Bumper crop of students

The
Catholic Weekly
Online

Sydney
26 October 2003

Meaning of life

Tuition fee jump

Award for Reservist chaplain

Outreach

Priests set priorities

Step behind the convent walls

Desire to serve others

Trial for euthanasia?

Interfaith

Seminar on self help in action for hearing impaired

Editorial: Enormous debt

Letters: Interstate appreciation

Conversation: Br Dan Stafford, chaplain to the Australian Jockey Club - A generous fraternity of 'saints and sinners'

Voice of Youth: Blessed upon the earth

‘Wonderful occasion’

Stone takes the cake

Bumper crop of students

Concert ‘journey’ by young honours Pope’s anniversary

‘My kids’ bring tears

Bumper crop of students

St Brendan’s Primary School at Annandale has experienced a dramatic increase in enrolments in recent years. The principal, Phillip Tax, introduces a new student and his mother to the kindergarten class.

Catholic schools in NSW - especially in the Sydney archdiocese - are having a bumper year with enrolments at their highest level yet.

And some schools already have waiting lists for enrolments next year.

Archdiocesan schools had a record total of 79,179 students in attendance in August, compared with 78,868 in the previous August.

Across the State, enrolments in all Catholic schools grew by 1053 to a record high of 236,591 students.

The total represents an increase across NSW of 19,812 students - nine per cent - in the 10 years since 1993.

Catholic school enrolments last year accounted for 21.3 per cent of all students in NSW, compared with 18 per cent in 1978.

Br Kelvin Canavan, executive director of schools in the archdiocese, says the demand for places in Catholic schools is particularly strong in the growth areas of Sydney.

"Although we have managed to open 12 new schools since 1985, we are still not able to find a place for every Catholic student seeking enrolment in our schools," he said.

New schools, such as Aquinas College, Menai (established 1993), Good Shepherd Primary, Hoxton Park (1997), St Catherine of Siena Primary, Prestons (1999) and

Good Samaritan Catholic College, Hinchinbrook (1999), already have waiting lists for enrolments into some classes for next year.

"The new primary schools that opened in 2002 - Carnes Hill and Holsworthy - are also proving very popular with parents," Br Kelvin said.

The two schools are operating from temporary classrooms at present, but new buildings are planned for them, he said.

To fund the 12 schools opened since 1985, the archdiocese closed or amalgamated more than 50 schools in parishes where the school age population was declining, mostly in the inner western and eastern suburbs.

However, says Br Kelvin, many of the older Catholic schools in these areas have also experienced enrolment growth in the past 15 years.

The growth in Catholic enrolments would not have been possible without the continuing financial sacrifice of parents and parishioners, he said, adding that the demand for places in Catholic schools is expected to remain strong, especially on the growing edge of Sydney.

New parishes want new schools and the demand for places in the long established schools and colleges continues to grow.

Negotiations are under way for a land swap to enable planning for a new secondary college in the West Hoxton Park area.

Br Kelvin said the reasons parents choose Catholic schools are many and varied. Obviously they are seeking an education in the Catholic tradition where some religious formation and education is a part of the life of the school.

In surveys parents have ranked school discipline, quality of teachers, the value system, academic reputation and range of subjects as priorities.

In the developing areas on the fringes of Sydney, parents look to the Church school for a sense of belonging.