There are 29 Catholic schools and colleges in the Diocese of Cairns. With the exception of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School at Thursday Island and St Joseph’s Parish School, Weipa, all schools and colleges are within two hours driving time from Cairns.
The Cairns Diocese has two Prep to Year 12 colleges (St Andrew’s Catholic College at Redlynch and MacKillop Catholic College, Mount Peter), 20 primary schools and 7 secondary colleges. Of those, St Augustine’s College, Cairns is an All Boys college and St Monica’s College, Cairns is an All Girls college. In addition to day schooling, St Augustine’s offers boarding for students of St Augustine’s and St Monica’s. Mount St Bernard College, Herberton (MSB) is a day and boarding secondary college for boys and girls.
In 2016, Catholic Education opened two new schools to meet growing demand. MacKillop Catholic College is located in the Cairns southern growth corridor at Mount Peter and offers Prep to Year 3 in 2016. It will grow to full Prep to Year 12 status by 2020. St Joseph’s Parish School opened in Weipa, offering Prep to Year 6.
In a strong initiative towards social justice engagement, Catholic Education opened a Flexi School for disengaged young people in Cairns and Cooktown in 2015. Holy Spirit College caters for students aged between 11 and 17 who have disengaged from education or for whom enrolling in a mainstream secondary school is not the best alternative. Holy Spirit College has capacity to enrol up to 52 students in Cairns and up to 38 in Cooktown, of whom up to 32 can be weekly boarders drawn from the wider community including Hope Vale and Wujal Wujal.
