Plans approved for new education centre at Maitland

Maitland Council has unanimously approved plans submitted by the Diocese to transform the former Maitland Ex-Services Bowling Club site into a home for a new 70-place St Nicholas Early Education Centre and a 20-place vocational training centre.

Sean Scanlon, Vice Chancellor Administration, said the Diocese has identified Maitland as a key focus for early education in coming years. 

“We know parents throughout Maitland value the quality of education provided by our Catholic schools  and we plan to build on this by opening a new early education centre at Maitland in 2019,” he said.

“We will need to further fine-tune plans for both this centre and for the vocational training facility which will be for those interested in a career in early education,” he said.

In more good news for St Nicholas Early Education, its recent advertising campaign seeking to fill 74 full-time educator roles at early education centres Cardiff, Lochinvar and Chisholm – scheduled to open in 2018 – attracted hundreds of applications.

Sean said he was delighted by the response to the advertising campaign – but had experienced a similar response previously.

“When we recently advertised a range of positions for our centre at Chisholm, which is opening in January 2018, we had well over 100 applications.

“Once we fill the positions we have just advertised for Cardiff, Lochinvar and Chisholm, we will have more than doubled the number of educators at our St Nicholas early education centres – which currently stands at 50.

“Opening new quality and state-of-the-art early education centres in 2018 and 2019 is all part of the Diocese’s plan to meet the demand for high-quality education in the Hunter-Manning region,” he added

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John Kingsley-Jones Image
John Kingsley-Jones

John Kingsley-Jones was the Head of Diocesan Communications from September 2017 to July 2019.