St Lawrence of Brindisi is one of Melbourne’s newest Catholic primary schools, opening in January 2022. We are one of two primary schools in the parish of St Anthony of Padua, Melton South, along with our sister school, St Anthony of Padua Primary School, with whom we share a strong connection.
Our school is situated in Australia’s fastest-growing growth corridor and supports families from the suburb of Weir Views along with the neighbouring suburbs of Cobblebank, Eynesbury, Fieldstone, Mount Atkinson, Mount Cottrell, Pawan, Strathtulloh and Thornhill Park.
We are currently one of the fastest-growing schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne and it is likely our school will continue to grow over the next few years, Though we are still a very young school, we have already built a strong reputation within the local community and it is clear that we are the school of choice for many local families, who recognise the outstanding educational culture we have developed and the high level of care and support we provide for our students.
Our school opened with Stage One of our Master Plan in January 2022. This consisted of a main building with a large collaborative learning space surrounded by eight classrooms and a multipurpose learning area (currently used as a staff room and administration area). Stage One also included a smaller multipurpose learning space, (currently used as both our Visual Arts space and our Out-of-School-Hours Care and Vacation Care space), an outdoor, tiered, shade-sail covered classroom, a large oval, synthetic multi-use synthetic sports pitch, a playground and a large shade-sail covered sand pit.
Stage Two was completed in March 2023. This consisted of a further building with another, larger collaborative space surrounded by nine classrooms. Stage Two also included the construction of a dedicated student drop-off/collection area (what we term a ‘Kiss n’ Go’) and two competition-grade basketball courts.
St Lawrence of Brindisi is a highly multicultural community. More than 90% of our children come from families with a language background other than English. Our community supports families from more than fifty different countries with more than seventy languages. This makes our school community diverse, dynamic and vibrant, and is an aspect of our school we celebrate. It demonstrates that our school is a place of welcome.
From the outset, St Lawrence of Brindisi has focussed on actively engaging with our families, recognising that they have a central place in the life of our school. Our school is a place of support and nurture, where our culture is guided by our vision, our motto, ‘A light to the mind and a fire to the will’, and our three foundational pillars: a community called to learn, a community called to serve, a community called to love.