One of South Australia’s oldest bilingual colleges, St George College, in Mile End is set to receive a $9.55 million loan from the Government of South Australia as announced last week in an official media release.
Established in 1983, St George is the only Greek Orthodox college that provides Reception-year 12 education and an extensive co-curricular program to students in South Australia.
“I am ecstatic for our students, staff, and families,” said Principal Gina Kadis in an interview with Neos Kosmos.
“This affordable loan opportunity gives us the means to create additional science facilities and robotics suites, to ensure our middle school (Years 5-8) and senior school (Years 9-12) students access hands-on opportunities to develop skills, knowledge, understandings, and capabilities that prepare them for the 21st century.
“We need to ready our students for dynamic futures; where their skills and knowledge [will] help them to adapt to the needs of emerging jobs and industries. We aim to be able to invite industry and other students into these facilities so that we can contribute back to the greater community. This loan from the Government will assist us to provide such facilities.”
The college will use the loan to build a multi-storey science, technology, engineering, and mathematics building, as well as an innovative Early Learning Centre (ELC) as part of an upgrade to the junior campus.
“The new STEM facility will give our students access to leading edge opportunities in science, technologies, engineering, and mathematics to apply in life what they learn in class; this makes for an unforgettable education,” explains Kadis, who hopes that these additional facilities will allow the students to “dream big” and connect locally with universities, and TAFE colleges as well as other schools on an international level.
“We already have one sister-school relationship with an exclusive school in China and are close to securing another two agreements – one with a specialist robotics college in China – and we will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with a Malaysian school in the near future. As an ELC to Year 12 co-educational college on the city fringe, we are proud of our multicultural college, where diversity is embraced for the good of all. A great liberal education opens up opportunities for students. That’s what this loan will provide – a brilliant educational experience for young adults seeking promising careers in high tech occupations.”
For the college’s teachers and educators, this means that they need to drive flexible learning using facilities, tools, and resources that encourage and excite the students to discover new things.
The college prides itself on its emphasis on the pursuit of excellence in whatever the students aspire to achieve; supported by a strong well-being and pastoral care program.
“We are building a larger early learning centre to accommodate the high demand for quality care for preschool children for so many of our families that work in the city and with the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide University Medical School and University of South Australia growth opportunities. We are getting lots of enquires for quality day care for children from six weeks to five years of age.
“We are so grateful and appreciative to be a significant beneficiary of the State Government’s scheme, knowing how competitive a process it was. It is a terrific endorsement of the achievements that the College has made in the 30 years since it was established. It presents the school with an opportunity to cement its future as a key contributor of education in South Australia.
“Therefore, we would like to publicly thank the Government of South Australia for its support of our college and we are particularly thrilled that these new facilities will help our students to get even more excited about learning, which we hope stays with them for life,” concludes Kadis.