By Jordan Baker
Girls would slowly be enrolled in Randwick Boys' High over several years if a proposal to turn it into a co-educational school is endorsed by the community.
The Department of Education is surveying the community to canvas views on the idea, following calls from local parents for another co-ed public school option in a region crowded with single-sex private schools.
Debate has raged over the future of Randwick Boys' and Girls' High for decades, but plans to merge the two schools have always met resistance from the girls' parents. The latest proposal is to keep the girls' school, and turn the boys' school into a co-ed school.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian with students from Randwick Boys' High earlier this year.Credit: Louise Kennerley
The survey asks if respondents support the proposal, whether they would be likely to send their son or daughter to a Randwick comprehensive school, and, if the project went ahead, what ideas the department should take into consideration.
Officials will also run information booths at local shopping centres over the school holidays, and consult parents and the school community. The survey will be open until February 15, and a decision on the school's future is due by the middle of next year.
"If the decision is made that Randwick Boys' High School will become a co-educational high school, girls would be enrolled in a staged process over a number of years," according to the Department of Education's website.
Licia Heath from CLOSE East, who is campaigning for a completely new co-ed school in the area, said most people she has spoken to were supportive of the change.
"It depends where you are; if you have kids in the local primary schools, or you have kids in the local day cares, then generally they seem to be supportive," she said.
"If you already have kids in Randwick Boys' in year nine, then you might be a bit more fearful of the change. That's why it's so important that there is a cross-section of the community. So far [the reaction] seems to be positive."
However, she said the region still needed another new school. "It's not a solution to what we've been talking about in terms of capacity in the area, it's not adding capacity."
Other boys' schools are welcoming girls, including Barker, Marist College North Shore, and The Armidale School.
Coogee Liberal MP Bruce Notley-Smith said he was keen to hear the community's view.
"There's nothing particularly new about the desire to have a co-educational school on that site, but the problem was they always tried to combine the boys and girls school and it has never got past that," he said.
"I value Randwick Girls' High School extremely highly and we are keen to reassure them that their school is not under threat."
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