Three new St Nicholas centres to open

The diocese’s childcare agency, St Nicholas Early Education, is set to expand with three new centres to open late 2017 and early 2018. With services already operating at Singleton and Newcastle West, St Nick’s will soon have five centres across the region - opening at Cardiff, Chisholm and also Lochinvar in late 2017 and early 2018 ready for the school year.

Continuing the established commitment to providing high quality care using best practice principles, St Nicholas will continue to offer quality early education services to children aged eight weeks to five years, operating 51 weeks of the year in all centres.

The new Cardiff centre will provide 84 places for children, co-located with the existing CatholicCare Social Services office in Kelton St and close to St Kevin’s Primary School. There will be two nursery rooms catering for children from eight weeks to two years of age and dedicated rooms for children aged two and three years. The Cardiff centre will also feature a specialist four to five-year-old program led by Early Childhood teachers.

St Nicholas Chisholm will offer 77 places and be located adjoining St Aloysius Catholic Primary School and St Bede’s Catholic College. Catering for children in specialist nursery and preschool programs, the Chisholm centre also provides an outdoor area designed to create challenging and diverse play opportunities for all ages, including cubby houses and teepees, bike tracks, mud pits as well as interactive vegetable and flower beds.  Parents with children attending St Nick’s and St Aloysius with have a convenient single drop-off point.

St Nicholas Lochinvar will provide 124 places onsite with St Patrick’s Primary School and near St Joseph’s College.  This will also provide a single drop-off for parents with children attending St Nicholas and the adjoining schools. Designed to create age-defined indoor learning areas with shared outdoor areas for all ages to enjoy, the Lochinvar centre also boasts a preschool wing with two learning areas for children four to five years of age, and close access to St Patrick’s Primary School, providing an invaluable school transition program for families. The outdoor area at the Lochinvar site has also been designed to create challenging and diverse play opportunities for all ages. With respect to the rural surrounds of the Lochinvar area, St Nicholas Lochinvar aims to promote natural play spaces for young explorers across all age groups. As a unique service to parents, St Nicholas Lochinvar will also have a café facility for parents to order a coffee on the way in for drop-off and collect on the way out.

With three exciting new developments already underway, St Nicholas is now taking waitlist applications from families interested in places at Cardiff, Chisholm or Lochinvar from late 2017 and early 2018. Applications can be made now at the St Nicholas website.  

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Sean Scanlon Image
Sean Scanlon

Sean Scanlon is the Chief Executive Officer of the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

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