Two inner west single-sex schools to merge into new co-ed college

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Two inner west single-sex schools to merge into new co-ed college

By Jordan Baker

More single-sex Sydney schools are becoming co-educational, with boys’ college De La Salle in Ashfield set to merge with an adjacent girls’ school, Bethlehem College.

The merger will also take in a nearby primary school, St Vincent’s, to create a co-educational school catering for students from kindergarten to year 12. There will be three sections in the school, for early (kindy to year 4), middle (years 5 to 8) and senior (years 9-12) education.

There are few co-ed options in the inner west of Sydney, as many of the local public high schools are also single-sex. “The demographic is indicating a huge demand for co-educational in that area, which we are very keen to meet,” said Tony Farley, the head of Sydney Catholic Schools.

Marist Catholic College North Sydney is in its second year of transition to co-education

Marist Catholic College North Sydney is in its second year of transition to co-education Credit:Kate Geraghty

Sydney has an unusually high number of boys and girls-only schools, particularly in its public system, where there are 34 single-sex catchments. Many of the city’s sandstone private schools are also single-sex, particularly in the eastern and inner western suburbs and on the north shore.

However, Cranbrook - a high-fee school in Bellevue Hill - is debating whether to introduce girls into years 11 and 12. Newington College, in Stanmore in the inner west, is also discussing the idea with its community, alongside a proposal to make the school more culturally and socio-economically diverse.

St Paul’s College at Sydney University has announced plans to begin accepting female undergraduates from next year. Barker College finished its transition to fully co-educational this year, and The Armidale School finished its transition to co-ed in 2016.

This would be the fourth new co-educational school created by Sydney Catholic Schools in the past decade. However, it would be the first merger, with the other three - including Marist Penshurst and Champangat in Pagewood - having been all-boys’ schools that opened their gates to girls.

The old Marist Brothers in North Sydney began introducing girls into year 7 last year, when it became Marist Catholic College North Shore. It also took in St Mary’s Primary School down the road to become a kindergarten to year 12 college.

Farley said the Ashfield merger would be phased in from 2024, when year 7 would become co-educational. It would be fully co-ed by 2027. From next year, some year 11 and 12 students would have some co-ed classes.

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“Those that were having a single-sex education will continue through,” he said. There are about 500 girls at Bethlehem and about 400 boys at De La Salle College.

At Marist North Sydney, the transition involved giving staff gender bias training and modifying facilities.

The public system has preserved its single-sex schools despite calls for more co-ed options, particularly from parents in Randwick, Hornsby and in the inner west.

Families can make an out-of-area application to a co-ed high school, but they are not guaranteed a place and may not find out the result of their application until the last minute.

A government-run survey in Randwick, held in 2018, found 57 per cent of respondents strongly supported turning Randwick Boys′ into a co-ed school while keeping Randwick Girls single-sex, but the idea was rejected by the NSW Department of Education.

The department revealed last year it was “working towards options” to ensure students in more than 30 of the city’s non-selective, single-sex public high schools also had guaranteed access to a co-ed school.

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However, the policy of a guaranteed co-ed place to those that want one so far only extends to families in Georges River College catchment area, who can choose between Penshurst Girls and Hurstville Boys or the co-ed Peakhurst campus, rather than being directed to one of them based on their address.

The Georges River network would test the idea and the results would be reported back later in 2022, a parliamentary hearing was told last year.

There is little research to suggest single-sex or co-ed schools are better academically or socially, but the subject is hard to study due to the fact that every student and school is different. Parents of girls tend to prefer single-sex schools to those of boys.

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