Covid vaccination for children: Sydney Catholic Schools to become hubs

Principals are being urged to follow the lead of Sydney Catholic Schools as it sets up Covid vaccination hubs for youngsters in Sydney.

Sydney schools will set up vaccination hubs to help get primary school children vaccinated against Covid with the approved Pfizer jab.

Sydney Catholic Schools will partner with South East Sydney Local Health District to establish vaccination hubs for children aged five to 11 at Marcellin College Randwick and St Patrick’s College Sutherland.

The pop-up clinics have been established to provide a familiar, comfortable place for the state’s youngest students to be vaccinated.

Students will be able to be vaccinated from January 18 to January 21, with the clinic returning in eight weeks to administer the second dose.

Bookings can be made through NSW Health.

Hubs will be set up at Marcellin College Randwick and St Patrick’s College Sutherland.

A vial of the Biontech-Pfizer vaccine Comirnaty in the paediatric dosage. (Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP)

SCS director Tony Farley said: “I hope that setting up these clinics will give parents the comfort and confidence of a familiar location and community approach to access vaccination.

“Our schools are places of safety and certainty and the close collaboration between our staff, parents and students is the key to meeting and overcoming any challenges in the future.”

The Marcellin College hub is located in the Marist Centre on Avoca St while the St Patrick’s College Sutherland hub is in Rice Hall on President Ave.

Sennen Bond received the Pfizer vaccine at Sydney Road Family Medical Practice in Balgowlah on January 11, 2022. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

A SCS spokesman said the school network is now inviting other schools - and particularly those in southwest Sydney - to partner with them to create more primary school student vaccination hubs.

“We have been advocating since very early in the pandemic to use our schools as vax hubs for our communities, that is why we were so happy to partner with South East Sydney when they contacted us,” the spokesman said.

“We would be very keen to work with other local health districts to set up hubs - we are especially interested in providing an option for our families in South West Sydney.”

Pharmacies and general practices have already joined the effort to vaccinate children aged five to 11, along with NSW Health’s other hubs including the Western Sydney Local Health District vaccination hub at the Granville Centre.

NSW Health vaccination clinics that vaccinate children aged five to 11 also include Canterbury Hospital, the South West Sydney Vaccination Centre in Macquarie Fields, Hornsby Hospital, the Koori Vaccination Clinic at Redfern Town Hall, the Penrith Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic, the St George Hospital Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic in Kogarah and the Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic, among others.