A masterful creation by the Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, this school has been the brainchild of Greg Whitby (Executive Director, Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta) and is led by Greg Miller (Principal Leader). Both extremely progressive and forward thinking in the way they expect education to be. This was a brand-new build that started with only 3 connecting double rooms to now an entire school that actively engages in modern teaching practices within their new learning environments.

When designing a brand-new build, you are blessed with a blank canvas, which also challenges you to create your best work. We did not gamble on the effectiveness of each collection and how it was to benefit each classroom. Instead, we took our time to understand the Diocese’s vision and what their plans were for Catholic education in the Parramatta area. This was difficult initially as the Diocese was thinking well in advance, far beyond the current few years but this style of thinking eventually helped us in creating pieces that would be adaptive.

We balanced the need for today, with the progress of tomorrow to achieve what is necessary for the future. Introducing collaborative pieces for both solid-state and break-away collaborative collections to encourage movement within the classroom, whilst having the ability to explicitly teach. Maintaining engagement was achieved through Greg Miller’s vision for teaching and pedagogy, encouraging students to partake in all activities, leading to a decision for durable writeable surface and easily repositionable furniture.

Building on this foundation and the understanding of future expectations, we needed to create spaces that would interconnect, should the school expand and wish to join disparate collections together – the ability is always there. The emphasis was on transferability, and we engaged yet again with Greg Whitby’s insights on what he expected classrooms to have – depth in a classroom, multiple heights were a must. This facilitates managing not only height differences but also students’ engagement at crucial times of the day.

St Luke’s has become the standard in modern learning practices and spaces, drawing immense attention from public and private schools throughout Sydney and across Australia. Leaders from all over have taken the time to visit St Luke’s to understand the process, and outcomes for such a forward-thinking school.