The concept of FAME came from the 1996 Christian Brothers General Chapter where the brothers were called to move out into community (as their schools were running effectively with lay people) and to live actively the Edmund Rice spirit by reaching out to those who were marginalised, as Blessed Edmund Rice did in his time.

The brothers in Adelaide sat around a table and discuss the concept of a mobile education service for young people. Br. Reg Whitley, Br. Phil Loghlen, Br. John McGhee and Br. Des Howard were appointed to establish this new venture in 1997. Br. Reg took a course at TAFE to become a workplace assessor and began to discern where this new venture would be based. After looking at the northern suburbs, they decided south. The Brothers purchased a house on Honeypot Road at Hackham West and were aware of the need to reach out to the young people in the south who were not attending mainstream school. The concept of started from the idea with a 10-week pilot scheme with three girls and four boys and Andree Brown who assisted the brothers in commencing this outreach with a seven-seater van. The name FAME then stood for Flexible Accredited Mobile Education and the brothers operated from a bus (which had no fixed address) and went out and picked up young people from their houses and took them to the local library, community centres and ovals/sports recreation centres to engage them in education. Br. Phil and Andree built the idea of FAME (with the help of the community in SA) from their observations of the work out of Centre Education in Queensland (which is now part of EREA Flexi) and Andree’s experience as a youth worker and program co-ordinator at St. Augustine’s in Geelong (now part of MacKillop Family Services).

On the first day of FAME, the bus left from the brothers’ community house on Honeypot Road and picked up six young people to commence their first ‘class’ at the Noarlunga library.  The day commenced with a conversation about our values: respect, safe & legal and participation then a round of UNO (something that was a staple activity of FAME).  From the library, they then went onto the Christie Downs Community Centre where Br. Reg Whitley cfc ran a cooking class in the community kitchen, including sausage rolls that was his signature dish. On day one they had 100% attendance and a good day!  In the early phase of FAME, there was no building, but the school ran in the community, utilising libraries, the beach, parks, community centres the swimming pool and even the bush.

The philosophy of FAME was based on the beneficial interplay of teaching and youth work, a hallmark of this model, was evident from the first day. The young people were able to identify their own learning needs from an education perspective and the other, often pressing, social needs were also able to be heard and addressed.  In the early days this concept of education was a success with young people continuing to show up, to be part of the community that built and created connections that encouraged them to define their own future pathways.

In the late 1990’s FAME acquired a site at the Southern Life Church (280 Beach Rd, Hackham West) and the name morphed to Flexible Accredited Meaningful Education.  During this time several Christian Brothers were involved in the FAME program including, Br. Phil O’Loghlen, Br. Reg Whitley, Br. Des O’Grady, Br. John McGee, Br. Pat Guerra, Br. Mark Sweeney, and Br. Michael Coughlin.

Above: The original logo was designed by a student

In the early 2000’s FAME had various incarnations. In 2004 was under the Holy Spirit Province (HSP) ministries and was looking at a new expression and suitable model to meet the needs of the young people.  Gerry Fellows was appointed as the Director and FAME in 2005 and they searched for a new site and moved to a Beach Road facility that was a refurbishment of a Hall associated with a Church group Funded by the Christian Brothers on yearly basis so securing staff on annual basis created financial pressures and it was Gerry Fellows’ role to find external funding. An advisory board was established to report back to the province to seek greater accountability and consistency of practice.

In 2007 the Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) was established but FAME was not a registered school as it did not meet SA registration requirement.  Hence were not able to be included as part of Youth + network and continued as Oceania’s Province ministry (which was also established in 2007). Finances did stabilise under a new State Government initiative called “FLO” which in 2012 they were all enrolled in Christies Beach High School as FLO students and the Oceania Provence of Christian Brothers topped up their funding for FAME to continue. At that time FAME had between 30 and 40 students and approximately seven staff members.

The school was based in the Southern Life Community Church building. In 2012 the name was changed by the program director Yvonne Schultz to be Flexible Accredited Meaningful Engagement and the signage and logo also changed. Since 2012, FAME has implemented a strong SACE program consistently graduating several young people each year.

In 2014, the school became an annex of Cardijn College as the brothers could not support financially FAME with the same model. Enrolment numbers continued to grow, and FAME was officially registered as a special assistance school in 2015. At this point, FAME was under the EREA banner through a flexi network called Youth + that had various flexi schools around Australia.

Special assistance schools were very uncommon at the time, so officially being registered a school in South Australia reduced the financial burden. Negotiations occurred in 2016 to be included as part of Flexi schools in EREA while continuing links with CESA. This year also had FAME move to a new site at Onkaparinga Wardli on 13 McKinna Road, Christie Downs with an enrolment of 70 young people with a staff of 12. In 2021, the senior school young people moved to a new site “The Cottage” 308 Main South Rd, Morphett Vale with the middle school young people remaining at Wardli.

In 2024, FAME moved into its own purpose-built school with enrolment numbers of 140 young people and 28 staff. This is the first time since 2015 that both the middle and senior school were brought back together on the same campus. The Head of Campus is Adam James and with the development of the brand-new school on McKinna Road a new FAME logo has been developed.

Complied by: Shaun Clarke. Contributors: Katie Dubrich, Mark McGlaughlin, Christian Brothers, Andree Brown and Dale Zampogna