Catholic Education South Australia will expand St Joseph’s School at Murray Bridge to offer a secondary education, with Year 8 commencing in 2022 and Year 9 from 2023.
St Joseph’s School, a Catholic school in the Josephite tradition, will cater for students from Reception to Year 9.
The school will provide a pathway to St Francis de Sales College, Mt Barker for senior years education for Years 10-12.
Catholic Education South Australia Director, Dr Neil McGoran, and Chair of the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools, Denis Ralph, announced the news at a school community meeting held last night.
Plans released for the site include specialist STEM and arts facilities, together with food technology and digital media facilities.
“We are excited to be expanding our provision of Catholic Education in the Murraylands, This new school development is part of our commitment to expanding Catholic Education pathways and building an even stronger focus on student learning and quality teaching in regional South Australia,” says Dr Neil McGoran, Director, Catholic Education South Australia.
The school development will start construction during 2020 and will meet the needs of the growing population in Murray Bridge and the surrounding areas.
“This initiative will achieve a long-awaited vision of creating a centre for the middle years of secondary learning,” says Adrian Brown Principal, St Joseph’s School.
“The local school community welcomes this announcement which will strengthen our educational offering to our students. Our school will be developed to meet the needs of the expanded student population. We will build specialist facilities to cater for the specific learning needs of our new secondary cohort.”
Project Architect, Lisa Martin of Detail Studio says “The building design will be flexible to enable spaces to be adapted easily and used in a range of ways as needs change during the day. The entire site will be open, contemporary and inviting.”
The development is part of the implementation of the Strategy for Leading Catholic Education to New Levels of Excellence. The estimated project cost for the expansion of St Joseph’s School Reception – Year 9 is $6.2 million.
Known as the Little Flower, St Therese taught that following her path of love, her ‘Little Way’, is a sign of God’s grace.
