From virgin field to new school in three weeks

Sydney
7 April 2002

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From virgin field to new school in three weeks

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From virgin field to new school in three weeks

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The birth of a new Catholic school is not quite a painful as the birth of a baby, but it is nearly as miraculous. Johanna Bennett reports

It was three weeks before the start of the new school year and there was literally nothing there - just blades of grass and trees.

Then Holsworthy parish got the go-ahead from the local council and suddenly there was cement being rapidly laid and new demountable classrooms glinting in the sun of the virgin field - a school had been born.

This is how Ted Myers, spokesman for Sydney's Catholic Education Office, described the birth of St Christopher's Catholic primary school, Holsworthy, one of the diocese's two newest schools.

Nearby, at Carnes Hill, the timetable was almost as frenetic for Holy Spirit Primary, which also opened its doors for the first time in this first term of the 2002 school year.

Mr Myers, who has seen a number of Catholic schools go up in record time, describes the process as "miraculous".

"It happens every time. There is literally nothing there and the parents must be looking at the empty field saying: 'What am I doing? I'm going to send my kid here?' And then a few years down the track, you have a state-of-the-art school largely funded initially by Catholic money from the Church and parish."

St Christopher's principal, Maureen Higgs, echoed Mr Myers' sentiments, saying it was something of a miracle that the school welcomed its first students just three days late.

"It required an act of faith for our community to believe the school would happen at all. A hitch with the building approval process meant that three weeks before we were due to start lessons our school was still a vacant block of land."

Approval came through on January 15; the builders swung into action, installing an administration block and demountable classrooms in days and hastily laying paving between the two. The weekend before school began, staff and parents banded together to set the classrooms up, putting in the little chairs and tables and stocking them with readers for their young charges - 58 kindergarten, Year One and Two students. The school will, in time, become a full school, taking students up to Year Six.

The brand-new parish of Carnes Hill nearby was involved in a similarly frenetic timetable as it, too, planned and built its new parish primary school, Holy Spirit, so new it has yet to build a proper church. It, like the school, is housed in a temporary demountable.

Holy Spirit's principal, Tony Lo Casio, described a packed year of preparation, which involved working with the newly-appointed parish priest, Fr Danny Meagher, and education office staff to design the new church and school. These are housed on a temporary site while a permanent church and school are built.

As well as naming the school and designing a logo and uniform, the new parish had to launch a publicity campaign to let the local community know there was to be a new school and to convince Catholic families that even though they were looking at a green field, a new school was being built there.

And the lead-up to day one was, as with St Christopher's, a real, if frantic, community affair with teachers, parents and parish priest all doing their bit to ensure Holy Spirit opened its doors on time.

"The day before, parents, as well as teachers and their partners, were covering books and carrying in furniture," said Mr Lo Casio.

"Forty-two students turned up on the first day, all very calm and confident - there were no criers. Instead, they were all very excited and proud in their new uniforms."

Br Kelvin Canavan, director of schools for the Sydney Archdiocese, said he, too, marvels at the miracle of how the diocese's new schools come into being.

These two were planned for some years, he said.

"The demand for places in Catholic schools in the rapidly expanding suburbs of Sydney's southwest is so great we simply cannot build schools fast enough," he said.

The expense is huge and is initially borne by the local Catholic community, but these early difficulties pale in comparison to the process of actually establishing the school and then gradually moving from being a small school in temporary classrooms to "end up as an inspiring and impressive facility educ ating hundreds of eager young students".

Br Kelvin pointed to nearby Good Shepherd primary school as an example of this miraculous process.

"Good Shepherd started lessons in temporary demountable classrooms in 1997 with just 54 students," he said.

"It now has 515 students housed in modern, architect-designed classrooms."

Br Kelvin praised the Catholic community for their support of the schools - not only through their schools fees, but also through the building levy that helps finance new schools.