Parkerville Children and Youth Care has reached another milestone with the opening of a new campus in the Perth Hills.
Parkerville Grove School opened its doors to students aged 12 to 18 late last month.
Located on Roland Road in the Shire of Mundaring, the school employs an education model specifically designed for children who have experienced trauma.
Early in 2025, a development assessment panel approved the application to convert 13 heritage buildings into therapeutic learning spaces at an estimated cost of $13 million.
However, Parkerville CYC chief executive Kim Brooklyn said opening Parkerville Grove School was the result of a five-year journey.
“It’s not a simple thing ... to open a school,” Ms Brooklyn told Business News.
“While we’re renovating buildings built from 1903 onwards, everything’s been designed ... around helping with the students’ brain function, helping with reducing anxiety.
“They’re responding to it as well as can be expected for a bunch of kids where it’s a new school, new people, new teachers, and really learning what’s safe and how to create safety in a new place.”
As reported by Business News, Gina Rinehart and her companies, Hancock Prospecting and Hancock Iron Ore, have donated to the charity, founded in 1903, for several years.
Ms Brooklyn said the organisation had received donations and support for Parkerville Grove School but would continue to raise more money for the remainder of the restoration.
Key features of the school include a 15-student maximum in classrooms, high staff-to-student ratios, and trauma-trained teachers.
The school provides breakfast and lunch, essential and wellbeing supplies, and a dedicated bus service.
“We have 15 young people in a classroom with a teacher and a youth worker. It is intentionally small so individual attention can be provided to each of the young people,” Ms Brooklyn said.
“All of them will have their own education plan, we can deliver on that. Large classrooms don’t let you do that, really.
“Not to the degree that’s needed for these young people.”
She said the school’s opening had garnered attention from educational organisations across the country, with educators at a recent Anglican schools’ forum interested in the trauma-first teaching model.
“It’s because we’re trying to do something different. We’re trying to do healing, to create some safety [for students] to then be able to learn, and we’re also not giving up on these young people,” Ms Brooklyn said.
“They are already responding exceptionally well to that. “Children and young people who were not attending school at all have attended [Parkerville Grove School] in the last week and a half.”
The school is initially catering for students in years seven to 10 but plans to expand to years 11-12 in 2027-28, with the campus to be limited to 90 attendees.
Parkerville Grove School foundation principal Alice Alibrandi said there wasn’t anything else like the campus in the state.
“We’re building a specialist healing education model that gives young people who have experienced trauma a genuine opportunity to flourish,” she said.
“It’s a school where healing comes first and education follows.
“From teachers and youth workers who lead healing and learning each day, to therapeutic support workers and allied health professionals, everyone works as one integrated team to support safety, care and connection.”
Ms Brooklyn said most schools were not equipped to support young people in their healing.
“They’re set up to educate first. We have watched young people crash and burn in those systems … how [education] was approached for these young people,” she said.
“And because of what happened to them, they’ve got some behaviours that are sometimes challenging. We understand that.
“I mean, we’ve been working with kids with trauma for 123 years, so we understand it quite deeply. So our model really is around helping them feel safe before they get their education, and we give opportunity to be successful.”
