James Cook Boys Technology and Moorefield Girls high schools to be merged, Asquith goes co-ed in latest gender shake-up

More of Sydney’s public single-sex high schools will amalgamate as the government reveals plans to merge a boys’ and a girls’ school in the south, and turn two in the city’s north co-ed.

More of Sydney’s public single-sex high schools will disappear with the government revealing plans to merge a boys’ and a girls’ school in the southern suburbs and turn two in the city’s north co-educational.

Neighbouring schools James Cook Boys Technology High School and Moorefield Girls High School in Kogarah – their campuses given silver screen fame as the setting of iconic television drama Puberty Blues – will be merged into a single mega-campus for the 2026 school year.

The Department of Education’s community consultation in December last year found 65 per cent of primary school parents in Bayside had a preference for coeducation in high school.

In the same year Asquith Boys High School and Asquith Girls High School in the northern suburbs will both go co-ed, but will retain separate campuses and operate independently of each other.

Parents of primary school-aged children in Asquith held a stronger preference for co-ed schooling, with 75 per cent in favour, while among current parents only one third of families at the girls’ school and 47 per cent of the boys’ parents voted in favour of the co-ed change.

James Cook Boys Technology High School in Kogarah will merge with its sister school to become co-ed. Picture: Tim Hunter.

All four sites will undergo significant infrastructure upgrades to make way for a mixed-sex environment and names for the new schools will be subject to further consultation with the school communities.

Both the merged school in Kogarah and co-ed schools in Asquith will allow for some single-sex-focused classes and activities “in recognition of the preferences of some students and families”.

Moorefield Girls High School is next door. Picture: Tim Hunter.

The Minns government went to the state election promising to expand the availability of coeducational public schooling to every family in the state, and earlier this year rezoned 20 school catchments to give more families the option.

Education Minister Prue Car said the changes reflect what the majority of local families would prefer.

NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Education Prue Car said the changes reflected the preference of the majority. Picture NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

“The larger student populations of these high schools will broaden the opportunities available for students, including expanded subject offerings and extra-curricular programs,” she said.

Catchment areas in Sydney’s inner south had already been rezoned to include more co-ed schools but a spokeswoman for the Education Minister said during the consultation process for the redraw, community members raised questions about whether Moorefield and James Cook could provide coeducation for their catchments, resulting in a second round of consultation.

Families with a preference for single sex high school education will still have the option of out of area enrolment in single sex schools including Wiley Park Girls High School, Beverly Hills Girls High School, Homebush Boys, Ashfield Boys, and Belmore Boys.

However among current parents of Moorefield Girls students opinion is split, with some eager to see the boys next door move in and others apprehensive about the academic impact.

While only 32 per cent of current parents at James Cook voted to maintain the status quo, 52 per cent of Moorefield’s mums and dads wanted to keep the school as a girls-only campus.

Dropping her daughter off at school one mum, who did not give her name, was all for the move.

“I think boys and girls should be educated together,” she said.

Businessman Dick Smith flies into Asquith Girls High School to give the students a talk as part of Science Week. Picture: AAP Image / Julian Andrews

However another mother, whose daughter will have graduated by the time the schools merge, was more concerned, and believes the move has more to do with operational costs than giving parents more choice.

“Girls perform better in single-sex schools,” she said.

“There’s not many girls’ schools around … and that’s the reason my daughter comes here, otherwise we would’ve gone to the (Georges River College) Peakhurst campus.

“If your child has additional needs or is vulnerable in terms of their character, it exposes them – I just worry they’ll be picked on, they don’t know the social cues with boys.”

James Cook Boys P&C president Irene Omeros is looking forward to her son, Year 10 student Jordi Omeros, being able to socialise more readily with the girls next door and having more options for his HSC subjects.

Despite sending both her firstborn, who has since graduated, and her youngest boy to the school, Ms Omeros is not a diehard dedicated to single-sex education.

“We picked it because it was our local school and because our boys liked what was on offer – they had a robotics program, for example,” she said.

“At the time when we were looking, the other school that was on offer was overcrowded.”

The merger presents opportunities to expand the availability of niche courses and programs with a critical mass of students – both schools currently have fewer than 500 enrolled.

“When there’s a small number of students a subject can’t always run, so the school being co-ed, it will be able to run subjects which would otherwise not be able to be offered,” Ms Omeros said.

Originally published as James Cook Boys Technology and Moorefield Girls high schools to be merged, Asquith goes co-ed in latest gender shake-up