Randwick, Hurstville, Penshurst schools return as co-ed campuses for 2025 academic year
The Education Minister “hopes” converting many of the state’s single-sex schools to co-educational ones will turn around declining enrolments in the public education system. Today, four schools made that leap.
Education
Don't miss out on the headlines from Education. Followed categories will be added to My News.
NSW Education Minister Prue Car “hopes” the conversion of the state’s single-sex schools to coeducational ones will turn around declining enrolments in the public education system.
There were drawn-out hugs and teary eyes at school gates across NSW as Kindergarten and Year 7 students took the next big step in their education this morning.
The 2024-25 holiday period was longer than usual for students and their parents, after teachers won the right to two extra pupil-free days at the start of the year in their new enterprise agreement with the Department of Education.
Four former boys’ and girls’ high schools in Sydney reopened to students on Thursday as three coeducational ones, with Randwick Boys and Randwick Girls in the eastern suburbs merging to become Randwick High School, and Hurstville Boys and Penshurst Girls reopening as two co-ed junior schools in the Georges River Campus school network.
Despite opposition among existing parents, students and teachers, the state government is pushing ahead with plans to merge and expand other single-sex schools including Liverpool Boys and Liverpool Girls high schools, Asquith Girls and Boys schools, and James Cook Boys Technology High School and Moorefield Girls High School in Kogarah from next year.
Addressing reporters at the newly-opened Melonba High School in Sydney’s northwest, Deputy Premier and Education Minister Prue Car said her government remains committed to an election promise to expand coeducation and is consulting each affected community “one by one”.
“In some areas, the consultation may show that we’re not going to pursue the move, but we’re consulting with local communities,” she said.
“We hope that this … will increase enrolments in public schools, because this means that in those particular areas, parents will be able to choose a girls’ or a boys’ school, or a coeducational offering.”
The public system has been struggling to compete with private schools in recent years, with Catholic and Independent schools swallowing up an increasing share of students every year since 2018.
Departmental consultation reports for all ten school communities converted, or slated for conversion, so far indicated popular support for coeducation among future parents, however the majority of current students, parents and staff at the former girls’ schools voted in favour of maintaining the status quo.
Hurstville Boys’ High School, now rebranded to GRC Hurstville, has more than doubled its Year 7 intake, up from 48 students last year to 119 in 2025.
Enrolments opened to girls for Year 7 and 8, with Years 9 and 10 to initially remain single-sex, however no female students put their hands up for the Year 8 intake this year.
Ellie Jhinku and Nicholas Jhinku are among the siblings now united in attending the same school, with several relieved mums telling The Daily Telegraph they were pleased by the change.
Agnes Sidhu said she was “very happy” about the decision, dropping her 12-year-old daughter Meera off for her first day of high school.
“Her brother has been here, and of course it’s close to home so she can walk by herself,” Ms Sidhu said.
“She would’ve had to commute to a different area to go to high school, otherwise.”
“I’m used to a co-ed school, because I’ve been in a co-ed school for seven years,” Meera added.
Year 7 student Serine Zaiter’s mum Dima Mansour hailed the move as a “very, very good step” while classmate Aleksia’s mum Julie Stefanakis said it “wouldn’t have made a difference” to her decision to keep her daughter in the Georges River College network.
Principal Kathy Klados said her aim in the transition is to respect the school’s 97-year history as a technical school for boys, while taking it into a new era for the next century.
Younger students will have a designated playground space where they can “feel safe”, and Ms Klados anticipates “corridor etiquette” may need some work in the days ahead, but staff expect that all students will demonstrate “respect, responsibility and aiming for excellence … regardless if you’re a boy or a girl”.
“We’ve had many assemblies to prep our boys that it’s coming, we’ve gone through with them step-by-step the facility upgrades, the teaching and learning programs that we’ve made changes to, the expectations of them,” she said.
“There’ll always be challenges with new things and it is dynamic, and we’ll have to deal with issues as they arise, but we won’t tolerate anything that wouldn’t be tolerated in normal society, out there in the real world.”
What today’s kindy kids will grow up to be
An estimated 1.25 million children in NSW will be back at school on Thursday, but for those just starting out, here’s what their futures might look like by the year 2038.
Tell us your side: Send in your school horror stories
Police called to schoolyard fights, parents screaming in classrooms and allegations of AI-generated porn – schools are in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Submit your stories.