Media releases
FLEXIBLE LEARNING CENTRE CHANGES DIRECTION
Good Samaritan College - new logo
The Good Samaritan College was opened and blessed by the Reverend Bishop Robert M McGuckin, Bishop of Toowoomba and Dr Patrick Coughlan, Executive Director: Catholic Schools on Friday, 14 February. The College was formerly known as the Youth and Community Learning Centre (YCLC).
YCLC began in 2001 as a social justice initiative of the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office, with a focus to educate young people who were not attending mainstream schooling. The Centre run buses to transport high school aged people, from around Toowoomba to the campus to be fed, clothed and educated.
Since 2001 the Centre has undergone several improvements and developments. A major change has been the moving from experiential learning opportunities, to more formalised and personalised learning journeys for each person.
The Centre has been re-branded as the Good Samaritan College (GSC). Whilst GSC thrives within its contemporary vision of individualised learning pathways, utilising the strengths of its young people to ensure their success; as well as, applying the lens of compassion to each interaction with the young people and their families, and the wider community, in order to achieve their well-being goals.
The name Good Samaritan College was chosen to acknowledge the Good Samaritan Sisters who founded a school, Our Lady Help of Christians in 1957, on the grounds where the College is now located. The school was run by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan with the purpose of ensuring that the children of Toowoomba, and Harlaxton in particular, were provided with an education that catered for their spiritual, emotional, physical, psychological and social needs.
“As we look to the future, we enliven and carry forward their message, ‘Go and do likewise!’. We recognize those in need as the Good Samaritan did and strive to grow together with our core values of community, curiosity, courage and above all compassion. Our tagline ‘success through industry’ describes what the College community is all about - success through hard work and perseverance, craftsmanship, academic achievement and application, traineeships and apprenticeships and connections with the local community,” said Liisa Hammond, College Principal.