St Lawrence of Brindisi is one of Melbourne’s newest Catholic primary schools, having opened in January 2022. Our school is one of 300 primary schools owned and operated by Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS).
We are one of two primary schools and one college in the parish of St Anthony of Padua, Melton South, along with our sister schools, St Anthony of Padua Primary School and St Francis College (Cobblebank campus). St Anthony of Padua Parish is one of the fastest-growing parishes in Victoria, with two new schools set to open in our parish in 2026: St Padre Pio in Thornhill Park and St Marianne Cope in Mount Atkinson. Each parish school shares a strong connection and is linked by our connection to the Franciscan order.
Our school is situated in Australia’s fastest-growing growth corridor and currently 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.
Over the last three years, we have been one of the fastest-growing Catholic schools in Victoria, and it is likely our school will continue to grow over the next few years. We have 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 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 (which was initially 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 all-weather soccer 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 call our ‘Kiss n’ Go’) and two competition-grade basketball courts.
Our Stage Three building was completed in February 2025. This consists of a large double-storey facility. Downstairs, this consists of a large staffroom and boardroom, office spaces, a dedicated first-aid room and administration space and a meeting room. The first floor has six classrooms surrounding a smaller collaborative space, an archive room and a meeting space for teachers.
Stage Five of our Master Plan is currently under construction and is due for completion by December 2025. This will see the construction of a dedicated three and four-year-old Kindergarten and Out of School Hours Care facility, which will be run by MACS Early Years Education (MACS EYE).
Stage Four of our Master Plan, the construction of an indoor gymnasium/performing arts space and community area, is due to begin construction before the end of 2025/early 2026, with the completion date of January 2027.
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.
Our school has a dedicated staff team who have worked hard to embed a culture of educational excellence. Our school is organised into five learning communities, which are named after the developmental stages for children:
- Exploration Learning Community: Our Foundation/Prep children who are learning to explore the world and continue the first steps of their educational journey from their time in Kindergarten
- Discovery Learning Community: Our Grade One and Grade Two children, who are discovering more about themselves, the world and how they learn.
- Curiosity Learning Community: Our Grade Three and Grade Four students, who are building their educational knowledge and are supported to become curious about the world through their learning.
- Challenge Learning Community: Our Grade Five and Grade Six students, who are challenging themselves in their learning, and are supported to become problem-solvers and critical thinkers.
We also have a specialist learning community which provides specific subject area learning to our students:
- STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics)
- Visual Arts
- Performing Arts
- Sport/Physical Education
A big part of our school culture is our use of Auslan. Auslan is taught daily with our teachers learning alongside our students in a model called ‘teachers as co-learners’. We have a staff member who is profoundly deaf, Zoe, who supports our staff and children to use Auslan as a functional language that is used in all aspects of school life. Our children will sing our school song in Auslan, recite the Welcome to Country and common Catholic prayers in Auslan.
St Lawrence of Brindisi is focused 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 nurture, a culture guided by our vision statement, 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.