Greater Shepparton Secondary College failing local families, education inquiry hears

An inquiry has been told of a long list of issues at Greater Shepparton Secondary, with one teacher saying families are leaving because of the school’s “bad vibes”.

Former Greater Shepparton mayor Jenny Houlihan says the controversial super school has disadvantaged locals.

Greater Shepparton’s controversial super school has been labelled a “huge mistake” during an inquiry into Victoria’s state education system.

Jenny Houlihan, who was the former Greater Shepparton mayor for almost a decade and has extensive knowledge of education in the area, told the inquiry on Wednesday afternoon that the super school had failed and further disadvantaged locals.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed there were 2541 students enrolled at the four local schools in 2019 — a year before they merged into Greater Shepparton Secondary College (GSSC) – compared to 2070 in 2023.

“The closure of four secondary schools and replacing those with one school, which is built to eventually go up to 3000 (pupils), in an area which is at a very low socio-economic level … is a real disadvantage,” Ms Houlihan told the Inquiry.

Four schools merged to become Greater Shepparton Secondary College. Picture: David Caird

“It might work in Melbourne in a rich area, but it does not work in Shepparton.

“We have quite a large rural and town area in Greater Shepparton. It’s 2400 sqkm, it’s the only choice for public education for all of those families and our population is getting up to 70,000.

“That in itself has provided a lot of difficulties for a lot of families. Formerly, they could ride or walk to school very easily and now they could spend up to an hour just to get to school,” she said.

Ms Houlihan said students with disabilities were also disadvantaged by the lack of public schools in Greater Shepparton.

“Some of them (parents) even said I can’t get my kid on a bus every day from over the river because he has ADHD or autism … I now have to take him all the way over … it takes me an hour now, this is a single mum and it costs me $100 more a week in petrol,” she said.

Ms Houlihan said there was also a lack of community consultation with the state government over the merger of the four schools.

“People were trying to say what they wanted and what wasn’t going to work for them and that was ignored.”

In a letter to the inquiry, Ms Houlihan wrote: “Due to issues such as the super school’s location, unsuitable transport, bullying problems and a large school not being suitable, some families now have no choice except to pay for their children to go to a private or religious school.”

“Many are struggling to afford this. Some students are not attending school at all, due to no other choices being available,” she wrote.

Former Greater Shepparton mayor Jenny Houlihan. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Former Greater Shepparton teacher and resident Lindsay Dann, who also spoke at the inquiry, said it was concerning that families were “queuing up” to get into other private schools in the area.

“The Anglicans just built a P-12, it’s just started in the past year and they’re already queuing up to get in there,” Mr Dann said.

“They just have stolen people out of our system because of the bad vibes going around about our only secondary college and that really disappoints me because state education has a huge role to play.

“At secondary level, the quality of families has just dropped off, they’ve gone looking elsewhere. I know so many that drive up to Numurkah, I don’t know how many are heading off to Bendigo, Ballarat or Melbourne to private schools.

“The fact that our total numbers have dropped by approximately 600 when our regional population is increasing is of great concern.”

Shepparton is the fourth rural location for the state government inquiry.

It was established by Eastern Victoria MP and former schoolteacher Melina Bath in 2023 to investigate the state of government education.

Other hearings have been held in Bairnsdale, Traralgon and Bendigo.

The committee is due to hear evidence in Melbourne in May.

More than 200 submissions have been received, with many detailing poor classroom behaviour, high teacher frustration and infrastructure problems in Victoria’s 1500 state schools.

A Department of Education spokesman said: “More than 60 buses provide a free service both before and after school to make sure every GSSC student - whether they live in Shepparton, Mooroopna or the broader Goulburn Valley — has easy transport options every day”.

“Before GSSC was opened, Shepparton students had below average outcomes, had very limited subjects to choose from and schools saw declining enrolments,” he said.

“The new school offers a broad range of subjects in world-class facilities, with free travel to school every day for every student.”