Shelford Girls’ Grammar described as ‘terminal in its current form’

Angry parents are preparing to mount legal action and the school is facing an exodus as leaked briefings show what’s in store for students.

Leaked briefings suggest female students from Shelford will be ‘immersed’ into Caulfield Grammar.

Shelford Girls’ Grammar is facing an exodus of staff and students ahead of a possible merger

with Caulfield Grammar, with legal action looming from unhappy parents.

Leaked briefings to staff suggest the female students from Shelford would be “immersed” into the nearby larger school, with all campuses coeducational.

It’s understood families have started pulling their daughters out of Shelford, with some obtaining legal advice after the school signalled it is expecting them to repay fee discounts of up to 50 per cent.

Some families are facing bills of up to $100,000 because of legal contracts stating that fee discounts have to be repaid if students are withdraw from the school.

Staff are also leaving amid the uncertainty, including the holders of several key posts in the senior school.

The principal, Katrina Brennan, is also leaving and will take up a position at Scotc College next year.

Some families have started pulling their daughters out of Shelford.

One parent said the school was “terminal in its current form” although a group of dedicated parents is fighting the save the school. In one online forum they dismiss merger rumours as a “smear campaign”.

A briefing for parents from the school council says Shelford “has the lessons of Mowbray College, Kilmore International School and Presentation Convent ringing in our ears”.

All schools closed due to financial issues or low enrolments in recent years.

Council chair Pam Russell said the school has only 425 students and needs 500 to 550 plus students for long term viability.

It is also facing a deficit for the fourth year in a row.

Such realities were first highlighted publicly by the Herald Sun earlier this year.

Ms Russell said attempts to attract more enrolments were not successful enough and the school is holding a “non-binding conversation” with Caulfield Grammar to work more closely together.

It also mentions the need to retain Shelford employees, which includes 72 teaching and 24 non-teaching staff under any future merger.

It says there is, as yet, no commitment or detailed discussions about what is going to happen in 2025.

The notes also mention the need to “work in good faith to attempt to honour the current

fee agreements that families currently have with Shelford moving forward”.

One parent who has chosen to remove his daughter from the school said he understood he would soon be billed for the past fees which were waived under a 50 per cent discount

bursary, which could be as much as $50,000.

The school’s fee policy states that the school “will seek reimbursement for any proportion of fees awarded by a scholarship or concession from the date of concession to the date of

withdrawal”.

Paul O’Halloran, partner at Dentons lawyers, said a clause “that penalises parents might risk being struck down as an ‘unfair contract term’ if the penalty imposed by the school does not bear a reasonable relationship to the loss likely to be suffered by the school due to the early

termination of the contract by the parents”.

Nick Duggal, partner at Moray & Agnew lawyers, said issues “can arise where the school has sought to vary the terms of the enrolment, and parents may seek to argue that the original terms (which in some cases can be many years old) no longer apply”.

Ms Brennan told the Herald Sun: “As with any independent school Shelford relies on families meeting their financial commitments. Application for special consideration are considered on a case-by-case basis”.