Broderick Gillawarna is located in South West Sydney (click to view map). The school is the amalgamation of 2 schools, Broderick and Gillawarna Schools.

Both schools have an interesting history and a high level of community and parent involvement.

Gillawarna School was located at Georges Hall on one side of Bankstown Airport and was opened in 1986. Prior to the 1980’s many educational services for children with special needs were provided by parent organisations such as the Crippled Children’s Association, Spastic Centre and other groups. The school from which the first Gillawarna students came was located on the site of Whitehall Children’s Home and was called Revesby School. During the 10-year history of Gillawarna School, it developed significant integration programs with Georges Hall Public School and St Mary’s Primary School. The school led the way in the introduction of the Statement and Strategies for the Education of Students with Severe Intellectual Disabilities in the late 1980’s. This was a significant document, which reflected the importance of education for children with disabilities and the strategies for establishing quality learning for students.  This document showed how programs were able to integrate the involvement of parents, therapists and other integral people to the child in the decision making and implementation of the child's program. During this time Gillawarna School provided an innovative model for programs of this type, for other schools to use.  The use of systematic teaching methods was shown to lead to significant personal skill development for students.

Broderick House had a similar start with the community of Canterbury getting behind its formation in the grounds of Canterbury Hospital. People such as the local builder James Broderick worked hard to involve the community in the construction of the significant physical facilities that would be required for such a school, in Haldon Street Lakemba. The opening in 1954 by ‘Hop-a-Long Cassidy’ drew a crowd in excess of 15,000 people. The school has had a long history of providing an education to students with physical disabilities.  This included individualised programs, intensive therapy, work experience opportunities and a varied and rich curriculum.

The 2 schools both with a tradition of student focused learning and community involvement came together in 1997 to carry on a shared tradition.

The Department of Education built a new school site for Broderick Gillawarna School which was officially opened in November 1999.  The site was originally Revesby Infants School. A decision was taken by the Revesby Public School to consolidate the Infants and Primary Departments onto one site. As a consequence of this decision, a refurbishment of Revesby Primary site was undertaken and site became available for redevelopment to meet the needs of this special school. This project was funded by the Commonwealth and State Governments.  The total value of the dual project was approximately $7.2 million.

The school is now a state of the art facility and provides a valuable community resource.  It offers an excellent specialist facility for students' learning.