Following ongoing economic expansion in northwest Sydney, Australian Christian College (ACC) Marsden Park has recorded an unprecedented increase in enrolments and staff hires.
Since just last year, enrolments at the school have gone up from 540 to 850 – a 57.4% increase. This substantial growth in the student population has also meant the hiring of 30 additional staff for the new school year.
For 2022, ACC Marsden Park has appointed seven additional Primary class teachers, a Specialist Primary Music Teacher to complement the Specialist Primary Technology existing teacher, and additional Specialist Learning Support teachers.
An additional 14 new subject teachers across all the Key Learning Areas – English, Maths, Science, History/Geography, PDHPE, Technology – have been appointed to the secondary school.
New staff hires, four in total, were also made for the school’s expanding Online Distance Education program that supports students studying remotely across NSW. In addition, the program is now fully registered to deliver the High School Certificate (HSC) through its online offering.
Part of the northwest Sydney growth area, Marsden Park has seen considerable economic development in the last year with the population increasing by 27.8% according to a recent report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Housing and accommodation have also contributed to this spike, with up to 10,300 new homes being built, along with new amenities to support the area’s continuing growth.
The growth has also seen the need for new facilities on campus, with Stage 1 of the project - which includes 30 new classrooms, parking and drop off areas - set to be completed this April.
This will be followed by the immediate commencement of Stage 2, the building of a new Technology Hub that includes multiple-purpose workshops and studios for a wide variety of high-tech learning including robotics, engineering, videography and more. This stage is expected to be completed for use in 2023.
Stage 3 of the project will provide an extra 30 classrooms and learning spaces, with sporting facilities such as cricket nets and a Rugby/Soccer field which will accompany this in 2022 and 2023 respectively. A performing Arts Centre and a Vocational Technology centre will also be developed.
“2022 has allowed Australian Christian College Marsden Park to respond to the significant local interest by welcoming over 300 new students into the College and engaging over 30 new teachers,” ACC Marsden Park principal, Brendan Corr, told The Educator.
“This represents a growth of over 45%. This growth supports the College's expansion in curriculum offerings and services to students.”
Corr said the Primary School has specialist Technology and Creative Arts teachers delivering age-specific tailored programs to students across Kindy to Year 6. Secondary School has expanded its range of Electives and Stage 6 courses increasing its Technology-Rich offerings.
“Within this growth, the College has maintained its commitment to its highly relational approach to education by keeping class sizes small to ensure that all students are well known and well taught,” he said.
“New structures of Welfare support have been introduced so that all dimensions of each student's development is understood and catered for.”
Corr said an exciting development has been the introduction of ‘The Care Centre’ - a hub that gathers the specific services supporting the emotional, social, intellectual and physical wellbeing and health of students into a coherent and interacting whole.
“In addition, the College is now providing a fully accredited RoSA and HSC program entirely via Online Learning - a new frontier with exciting possibilities.”