The schools where you’ll pay less in 2022: Catholic Education South Australia reveals fee freeze, falls
Covid money worries don’t have to leave private schooling out of reach, SA’s Catholic educators say, as they reveal their plans to ease the pain. See what you’ll pay at each school
Education
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Catholic schools across the state are moving to make education more affordable in the wake of Covid, offering families hundreds of dollars in fee relief.
Catholic Education SA director Neil McGoran said the sector’s schools were implementing a range of initiatives in 2022 – from reducing tuition fees to freezing other charges, such as resource fees, and offering special “Covid-19 fee remission” plans.
“We know many families have taken a financial hit and we’ve responded with generous fee remissions,” he says.
“Among all the worries that we have at this time, worrying about the payment of school fees should not be one of them.”
He said all diocesan-governed Catholic secondary colleges, or combined R-12 schools, would either freeze or reduce fees in 2022, some by as much as $1200 a year.
Port Pirie’s St Mark’s College is offering a new Covid fee remission plan, aimed to help families “who have experienced either a reduction of pay or unemployment due to lockdown”.
Gleeson College at Golden Grove has announced “a simpler fee structure”, to combine extras, such as a capital levy charged per student.
“We are very pleased to announce that in 2022 Gleeson College will be reducing school fees for all families and students in our community … year 8 to year 12 will reduce within a range of $440 to $520 based on one student,” principal Joe Corbo wrote in a letter to parents.
The most expensive of the CESA-governed schools, Mercedes College at Springfield, has announced a one-off fee reduction of 1 per cent in tuition fees, resource fees and “capital levy across all year levels”.
“The college council is also conscious of financial pressures that exist for many families as we navigate through unprecedented Covid times and we will continue to monitor the situation and the effect of these difficult circumstances,” its website states.
The year 12 students fee at Mercedes College will be $18,020, which includes a capital levy fee.
Meanwhile, St Francis de Sales College at Mt Barker has also reduced its fees in 2022 by $150 per student while also keeping its resource fee on ice, for the fourth consecutive year.
Blackfriars Priory School at Prospect, which is independently governed, has kept its fees stable for the past three years.
Thomas More College, at Salisbury, has waived its $70 enrolment application fee in response to Covid.
Dr McGoran said a fee-free school, for year 11 and 12 students, was also readying to open its doors at Davoren Park.
Meanwhile, fees at the state’s Catholic primary schools have also been reduced, on average, by $450 per student across the past few years, he said.
In addittion, students who begin reception mid-way through the year will receive free tuition for the last two terms.
“All 68 diocesan Catholic primary schools have frozen their fees for 2022,” Dr McGoran said.
CESA opened a new reception to year 6 school at Two Wells north of Adelaide last year, Xavier College.
In 2022 it will expand to include year 7 and 8 students, eventually catering for a full reception to year 12 cohort.
“Our fees are set with consideration of families in mind,” campus head Janet Coomber said.
“As a Catholic school we have such a focus on inclusivity and diversity. It’s what we do.”
Two Wells mum Sarah Molloy said it was great to have choice when it came to choosing a local school, especially when you lived outside the metropolitan area.
She said she believed private schooling provided her children – Jasmine, 12, and Toby, 9 – more “individualised care”.
“We’ve found learning is a bit more targeted toward the individual student ... Jasmine is an academic child, so it’s great to see her being pushed,” she said.
“The fees being affordable makes being able to choose where we send our children a reality for us”.
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