A fantastic school like ours should be replicated, not erased

Like many people, after primary school, both of us began falling out of love with our education. As students who have both previously attended private and public schools, we felt our passion for learning diminish under systems that don’t seem to entirely recognise or value the intricacies of the student experience.

It’s difficult to articulate the magic of our school, especially having come from schools that had both consistently failed to meet our needs. Freshwater Senior Campus has subverted the often disappointing elements of traditional high school education, cultivating an independent space for senior students to thrive within the terms of mutual maturity and respect – something that is only understood, appreciated and achieved within the foundations of a senior campus.

Freshwater Senior Campus school captains Sebastian Rayel and Sophie Rawstorne.

The choice to come here was, for us, and probably everyone, the first epochal decision as a young adult – one that gave us the chance to grow and develop. There’s a unique energy surrounding “Freshie”, one derived from intention. Everyone has the opportunity to discern who they are and who they want to be, with the school offering the freedom, support and space to bridge that gap. We’ve both felt the benefits of Freshie’s mature and open discussions and provisions around mental health and learning support. It’s rare to find a school that does more than just educate. This place transforms.

But it’s not just about personal growth. We get to collectively enjoy and exist in an environment that’s perfectly designed for this moment in our lives. This characterises the sense of community within the school and what it means to be a part of the “Freshie fam”. This dynamic transforms the very idea of what it means to be at school. It’s a place where you’re credited as the young adult that you are: where the teachers oversee your work and laugh with you.

Freshwater granting us a valued sense of independence is only possible under the assumption that it’s years 11 to 12. Freshie replicates the university experience, preparing us for life after high school. Initially, this was foreign to us, having attended schools in which education fails to transcend the classroom.

Freshwater’s mature culture comes out in its students. It doesn’t take long for northern beaches kids to picture a “Freshie student”, someone who embodies enthusiasm and maturity. Our school, with its thoughtful surroundings and respectful relationships, produces students with wisdom and sophistication beyond their years.

The school’s culture is underpinned by its mature cohort, creating an environment that doesn’t speak down to us – a system that treats all of our pursuits, values, and issues with the sincerity that other 7-12 schools reserve for only adults. To threaten this is to misunderstand its impact entirely.

Freshwater Senior Campus students Poppy Lill and Sasha Danilo have started a petition against the decision to turn the school into a years 7 to 12 high school.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

Under a government promise to provide the northern beaches with coeducational schooling at a 7-12 level, a plan is in motion to transition the campus from exclusively senior into a standard high school, accommodating all year groups, beginning in 2026. This decision disregards the fundamental design and purpose of “Freshie”, which has produced success time and time again.

What happened to “Everyone wants to be at Freshie,” where the institutional feats and successes were highly praised by the department? The very qualities that made Freshwater a desirable outlier are now at risk of being diluted by a more conventional and generalised high school structure, one that has continuously failed us in the past.

We both recognise the need for coeducational high schools on the northern beaches, but we urge people to recognise that this is the worst “solution” to this problem. Changing the structure of the school will kill its culture, not expand or evolve it to benefit a greater intake. It concludes an opportunity for struggling children to redefine their unsatisfied high school experience.

What makes this recent decision so much more scary is that Freshie represents the ideal of what modern education should look like. It’s contemporary, forward-thinking, inclusive and empowering, creating composed and thoughtful young adults. It’s the kind of school we should be replicating, not erasing. To eradicate its very purpose would suggest a more terrifying future for public education – one we should all be concerned about.

Sophie Rawstorne and Sebastian Rayel are the Freshwater Senior Campus school captains.

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