A south-eastern suburbs private school has plans to expand into Wyndham.
Lighthouse Christian College, which runs a K-12 school in Keysborough, has lodged plans with Wyndham council for a campus for 448 students – provisionally called Lighthouse Christian College West Campus – on a 9-hectare site on Point Cook Homestead Road.
According to the plans, Lighthouse Christian College has received more than 150 expressions of interest via the college website from families wanting to send their children to an independent school in Point Cook or Werribee South.
“It is clear that the provision of education facilities by the state government has not kept pace with local demand – Saltwater Coast residents, for instance, currently have no local government school, have a local Catholic school that is at capacity, and therefore Saltwater Coast and other nearby estate parents are required to send their children to Altona Green for their education,” the plans stated.
Construction of the proposed $6.9 million development, which would be built over three stages, would begin “immediately” after receiving planning approval.
This year’s 2018-19 state budget includes $96.8 million to build Davis Creek Primary School, Point Cook South Senior Secondary School, and Wyndham South (Riverwalk) Primary School, with all three schools earmarked to open for term one, 2020.
However, Wyndham mayor Peter Maynard has said the new schools would not fix the school shortage.
The council’s new Schools 4 Wyndham campaign has called for a new secondary school in Truganina by 2018, a primary school in Williams Landing by 2019, a primary school in Point Cook by 2020, a primary school in Tarneit by 2022, a primary school in Truganina by 2022 and a primary school in Werribee’s West by 2023.