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More parents choosing a Catholic school education than ever before

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16 December 2024

Demand for Catholic school places in Melbourne has surged by almost 2% over the past 12 months.  

Data from the latest school Census revealed that enrolments at Catholic secondary schools jumped 3.8% in the 12 months to August 2024, continuing the strong upward trend of prior years.

Catholic primary schools saw the highest levels of enrolment demand in the rapidly expanding northern and western population growth corridors of Melbourne, but established areas in the south and east of the city also experienced greater overall demand.

Melbourne ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ Catholic Schools (ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ) owns and operates almost 300 primary and secondary schools in the Melbourne Catholic ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ.  Around one in five Victorian students attends a Catholic school. 

ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ Executive Director, Dr Edward Simons, said that the latest data confirms that Melbourne families are increasingly choosing the distinctive faith-based education offering of Catholic schools. 

“Our promise is to support each child to walk a path that inspires and enables them to flourish and enrich the world.

'Our whole-of-child approach to education and our system-wide implementation of evidence-based teaching practice mean we’re able to do that in a way that helps every child succeed and be happy and confident in the world, no matter their background and circumstances.

'Encouragingly, Catholic primary school enrolments are growing across Melbourne.  More parents are choosing our distinctive, faith-based approach to education,' Dr Simons said.

Dr Simons also said that as the largest non-government school system in the country, ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ is able to respond quickly and efficiently to growing enrolment demand in Melbourne’s rapidly expanding growth corridors in the north and west.

'We are able to provide Melbourne families a high-quality education option at significantly lower cost to Victorian taxpayers than the government school system, in large part due to the contributions of our generous and hard working parent communities.

'Our school and parish communities save government tens of millions of dollars every year through contributions toward tuition costs and capital works.

'While we greatly appreciate the support of state and federal governments to deliver this community infrastructure, we would welcome further capital funding to assist us to keep pace with demand,' Dr Simons said. 

More than 116,400 Victorian children in greater Melbourne now attend a Catholic school, up from 114,500 in 2023.