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A new campus for Good News Lutheran College (GNLC) in Mambourin, Victoria, is great news for families in Melbourne's booming outer west region.
GNLC has offered a Christ-centred holistic education in a values-based environment at its popular Tarneit campus since 1997 and, with LLL's support, is undertaking a visionary project to build a brand-new campus as part of a residential development in Mambourin.
From humble beginnings - the school opened with a class of 26 students - GNLC has flourished and is now a Prep to Year 12 college (an Early Learning Centre will open in 2024), with over 1,300 students and 160 staff.
The demand for quality education in the burgeoning population growth corridor far exceeds available schooling options, with GNLC's Mambourin campus, about 10 kilometres to the south-west of Tarneit, ultimately to include an ELC and a complete Prep to Year 12 education pathway.
"Being able to build not only a Lutheran school in Mambourin, but a Lutheran community and all that entails is really exciting," GNLC Principal Fiona McAuliffe said.
"The excitement in the community was obvious when we held a 'Come and See' day at the Mambourin site earlier this year and about 300 families came."
Work will commence at the new site early in 2024, with approximately 150 students to be welcomed in 2025.
Many of those children are already part of the Good News family, with temporary classrooms at the Tarneit campus housing students in 2023 and 2024 before they transfer across to Mambourin.
Building a new campus from scratch to eventually house around 1,500 students was preferred as opposed to further construction at Tarneit, with a two-campus approach allowing teachers and students across all year levels to stay connected.
A chance meeting with LLL CEO Ross Smith in 2020, her first year as principal, gave Fiona all the encouragement she needed to explore the complex process of getting a new campus off the ground, with LLL's Chief Relationship Officer Scott Ross also providing a wealth of support.
"Someone from LLL has always been there for me to say, 'We're behind you'," Fiona said.
"They so strongly believed in what we were doing and why it was the right thing for the community and the Church.
"They've been so very helpful."
Photo: Good News Lutheran College is helping meet the educational needs of Melbourne's outer west.
