Photo © CCCares

The school is a campus of Canberra College, and unique in providing childcare, transport to and from school and an on-site maternal health nurse.

Across Australia, there are currently 10,000 young parents of high school age. But because most schools don’t have programs in place to support students who become parents, many simply drop out.

Jan Marshall, who developed the program, describes it as a community where all the students who have made the decision to become parents “feel welcomed…  and very comfortable”.

When 17 year old Nicole Potts fell pregnant last year, she and her partner considered dropping out of school because they felt like they would be judged. But now, after enrolling at CCCares, they are both completing their Year 12 certificates. 

Jan explains, ”our students bring their children to school and that enables them to be a student at the school and learn parenting skills at the same time. Our children play together, they learn together and they work with adults to learn the skills they need to be the best parents they can be.”

CCCares has 113 students with 82 children; and there are a further 22 babies due this year. Because of the success of the program, there are now calls to roll it out across the country.