Western Sydney’s new Islamic schools, Catholic colleges lead shift from public to private

Independent schools are recording higher growth than Catholic schools, and public school enrolments are shrinking across the state. Here’s why Western Sydney is at the heart of the great school shift.

Santa Sophia Catholic College is the state's fastest growing school, and is one of many which exemplify the trend of families choosing private schooling over public schools. Picture: Julian Andrews

Sydney’s independent schools are recording higher growth than Catholic schools while public school enrolments shrink across the state, new data reveals, with the rise of low-fee private education at the core of the shift.

The popularity of private schooling has surged in southwest Sydney in particular, where despite the booming population enrolments in public schools have fallen slightly, by 1 per cent on average, over the last five years.

Meanwhile independent schools - particularly Islamic ones - have grown by 37 per cent on average. Of the five fast-growing schools in the region, three follow an Islamic ethos - Zahra Grammar School, Al-Faisal College in Liverpool and Rissalah College in Lakemba.

Father of five Chahine Chahine has sent four of his school-aged kids to Islamic schools, with youngest Mariam to join her hearing-impaired sister Zahra at Zahra Grammar next year.

“The Islamic community is going through a transition phase with the second generation. When I was growing up, our parents didn’t have an option for a private school unless it was a Catholic school,” Mr Chahine explained.

Zahra Grammar School in Minto is one of Sydney's fastest growing independent schools.

His decision to switch Zahra from the public to the private sector was based not only on the school’s religious ethos, but the seven-year-old’s specific needs.

She “suffered immensely” at the public school she attended in Kindergarten, Mr Chahine said, after being entered into a specialist class with students who were profoundly deaf and non-verbal, unlike his daughter.

Al Faisal College, with its multiple Western Sydney branches, is another Islamic school growing in popularity.

“The difference in her has been out of this world - the progress she’s made, her attitude and how she deals with us has changed immensely,” he said.

Principal Dr Gulzar Khan said his small sub-$500 per year school is looking to expand, after being forced to turn away 70 would-be Kindergarten students for this year, and will begin offering secondary education if their development application is approved.

Association of Independent Schools NSW CEO Margery Evans said Islamic schools now represent almost 10 per cent of her sector, where 20 years ago that same demographic would be enrolled in the public system.

The growing diversity of size, fee structures and philosophies has also influenced the increased share of enrolments she said, as has proximity to new populations.

Margery Evans, CEO of Independent Schools Australia. Picture: Supplied

“In newer and outer-city suburbs, and expanding regional towns, it’s true that in some areas, Independent schools are the first schools to open,” she said.

“Many of them also offer a K-12, coeducational environment, which more and more families want.”

Systemic Catholic schools, on the other hand, are recording little growth in inner Sydney and have lost enrolments in northern Sydney, but Western Sydney’s dioceses have capitalised on slow public infrastructure to capture the market in new suburbs.

In the west Catholic school enrolments are up 42 per cent on average, and they’re up 12 per cent in the southwest.

Parramatta Catholic Schools executive director Jack de Groot said in recent years schools have sprung up “in the context of emerging communities and grown with them”.

“They don’t see themselves as just providing an education service, they see themselves as part of the community’s development,” he said.

The increasing popularity of both Catholic and low-fee Anglican, Pentecostal and other religious independent schools, he said, can be partly attributed to the needs of “some migrant communities” who “weren’t always able to trust government services” in their home countries.

“The cultural diversity of Western Sydney means that people from subcontinental, India, and Sri Lanka and Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, often will have had experiences of seeing good quality Catholic education in their own country,” he said.

Principal of Santa Sophia Catholic College Mark de Vries with students Aron (9) and Fiadh (7) Gildernew, who moved to the school 3 months ago from County Tyrone in Ireland. Picture: Julian Andrews

“(They) might not be part of that Catholic tradition, but (they) know it’s a quality offering.”

In Gables, where Santa Sophia Catholic College was the first school on the block in 2021, principal Mark De Vries is already grappling with a Kindergarten waitlist of 100 kids in a brand-new vertical school where there’s no room for demountables to create overflow capacity.

Mr De Vries said it’s difficult to give a definitive answer as to why so many parents are attracted to the school, but the extended opening hours from 6:30am to 6pm are a big drawcard.

“The reality is that a lot of parents are time poor, so if you can get all the kids’ activities and their homework done … that saves the parents having to rush home … it really is a one-stop shop,” he said.