By Alex Crowe
Connor Renfrey couldn’t see himself graduating from high school while skipping class and ending up in detention at his mainstream secondary college.
“I was never a big fan of the teachers. I was missing school and getting into trouble,” the 16-year-old said.
Cassandra Renfrey’s son Connor is enrolled at a school for disengaged kids which is having to turn students away.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Connor’s mother, Cassandra Renfrey, intervened and enrolled him at the Pavilion School in Epping, a Charles La Trobe College school for disengaged students. Connor found his attitude towards school changing completely.
“It’s a different sort of school. You’ve actually got someone that cares,” he said.
Despite the school’s reputation for excellence that has drawn praise from education experts interstate and overseas, dozens of young people will be turned away in 2025 due to its inadequate facilities.
Its 85 students were taught in a building rented from Melbourne Polytechnic last year. The campus has one classroom, a small meeting room, no staff room and no specialist facilities.
The Pavilion School in Epping.Credit: Luis Ascui
Due to the lack of space, Pavilion has been forced to reduce its intake to 65 in 2025.
About 40 disengaged kids will remain on a waiting list, their families uncertain whether they’ll get the schooling support they need.
“I feel for them, because what are they going to do?” Cassandra Renfrey said. “They’ll have to do what I did and try to make their way through the mainstream system that doesn’t have the framework to help.”
Renfrey said Pavilion’s model, which includes a teacher, teacher’s aide and wellbeing worker in each class, has been a lifeline for students like her son.
“I’d hate to see where he might be now if not for the Pavilion,” she said.
The Education Department helped secure Pavilion Epping’s current 12-month lease at Melbourne Polytechnic, which expires on July 1. It has offered to cover 50 per cent of the rent for an additional 12 months in the same building. Pavilion has another permanent campus at Preston.
“We continue to work with the school to explore accommodation options for its Epping campus,” a spokesperson said.
Link Centre Foundation chair Paul Bridgeford is campaigning for a new, permanent campus in Epping. The registered charity became aware of the Pavilion when looking for somewhere to enrol students after the closure of a school it ran in the western suburbs.
The charity has offered to contribute to the costs of a new school. However, Bridgeford’s requests for funding have gone unanswered by education bureaucrats, who say Pavilion Epping is the responsibility of Charles La Trobe College.
His attempts to meet with Charles La Trobe principal Mark Deverall have so far been unsuccessful. Deverall, whom The Age has contacted for comment, has agreed to meet with him this year.
Bridgeford said his concern for the students languishing on the waiting list was that they might not attend school at all.
“What nobody actually recognises is that if you don’t do something for these young people, many of them could end up in the youth justice system,” he said.
“OK, it might cost more to educate them because we’re a much higher teacher-pupil ratio, but what it’s doing is saving these young people from potentially going to [the Melbourne Youth Justice Centre in] Parkville, which is then going to cost the state a whole lot more.”
Pavilion’s flexible learning options helped Connor get his attendance above 85 per cent in year 10, his behaviour earning him an Australian Defence Force Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award.
Connor says he’s “feeling fine” about school heading into year 11 at Pavilion, where he will start a course specialising in sport and recreation.
“I’ve always wanted to finish high school,” he said. “But I couldn’t do it in a mainstream school.”
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