An A-Leagues club has bold plans to build a sports-focused high school in southwest Sydney – and the vision goes well beyond football.
Macarthur FC has submitted plans to the NSW Planning Portal for a combined high school and childcare centre at 186 Cawdor Road, Cawdor – close to Camden township. The proposal covers a Year 7 to Year 12 school with capacity for 1,200 students, as well as a childcare centre catering to 120 children.
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Chief commercial officer Mark Jensen said the club’s footballing roots wouldn’t define the school’s sporting focus.
“We recognise that southwest Sydney produces exceptional talent across a wide range of sports,” Mr Jensen said.
“Our vision is to create an environment where young athletes of all disciplines can pursue academic excellence alongside their sporting ambitions, under one roof, close to home.”
For Jensen, the project is as much about serving local families as it is about developing athletes.
“Southwest Sydney and the Macarthur region are among the fastest-growing corridors in the country, yet the infrastructure deficit here remains significant. Families in our area are already stretched by cost-of-living pressures, and when you add the burden of travelling across the city every evening so a talented young athlete can train, it takes a very real toll on family time, finances, and ultimately on athlete development and wellbeing.”
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A major drawcard of the proposal is its integration with the club’s nearby Centre of Excellence, a professional training base already approved for the Macarthur FC A-League squad. That facility includes four full-size pitches, two half fields, a gym, aquatic centre, team rooms and administrative offices. School students would tap into those resources as part of everyday campus life.
On the same grounds, a childcare centre would give families with younger children a single destination for drop-off. The scoping report notes that “the school and childcare facility will operate as separate entities with access to shared infrastructure, reporting to the Macarthur FC board.”
Total development costs are estimated at just over $21 million. Planners project the build will generate roughly 44 construction jobs, with around 95 permanent education roles to follow. Certain facilities are also earmarked for broader community use.
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Should the project win approval, the school would sit alongside a handful of existing sports-focused high schools across NSW, among them Endeavour Sports High in Caringbah, Narrabeen Sports High on the Northern Beaches, Westfields Sports High in Fairfield West and The Hills Sports High in Seven Hills.
The next step is the completion of an Environmental Impact Statement, meaning formal approval remains some way off.
