Around the dioceses
Above: Artist impression from Russell & Yelland Architects for Nazareth’s newly announced Kidman Park Campus. Source CESA.
Catholic Education South Australia announces new senior school campus
Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) announced on 18 June that Nazareth Catholic Community will open a new campus at Kidman Park in 2023 to cater exclusively for Year 11 and 12.
The campus will be CESA’s first purpose-built standalone campus for senior students.
The Reception to Year 12 College, which already has campuses at Findon and Flinders Park, is South Australia's largest Catholic school with 2,045 enrolments.
The new campus will initially cater for 500 senior students and is expected to expand to cater for up to 800 students.
South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools chair professor Denis Ralph said we are pleased to be strengthening our provision of Catholic schooling in the western suburbs.
“The expansion will continue to support the unprecedented enrolment demand for a Catholic education. We are also mindful of the high demand for primary school places in the western suburbs, and at Nazareth in particular, and work is currently underway to address this situation," he said in a media release.
The announcement comes as the College prepares to welcome a record number of Year 7 students in 2022.
Nazareth Catholic College principal Andrew Baker said they will welcome 41 Reception students in mid-year intake and approximately 400 Year 7 students at the start of 2022.
“This expansion allows us to continue to reimagine how we deliver curriculum and create community in a modern and ever-changing context," he said.
Above: Nazareth Catholic College students.
Catholic Education Diocese of Cairns delivers record enrolment numbers
Above: St Andrew’s Catholic College, Redlynch Valley.Catholic Education Services in the Diocese of Cairns has made a record number of Year 7 enrolment offers in preparation for the 2022 school year.
Cairns Catholic Education Services executive director Bill Dixon said the high number of applications and subsequent offers is testament to the growing popularly of Catholic secondary education in the Far North.
“Catholic schools across Cairns have had waiting lists for several years, particularly in the peak enrolment phases of Prep and Year 7, and this trend has persisted,” he said in a statement.
“Newman Catholic College in Smithfield, which will open next year to its first cohort of Year 7 students and was opened to help ease the demand for Catholic secondary schooling, already has a waitlist.
“MacKillop Catholic College in Mount Peter, which opened in 2016 with Prep to Year 3 and welcomed its first Year 7 group last year, also continues to contribute to the growing enrolments," he said.
In 2021 Catholic schools across the Far North had an intake of about 900 students in Year 7 and for 2022 that figure has already grown to more than 1,050.
He said the increasing enrolments were also indicative of Catholic schools’ commitment to continuity of learning and fee relief options as the region weathered the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.