St Patrick's School, Pakenham, is a co-educational Catholic primary school. Catholic schooling has been conducted in Pakenham since the 1850s and on this site since the 1860s. We are proud of our long and rich history and have a number of the refurbished early buildings still on site. The present enrolment of about 440 is expected to increase to about 530 in 2012 and reach the mid 600's within a couple of years, due to rapid housing expansion in the area. At St Patrick's Primary School we believe that children learn best when they are happy and when the learning is relevant to their lives and to their stage of development and readiness. They learn when there are good relationships among those involved in the learning process. We think the exploratory and informal elements of learning are very important. Learning involves risk-taking and errors are seen as healthy steps toward skill acquisition and growth. Each young person, through a belief in themselves, in others and in a loving God must be encouraged to strive for excellence and to have hope for the future. Our wish is that St Patrick's School provides an atmosphere that gives each child a sense of self-worth, gives encouragement in a secure environment and challenges each young person to develop his or her talents to the fullest possible extent. St Patrick's offers specialist tuition in Music and Physical Education; contemporary learning facilities; extensive outdoor play areas and an out of school hours care programme.