The St Laurence Flexible Learning Centre (SLFLC) was blessed and officially opened as a registered school in 2019. The flexi centre offers full-time secondary education and social inclusion programs for young people. SLFLC is a diocesan systemic school and is run by Edmund Rice Education Australia, which has a specialist expertise in operating 22 other centres across the country.
SLFLC seeks to respond to the needs of young people by providing a place and an opportunity for young people to re-engage in a suitable, flexible learning environment. The school caters for Stage 5 (Years 9 and 10) students with opportunities for young people to complete RoSA and non-RoSA programs. VET courses are also available to supplement learning. There is an emphasis on literacy, numeracy and upskilling.
Young people are typically in groups of 15, working with a teacher and engagement support person, and engage in NESA curriculum through a variety of flexible pathways. As such, the centre provides a genuine option for students potentially at risk of not completing schooling with a real avenue of engagement. In short, it provides a real capacity to transform lives.
The centre when fully operational will enrol 50 young people. It is our hope to develop other flexis in areas of need. Complementing the profound work achieved in our mainstream schools, this and future flexi centres will truly transform lives and be lighthouses in our Catholic education system.