Kincoppal-Rose Bay and Shore no longer offering co-education at their junior campuses

Two elite Sydney schools will no longer have co-educational learning at their junior campuses, going against a wave of single-sex colleges shifting towards boys and girls learning together.

Two prestigious Sydney schools will no longer have co-educational learning at their junior campuses, going against a wave of single-sex colleges shifting towards boys and girls learning together.

Kincoppal-Rose Bay, in the eastern suburbs, which is co-ed primary and a single-sex girls’ school from year 7, told parents in an email last week it would stop accepting boys at its junior school.

Principal Erica Thomas said in a letter to families the school had for years “struggled to secure significant numbers of boys” at its primary campus, Barat-Burn, which has offered kindergarten scholarships.

The final intake for boys entering kindergarten will be in 2028.

The independent Catholic school first enrolled boys at its junior school in 1914.

Kincoppal Rose Bay school and Shore will no longer offer co-ed at their junior campuses. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Shore, in Sydney’s lower north shore, will also no longer enrol girls at its preparatory kindergarten-to-year at its Northbridge campus from next year.

Shore’s prep school has been co-ed since 2003.

Private boys’ school Shore has also announced it will longer enrol girls at its preparatory kindergarten-to-year 2 Northbridge campus from next year.

Its prep school has been co-ed since 2003.

Current female students in kindergarten, year 1, and year 2 will continue their education at Shore through to the end of year 2, ensuring continuity in their learning experience.

Shore Headmaster Dr John Collier, said while the school had “greatly valued” having girls at the Northbridge Campus, the broader interest indicated a preference for boys’ education from Kindergarten through to year 12.

“Our Shore Girls and their families remain cherished members of our community, and we will be actively exploring ways to honour their legacy and maintain their connection with the school,” Dr Collier said.

A Shore spokeswoman said the change, was considered carefully by the school council and reflected feedback from families who were seeking places at schools that can accommodate their daughters all the way through to year 12, as well as a declining number of enrolment inquiries for girls in these grades beyond the Early Learning Centre (ELC).

The Shore Early Learning Centre (ELC) will continue its coeducational model, which is unaffected by these changes.

‘CHALLENGING’ DECISION

Kincoppal Rose Bay principal Erica Thomas said the Board had made a “challenging, yet strategic and long-term decision” to phase out co-education at Barat-Burn over the next nine years, with the junior school’s final intake of boys joining Kindergarten in 2028 and graduating Year 6 in 2035.

A spokeswoman for Kincoppal-Rose Bay said the school has “struggled to achieve a gender balance” since boys were introduced more than a century ago in 1914, and “numbers have fluctuated over the years”.

Kincoppal Rose Bay principal Erica Thomas. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

“Our records indicate that at best we have had 30 per cent of some of our K-6 cohorts as boys but at points in our history, male enrolments have been less than 10 per cent,” she said.

KRB currently has only 38 male students across its entire 230-student junior campus, to whom Ms Thomas said the school remains “fully committed” while acknowledging that “increased competition from other schools and the removal of Year 7” has made the sustainable enrolment of boys, into the future, unlikely.

“We have made considerable efforts to increase the number of boy enrolments by offering the strongest calibre of teachers, refining our holistic education, introducing scholarships to attract boy enrolments, revamping our digital marketing campaign, and endeavouring to build Year 7 pathways with a range of schools,” she said.

“While these measures have contributed to co-education at KRB, they have not resulted in sustainable change to the enrolment of boys.”

However the school’s two preschool centres, Sophie’s Place and Joigny, will remain co-ed.

It comes after a number of independent and Catholic schools have already made the switch, notably Cranbrook School and Newington College – which ruffled the feathers of parents and alumni.

Education Minister Prue Car last year announced that Liverpool Boys High School and Liverpool Girls High School would merge and in 2023 the controversial decision was made to merge Randwick Boys’ and Girls’ High Schools for 2025.

Originally published as Kincoppal-Rose Bay and Shore no longer offering co-education at their junior campuses