Anglican Girls' School located in Karrinyup, a nearby suburb. In 2008, Hale School celebrated its sesquicentennial (150th) anniversary. History Part of Australia's colonial history, Hale School claims to be the first high school in Western Australia, and the school educated many prominent sons of the Swan River Colony. The school was originally known as Boys High School and the inaugural chairman was Archibald Paull Burt, a notable jurist and slaveholder (in the West Indies). Modelled on England's prestigious public schools, it has sometimes been accused of being elitist. For example, in his biography of Sir John Forrest, Frank Crowley described the school's values throughout the 1870s as "a heady compound of social snobbery, laissez-faire capitalism, sentimental royalism, patriotic Anglicanism, benevolent imperialism and racial superiority". In contemporary social commentary, for example Professor Mark Peel's study of class and schooling in Australia, Hale School was identified as one of the most rigorous and selective schools for boys. In recent times equity concerns have been addressed by a scholarship program, including the first full boarding scholarships in Western Australia for Indigenous students. The school was initially known as "Bishop Hale's Collegiate School", and later as "The High School". It has since been renamed "Hale School" in honour of its founder, and reconstituted under the Hale School Act (1876) of