Plans to make Randwick Boys co-ed are moving quickly

PLANS are being put in place to turn Randwick Boys’ High into a co-ed school.

The Education Minister is working with the local MP to make the school co-ed.

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PLANS are being put in place to turn Randwick Boys’ High into a co-ed school.

Coogee state Liberal MP Bruce Notley-Smith told the Southern Courier he had been working closely with the principal, Lance Raskall and Education Minister Rob Stokes to transform the school as soon as possible. As part of the plan, Randwick Girls will remain a single sex school.

“I’m really excited,” Mr Notley-Smith said. “Most people now agree that co-ed schools are preferable, especially for parents of boys.

“Parents of girls who want daughters to go to a single sex school will still have Randwick Girls.”

Bruce Notley-Smith MP has said he is excited by the plan. Picture: Craig Wilson

The schools were handed $3.7 million in the recent NSW Budget, some of which is expected to go towards the co-ed plan.

Mr Notley-Smith said they would soon be consulting the community. He couldn’t put a time frame on completion, but said they were “working to make it happen as quickly as possible”. He said the school had spare capacity and expected it to be more popular after it becomes co-ed. “I’ve had many parents come to me over the years to say they want Randwick Boys and Girls to combine,” Mr Notley-Smith said.

Randwick Boys High P & C said it was open to the idea and would keenly await further details. Licia Heath, from the Community for Local Options for Secondary Education (CLOSEast), is campaigning for a new high school in the eastern suburbs to tackle capacity issues.

Licia Heath, from CLOSEast, said more needed to be done to solve capacity issues in the east.

She said the group welcomed a co-ed in an area where there are only single sex high schools. However, she said only a new co-ed school would solve capacity issues. “In reality, if no capacity is added, making RBHS co-ed provides more capacity for girls in the east and nominally less for boys.”

The Department of Education refused to elaborate on the co-ed proposal, only to say that plans for an upgrade were at an early stage.

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