Canberra Inner South primary school, Saints Peter and Paul Primary School in Garran, has launched its first ever program to directly assist children and families of Canberra’s frontline workers.
The new Frontline Workers Program has been designed to directly address the additional challenges faced by the students and families when one or both parents are frontline workers in the Canberra community – particularly those in the health care sector as doctors, nurses and paramedics.
“Saints Peter and Paul Primary School recognises the valuable contributions of frontline and healthcare workers. They give so much to the community through their working life, as well as balancing their demanding shift schedules and personal and family responsibilities,” said Mr Cameron Johns, Principal, Saints Peter and Paul Primary School.
“Due to the close proximity of our school to the Canberra Hospital and several allied health facilities, we have many students attend who come from families of frontline workers, and we recognise the unique challenges and added strains that these families often face. Particularly when it comes to shift work,” Mr Johns continued.
“We wanted to directly address these added stressors for frontline worker families, and put into place a program which aims to alleviate some of the stress for these families, especially when we can see more families considering our school for their primary education with the upcoming $17million expansion of the Canberra Hospital.
“These families need a primary school education that they can trust, and one where their additional needs such as early starts and late finishes, before and after school care, flexible curriculum delivery and even counselling are included,” Mr Johns continued.
Saints Peter and Paul Primary School’s Frontline Workers Program includes early access to before school care, beginning at 6:45am to accommodate those workers who start on the 7am shift. The program also includes early communication of events to allow health workers to organise their rosters around attending school events, evening parent teacher interviews to accommodate shift workers, an onsite school counsellor, and Catholic Care Support, including professional learning for staff on managing students/families who have stressful jobs, like health workers.
“We offer emotional support for children adjusting to parents’ demanding schedules, and we also educate our staff about the challenges faced by health worker parents, such as long hours, fatigue, and emotional stress, which promotes understanding and empathy,” Mr Johns concluded.
Saints Peter and Paul Primary School is in walking distance from the Canberra Hospital and National Capital Private Hospital. It is an easy commute from the Phillip Community Health Centre, Queen Elizabeth II in ACT Family Centre, Canberra Private Hospital, and Calvary John James Hospital.
Saints Peter and Paul Primary School is now taking enrolments for the 2026 school year. For more information head to www.stpandp.act.edu.au