A bold plan to develop a small bilingual primary school in the grounds of St Paul’s, Chatswood has received final approval, with the school set to open at the start of the 2015 academic year.

A two-storey building with classrooms, offices and an exterior play area for the International Chinese School, as it will be known, are now being constructed after Standing Committee gave approval earlier this year for $760,000, raised from the sale of a parish property, to be used towards the project.

Church members have pledged almost as much again to get the school built, with the remaining $450,000 provided by a loan from the Finance and Loans Board. The general manager at St Paul’s, David Lawrence, who is also project manager for the school, says, “We see this very much as local mission, so it’s not just a straight selling of a property so we can put capital into an asset. We felt this is a really positive step and...lines up with our core objective here.”

The ICS will be a not-for-profit independent Anglican school and follow the NSW Board of Studies curriculum – usually in English, but with at least one hour of Mandarin each day. “Our target is that the students will be proficient in both languages – not just knowing simple words,” says Anthony Tse, the school’s registrar. “They will know how to read and write in both languages.”

The ICS started its marketing campaign in August and has had six confirmed enrolments in the first six weeks (the school has a maximum of 20), with many more interested families. Mr Tse says parents have “expressed keen interest, and although the building won’t be finished until late November enrolments have continued to come in.”

Some St Paul’s congregations have been relocated offsite for the duration of the build and these congregations – as well as those that have remained in the church – are continuing to grow. “Everyone’s very supportive and interested,” Mr Lawrence says. “Even with the programs during the week, people have been very understanding of the disruption that a massive building program can have. “I’ve put a hard hat on some of our parishioners, taken them through the site and shown them our timber hall – that’s the oldest thing on the site – and shown them how we are keeping it but reusing it and they’ve been very positive about that.”

Mr Lawrence says that the International Chinese School holds an information morning tea each fortnight and has received inquiries or registrations each time. “A couple of people have even rung who had children born in July and they’ve registered for 2018!” he says. “So the waiting lists are growing and the momentum behind the start next year is growing as well.” 

Photo: Chatswood senior minister the Rev Steve Jeffrey inspects progress in the new building.