Greater Shepparton College ‘super school’ set to open on Monday after years of controversy

A $140 million bid to turn around Shepparton’s troubled public schools will face its first real test when the classroom bell rings on Monday morning.

Depending on who you ask, the bell ringing for class on Monday morning at the old Shepparton High School campus could mark either a fresh start for the town’s troubled public education system, or a disaster years in the making.

The town’s public school system had slipped so far that by 2017, the state government decided the best way to start fixing things was to call in the bulldozers and merge four failing public high schools into one “super school”.

Executive principal Barbara O’Brien said despite the years of controversy, teachers and school staff had been planning for the first day of classes for months.

“I’m really excited, the staff are really excited, we have done a lot of preparation and planning over the holidays and throughout most of term 4 last year,” she said.

Greater Shepparton Secondary School “super school”. Picture: Jason Edwards

More than $140 million and five years in the making, the super school has 2223 students enrolled, with room for hundreds more, and is expected to be the state’s largest high school campus within a few years.

The super school is one of the focal points in a massive state government project aimed at reversing years of decline in Shepparton’s public schools, which have seen too many students joining the town’s long unemployment lines.

Of the four schools shut as part of the merger, three — Shepparton High School, Mooroopna Secondary College and McGuire High School — long had year 12 results among the worst in the state.

The Greater Shepparton College “super school” campus, pictured during construction.

If it works, the “super school” experiment could be the future of public education in cities outside Melbourne.

If it fails, thousands of kids from Shepparton will continue to sit near the bottom of the state’s education scrap heap.

Ms O’Brien said the school’s aim is simple: “Every child to get to VCE and to have a viable pathway beyond that”.

The success of the school, she said, will be vital for the future of Shepparton.

Executive Principal Barbara O'Brien. Picture: Jason Edwards

Despite its ambitious goals, the super school project has had plenty of critics.

A poll commissioned by the National Party in 2019 showed 60 per cent of residents opposed the opening of the super school, but Ms O’Brien says the number of parents with concerns about the school has now dwindled.

“Most parents are just overwhelmed and mesmerised … I think some parents, once they see the new buildings, then can see that the old buildings no longer benefit the needs of our students,” she said.

A band of parents critical of the super school has largely argued they have been robbed of any choice about where to send their kids, especially as some nearby private schools stopped taking new students amid an influx of students when plans for the super school were announced.

And lingering fears about the super school have been fuelled by any slither of bad news from any public school in town.

The now-closed McGuire High School was among the worst schools in the state.

That bad news has largely been coming from McGuire High School, which had to bring in security guards in response to shocking levels of violence, whose students have been accused of racism, and which was forced into an emergency lockdown when a student showed up with a replica gun.

Ms O’Brien admits the past few years — during which the four old schools have been run as “campuses” of the Greater Secondary College — have been “challenging”.

But she said teachers would make it clear they have “greater expectations for our students” than in the past.

Independent member for the Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has backed the super school, saying it will be vital to improving public education in the region.

“Our students were suffering from falling enrolments, poor attendance rates and low aspiration and education outcomes,” Ms Sheed said after touring the super school campus late last year.

Ms Sheed has long supported the super school, telling parliament last year the old schools were “out-of-date and no longer fit for purpose”.

For Ms O’Brien, the millions of dollars and years of controversy will be worth it the moment students walk into their new classrooms.

“Shepparton will benefit from this,” she said.