By Lucy Carroll
The NSW government will turn four single-sex public high schools in Sydney’s south and north into co-ed campuses from 2026 despite most parents and students at the girls schools not supporting the move.
Principals at Asquith Girls and Asquith Boys High in Hornsby told families on Tuesday the schools would be transformed into separate standalone co-ed campuses, each with their own distinct catchment zones.
Asquith Girls P&C head Lisa Rothwell said she was “devastated” by the co-ed decision.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
Neighbouring schools Moorefield Girls and James Cook Boys Technology High in Kogarah will also be merged into a single co-ed campus.
The decision is the latest in a series of radical changes to the city’s single-sex public schools as the government forges ahead with plans to give all students in NSW guaranteed access to co-ed high school options.
It follows the controversial merger of Randwick Girls’ and Boys’, the amalgamation of Liverpool Girls and Boys and a complete overhaul of 30 catchment areas in the inner and south-west.
A separate proposal to turn the state’s top-performing public schools, Balgowlah Boys and Mackellar Girls, into co-ed campuses has sparked fierce backlash from parents who argue the idea is illogical. Balgowlah Boys outperforms high-fee private schools and selective state schools.
In a letter to parents, Asquith Girls principal Elizabeth Amvrazis said from 2026, year 7, 9 and 11 classes would be co-ed, with remaining classes co-educational from 2027.
“The decision to form separate standalone co-educational high schools follows comprehensive community consultation. The consultation showed a preference for co-education,” she said.
However, surveys run by the NSW Education Department in April revealed 69 per cent of Asquith Girls parents and students who responded said turning the school co-ed was either “completely unacceptable” or “unacceptable” to them.
The consultation found 75 per cent of parents at 13 local primary schools preferred a co-ed high school.
Of the 67 teachers and staff at Asquith Girls who responded to the survey, 83 per cent wanted the school to stay single-sex.
A separate survey at Moorefield Girls found just 30 per cent of parents thought it would be acceptable to merge. “The current Moorefield Girls High community has a preference towards single sex,” the department’s survey report said.
“By retaining single-sex education we are able to keep this environment where myself and my peers as girls are encouraged to speak and given all opportunities that my female friends at co-ed schools are not necessarily given,” one Moorefield student said.
At Moorefield Girls, almost 90 per cent of teachers rejected the idea of a merger. However, most parents at James Cook Boys High said combining the schools would be acceptable.
About 65 per cent of parents of students at seven public primary schools in the Kogarah-Rockdale area preferred a co-ed high school.
Last year, the Herald revealed parents are shunning public boys’ high schools as enrolments tumble, and some male non-selective schools are left with vacancy rates eclipsing 30 per cent.
Asquith Girls’ P&C president Lisa Rothwell said she was “devastated” by the co-ed decision, saying parents at the school had received no information explaining the move after families were surveyed in April.
Margaret Gruca-Dziok, whose daughter is in year 8 at Asquith Girls, said she chose an all-girls school “for a reason”.
“We are surrounded by single-sex private schools like Abbotsleigh and Loreto, but we don’t have the funds to send her to a private school. At Asquith, there is a strong community of girls who perform well academically,” she said.
“Hornsby Girls and other single-sex selective schools are left unaffected. Why are selective students saved from the turmoil of this change?” she said.
Her daughter, Zoe Dziok, said her principal “seemed very distressed” announcing the change to students on Tuesday.
“She let the news sink in and everyone was visibly upset. I don’t think anyone I spoke to today said anything positive about the change,” she said.
“At our school we made so much effort [in the consultations] giving our opinion. It feels like we’ve been ignored.”
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